Sulyk Roman

Head of family law practice

E-mail

sulyk@prikhodko.com.ua

Phone numbers

An attorney with extensive experience specializing in complex family disputes. As Head of Practice, he combines deep legal expertise with a personalized approach to every client. He ensures strategic protection of family interests and delivers impeccable results in the most challenging cases.

Declaring a relative missing

In the context of the large-scale armed conflict that was carried out by the Russian Federation on February 24, 2022, the issue of recognizing relatives as missing has become widely relevant.

First of all, this is due to the fact that during active hostilities it is not always possible to reliably have information about the current location of an individual, because he may serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and be captured, forcibly stay in a temporarily occupied territory, etc.

As a result, the issue of recognizing such a person as missing arises if it is impossible to establish his location for a long time.

How can this be done in practice – tell the lawyers from the law firm “Prikhodko and Partners”.

Who is the missing person?

Missing person – is a natural person who has gone missing due to special circumstances, namely:

due to the presence of a military armed conflict in the state;
due to active hostilities in the country;
due to the temporary occupation of part of the state’s territory;
in connection with the occurrence of natural or man-made emergencies (these usually include various types of natural disasters, large fires, mass epidemics, epizootics, epiphytotic, etc.).

Under what conditions can an individual acquire the status of missing person?

From the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On the legal status of persons missing under special circumstances” it is understood that an individual acquires the status of missing under special circumstances from the moment the relevant information about him/her is entered into the Unified Register of Persons, missing persons under special circumstances.

In order for such information to be entered into the relevant register, a written application must be submitted, which indicates the fact of the disappearance of the individual.

A search application for an individual who has disappeared under special circumstances is submitted by the following categories of citizens, namely:

close relatives of an individual or members of his or her family (these include husband and wife, biological parents, mother and father, stepfather and stepmother, son and daughter, brothers and sisters, grandfather and grandmother, grandson and granddaughter, persons who have been adopted, persons over whom guardianship or care has been established in accordance with the law, as well as persons who live together but have not officially registered marital relations, etc.);
by the relevant representatives of the military formation;
relevant representatives of state authorities, local governments or public organizations;
any other citizen who reliably knows that the individual is missing.

A search application for a missing person under special circumstances must include all information known to the applicant that will assist in locating the person. For example, the applicant may indicate the circumstances under which the person went missing or may indicate factors that may have directly influenced their current location.

The application should be submitted to the relevant body of the National Police of Ukraine at the applicant’s actual place of residence.

From the moment the territorial body of the National Police receives such a request for a search for an individual, it undertakes to notify the Commissioner on issues of persons missing under special circumstances regarding receipt of such information and applications.

After the Commissioner receives the above information, the National Police authorities must, within the next 24 hours, enter the relevant data on the disappearance of an individual into the State Register.

It will also be useful: ESTABLISHING THE FACT OF DEATH IN TEMPORARY OCCUPATED TERRITORIES

An individual will be considered missing until the National Police receives relevant information regarding:

the current location of such person;
his/her burial place or the location of the remains of such a person.

Pay attention! The search for a missing person cannot be terminated even when a judicial authority has recognized such a person as missing, since such a provision is enshrined in the current legislation of Ukraine.

It is also worth noting that in cases where an individual acquires the legal status of missing person under special circumstances, this fact does not deprive his relatives or other interested persons of the right to apply to the judicial authorities to recognize such a person as missing or declare him dead.

In addition, if a person who has no citizenship (stateless) or has citizenship of another country (foreigner) was in the territory of Ukraine only on legitimate grounds and suddenly disappeared, then he or she may also receive the status of an individual considered missing under special circumstances.

Conclusions

Recognizing a relative as missing has a number of legal features that must be taken into account in practice.

Therefore, if you want to recognize an individual as missing under special circumstances, then in this case you cannot do without receiving qualified legal assistance from specialists from the law firm “Prikhodko and Partners”.

We accompany the company’s clients at every stage of recognizing an individual as missing, because we understand the complexity and importance of this legal issue. As a result, when applying, the client receives a guaranteed result and our cooperation leaves only pleasant impressions.

Declaring a relative missing

Who is the missing person?

Under what conditions can an individual acquire the status of missing person?

A search application for an individual who has disappeared under special circumstances is submitted by the following categories of citizens, namely:

Conclusions

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Andrey Prikhodko