Russia and Ukraine held the first face-to-face negotiations on the return of children

Representatives of Russia and Ukraine for the first time held face-to-face negotiations on the issue of reuniting children with their families, RIA Novosti writes with reference to Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights under the President of Russia. The meeting took place through the mediation of the Qatari authorities in Doha.

According to the Children’s Ombudsman, an agreement has been reached that 29 children will be returned to Ukraine, and 19 to Russia. Lvova-Belova emphasized that the Qatari side has recorded these lists, but if new situations arise, Moscow will react to them.

Lvova-Belova called the information that there are 19.5 thousand Ukrainian children in Russia “fake” and “unsubstantiated words.” She pointed out that these data appeared in 2022, when the front line was constantly changing. Information about the number of minor citizens of Ukraine located on Russian territory was provided in March 2023 by the National Information Bureau under the Ministry of Reintegration of Ukraine.

The previous transfer of five children to Ukrainian families by the Russian side took place on March 21, 2024. Another teenager was helped to come to his grandmother and sister in Russia, the ombudsman wrote. Lvova-Belova emphasized that Qatar is helping to reach certain agreements, as well as cover transport and “other expenses.”

“As a result of this work, the number of children reunited with families in Ukraine and other countries with our participation will increase to 64; in total, 47 families were helped,” the Ombudsman indicated then.

She added that this number does not include minors whom “parents from the Kherson, Zaporozhye, Kharkov regions and other territories in the fall of 2022 sent, by their decision, to rest in health resorts in the south of Russia and were unable to pick them up in a timely manner.”

On April 17, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reported that 161 Ukrainian children, who were previously considered to have been taken to Russia or Belarus, were found in Germany. The department did not explain how these children could end up in Germany.

Lvova-Belova, commenting on the news about “kidnapped” Ukrainian children found in Germany, advised Kyiv to look for them in other countries, not only the European Union.

“Ukraine has created a mythological system regarding children who were allegedly “deported” to Russia. <...> Checking the lists of minors received through various channels, we see that some of the children have been at home with their parents or in other states for a long time and have never even been separated from their closest relatives,” Lvova-Belova wrote in her Telegram channel.

Kyiv accuses Moscow of kidnapping Ukrainian children and their “forcible” deportation from the country. For these reasons, in March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova.

After this, Lvova-Belova stated that the ICC considers the “evacuation of children” from shelling to be a criminal offense and forcible removal. According to her, Ukraine “did nothing” to evacuate children from Mariupol, and the DPR and LPR, from which minors were also taken, “were not Ukraine, they were recognized as independent republics by our state.”

In July 2023, Putin, speaking at a press conference following the Russia-Africa summit, rejected accusations against Russia of kidnapping Ukrainian children. He called the story “overblown” and emphasized that the children were not kidnapped, but rescued from the war zone.

“We explain simply: there was no kidnapping, there was an attempt and specific actions aimed at saving the children who were being taken out of the combat zone. Well, should we leave orphanages there under artillery fire, or what? Of course, the children were taken out,” said the Russian leader.