In a significant development, Russia and Ukraine have engaged in their first face-to-face discussions aimed at exchanging children displaced by the ongoing conflict, announced Moscow’s children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on Wednesday.
A total of forty-eight children are slated to be exchanged under the agreement reached in Qatar, with Qatar mediating the process in response to requests from both Moscow and Kyiv to explore avenues of cooperation.
Lvova-Belova disclosed that negotiations resulted in a finalized list of twenty-nine children to be repatriated to Ukraine and nineteen to Russia. However, she did not provide specifics regarding the circumstances under which the children came into Russian custody or their origins.
Despite progress in the talks, it’s notable that Lvova-Belova and President Vladimir Putin face warrants from the International Criminal Court over Russia’s actions, which are regarded as war crimes. Russia contests the warrants, claiming them to be invalid since it’s not a member of the ICC.
Kyiv contends that approximately twenty thousand children have been relocated to Russia since the invasion began in February 2022, characterizing it as a “genocide.” Lvova-Belova dismissed this figure as “fake,” suggesting it originated during the initial phase of the invasion when the conflict’s front line was fluid.
The fate of these children has been a poignant issue in Ukraine, with some losing parents during the conflict or being separated from caregivers due to rapidly shifting front lines. Ukrainian authorities accuse Russia of forcibly deporting children to erase their Ukrainian identity, with reports of teenagers undergoing ideological indoctrination while in Russian custody.
