DOHA: Russia and Ukraine have reached an agreement in a Qatari-brokered deal to exchange almost 50 children, displaced during war, the Kremlin’s children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova said on Wednesday in Doha.
Moscow has been accused of forcibly taking Ukrainian children into Russian territory during its military offensive. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also summoned Lvova-Belova on charges related to those allegations.
Lvova-Belova added that for the first time, Russia and Ukraine held face-to-face talks. Under the agreement, 29 children are expected to go to Ukraine while 19 will go to Russia.
The Russian official provided no details on why the children were in Russian custody or from where they had come from.
Ukraine alleges Russia illegally takes more than 19,000 Children
Ukraine alleges Russia has illegally taken its more than 19,000 children since the beginning of the war in 2022. According to reports only 400 Ukrainian children have been returned from Russia.
Moscow refutes the charge, saying that it has shifted children for their safety away from fighting zones.
The children’s fate has been a sensitive issue in Ukraine since the war started two years ago.
Some of the children’s parents were killed during the war, while others were separated from their families.
Some Children started living in Ukrainian orphanages in the areas later taken over by Russia. Ukraine accuses Moscow forces of illegally transferring these children to Russia, saying Russian authorities are trying to wipe out the Ukrainian identity of these children.
Teenagers who returned to Ukraine have said they were forced to receive Russian patriotic education and were asked to praise the Russian army.
