The law on the provision of the status of a combat participant to the combatants of volunteer units will establish a basis for understanding how many volunteers participated in hostilities in the East, in particular, in 2014-2015. It will also enable to work out the problem of how many of them are considered missing. The Minister for Veterans’ Affairs told Alain Aeschlimann, Head of Mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine. During a meeting with Iryna Friz, Mr. Alain Aeschlimann said that the Red Cross is actively engaged in the search for missing persons on the temporary uncontrolled territory of Ukraine.

"There is a great incoherence with the search of fighters of volunteer battalions, that have not even entered the units of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, even with time. There is currently no structure or organization, or the ministry, which could help in getting complete information about those who have gone missing", said Alain Aeschlimann.

During the meeting, the issues of cooperation between the Ministry of Veterans Affairs and the IC of the Red Cross on the support of the families of unlawfully imprisoned and gone missing were discussed. In particular, it was agreed to hold a joint session to consider the issue of including into programs for the families of the missing persons and families of imprisoned.

"We already have an appeal from members of the families of captives and missing persons. These problems are very relevant to us, and we are committed to working on it", assured Iryna Friz.

The Minister invited the Red Cross experts to cooperate in developing a new Law "On the Status of War Veterans, Guarantees of Their Social Protection". This law must become a truly effective and capable of solving the actual needs of veterans and their families, unlike the one currently in effect.