To mark the International Day of the Disappeared on 30 August 2017, the Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine organized a series of events in several cities across Ukraine. In Mariupol, the ICRC organized a meeting of the families of those who have gone missing as a result of the armed conflict in Donbas. The tree of life became a symbol of the gathering of eight families who shared their feelings, fears, and hopes.

Yevgen Nosenko/ICRC

Meeting of the family members of the missing people on the Day of the Disappeared, Mariupol, Donetsk region, 30 August 2017

Yevgen Nosenko/ICRC

A boy hugs his grandfather at the meeting of the family members of the missing people on the Day of the Disappeared, Mariupol, Donetsk region, 30 August 2017

Yevgen Nosenko/ICRC

Deborah Sofia Buschor, the ICRC delegate in conversation with the woman who is searching for her missing family member, Mariupol, Donetsk region, 30 August 2017

Yevgen Nosenko/ICRC

Danielle Hannon-Burt who heads the ICRC office in Mariupol shares the missing pins with the woman who is searching for her missing family member, Mariupol, Donetsk region, 30 August 2017

Yevgen Nosenko/ICRC

A mother who is searching for her missing son recites a poem at the meeting on the Day of the Disappeared, Mariupol, Donetsk region, 30 August 2017

Yevgen Nosenko/ICRC

Cristina Gonta, the ICRC delegate who is working to help the families is holding a boy whose parent is missing because of the armed conflict in Ukraine, Mariupol, Donetsk region, 30 August 2017

Yevgen Nosenko/ICRC

Families of the missing with the ICRC staff members and the symbolic tree of life, Mariupol, Donetsk region, 30 August 2017

Yevgen Nosenko/ICRC

“Sergey, you are remembered by all of us” – one of the messages at the symbolic tree of life, Mariupol, Donetsk region, 30 August 2017