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Kiev insists on Red Cross taking part in search for missing in Donbas

International humanitarian organizations still don’t have access to areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions not controlled by Ukraine, Ukrainian Contact Group representative's spokesperson says

MINSK, December 15. /TASS/. The Ukrainian side in the Contact Group on settlement of the situation in east Ukraine insists that access be granted for international humanitarian organizations to Donbas areas not controlled by Kiev, Ukrainian representative Leonid Kuchma’s spokeswoman Darya Olifer said Tuesday after the group’s meeting.

"International humanitarian organizations still don’t have access to areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions not controlled by Ukraine," Olifer said. "Ukraine insists that this access be granted."

"The International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] should get access to Ukrainian hostages who are at the territory of separate districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," she said.

Olifer said the ICRC is also "ready to take part in the search for those missing in Donbas. Experts will soon be given lists of people sought by their near and dear."

Ukrainian troops have been engaged in fighting with local militias during Kiev’s punitive operation, underway since mid-April 2014, against the breakaway territories — the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics constituting parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.

Massive shelling of residential neighborhoods, including with the use of aviation, has killed thousands and led to a humanitarian disaster in the area.

Kiev has regularly violated the ceasefire regime imposed as part of the Package of Measures on implementation of the September 2014 Minsk Agreements.

The Package (Minsk-2) was signed on February 12, 2015 in the Belarusian capital Minsk by participants of the Contact Group on settlement in Donbas.

The Package, earlier agreed with the leaders of the Normandy Four (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine) envisioned an overwhelming cessation of fire and withdrawal of heavy armaments to create a security area in the region at least 50 kilometers wide.