Six Ukrainian children taken by Russia after the invasion of Ukraine will be reunited with their families thanks to mediation by Qatar, the authorities of this country announced on Tuesday. Moscow is accused of displacing thousands of children from occupied Ukrainian territories since February 2022. This group of children, aged 8 to 15, is the second to be repatriated under a deal negotiated between the two country through Qatar, and which made it possible to bring back four minors last October.
“Both parties cooperated fully”
Doha “continues to play a mediating role between the Ukrainian and Russian governments, facilitating the reunification of six other Ukrainian children with their families, in time for the end-of-year holidays”, welcomed Lolwah Al-Khater, the Qatari Minister of State for International Cooperation. “Both parties have fully cooperated and engaged in good faith throughout the process,” she added.
The children were reunited at the Qatari embassy in Moscow from where they will leave for kyiv, via Minsk. They will be accompanied by Qatari diplomats to the Ukrainian border, according to the authorities. One of them is an 11-year-old boy whose mother, a Ukrainian soldier, is still detained in Russia. He will be taken care of in kyiv by his aunt. Another, aged eight, had been living with his grandmother in Kremennaya, eastern Ukraine, since March 2022. He found his mother in the city of Luhansk, occupied by the Russians, before leaving for Moscow, then kyiv.
20,000 Ukrainian children “deported”?
Ukraine accuses Russia of having organized the “deportation” of nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children to its territory, which prompted the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin for war crimes. These accusations are rejected by the Kremlin, which claims to want to protect these children from the fighting.
According to Lolwah Al-Khater, the Qatari mediation responds “to requests from Russia and Ukraine to identify and explore potential areas of cooperation, with the objective of establishing the foundations of trust between the two parties.” Qatar has been at the center of high-profile negotiations in recent months. He notably played the role of mediator between Israel and Hamas on a truce agreement and the release of hostages in Gaza, which expired on Friday.