KIEV, March 10 (Xinhua) -- The almost three-year-old conflict between government troops and pro-independence rebels in eastern Ukraine left more than 1,000 people missing, the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement on Friday.
"Many people went missing as a result of the conflict, but no one knows exactly their number -- probably, it ranges between 1,000 and 2,000 persons," Peter Maurer, president of the ICRC, was quoted in the statement as saying after his visit to eastern Ukraine.
To speed up the search of the missing people, the ICRC has offered the conflicting sides to work out a joint mechanism for information exchanges, Maurer said.
According to the Ukrainian Security Service, 483 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians are formally listed as missing.
Insurgents have not commented on the number of disappeared people among their supporters.
Maurer has started his five-day visit to Ukraine on Monday.
