Fate of almost 500 people kidnapped by terrorists still unknown

Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - 17:35 (EEST) Section: Latest news

Over 1,000 people have been kidnapped in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions over the last five months.
An adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, Zorian Shkiriak, said this at a briefing on Tuesday, a Ukrinform correspondent reported.
“According to Interior Ministry monitoring, 1,026 statements on the kidnapping and taking hostage of people in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions were registered from April to August,” Shkiriak said.
He noted that those kidnapped included 53 journalists, 174 law enforcement officers, 115 servicemen and border guards, 40 deputies of different levels and members of political parties, 26 OSCE representatives, six prosecutors, five SBU employees, two judges, two lawyers, and a representative of the penitentiary service.
“A total of 558 people have currently been freed and their location has been determined. The fate of 468 abducted people remains unknown,” Shkiriak said.
In addition, he said, 1,460 reports of missing persons have been registered since April.