Reunited at last in Ukraine

In situations of armed conflict, people often lose contact with their families. They get separated by hostilities, changing frontlines or while fleeing their homes. Sometimes years or even decades pass before they find their missing loved ones. In the meantime, their wait continues in anguish and uncertainty.

Since the beginning of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine in April 2014, over 1,500 people are estimated to have gone missing, and currently there are around 700 open cases with the ICRC delegation in Ukraine. Our teams on both sides of the contact line work with national and local authorities, National Red Cross and other organizations to search for missing persons and restore family links.

When we learned about the case of the Yevtushenko family and the fact that the youngest brother was evacuated from an orphanage in the Lugansk region to Odesa when the conflict started, we used our offices in Sievierodonetsk and Odesa to find out what happened to him. We were successful, eventually finding Yegor safe and sound and bringing him back to his siblings.