Moscow announces agreement with kyiv to exchange 48 children displaced by war
Russian Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova announced an agreement with kyiv to exchange 48 children displaced by the war, following a first meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials on the subject. “As a result, 29 children will return to Ukraine and 19 to Russia,” Maria Lvova-Belova told the press, without giving further details on the profile of the minors concerned. Like Russian President Vladimir Putin, this official has been targeted since spring 2023 by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court which believes, like Ukraine, that thousands of Ukrainian children have not been displaced. by the fighting but knowingly deported by Russia, allegations that Moscow firmly rejects.
In March, four Ukrainian children were repatriated from Russia after a similar operation the previous month involving eleven minors. In recent months, Qatar has, according to kyiv and Moscow, acted as a mediator on the delicate subject of the repatriation of Ukrainian children present on Russian territory since February 2022. Ukraine estimates the number of Ukrainian minors who are at least 20,000. were deported in two years to Russia from the occupied zones, although the total could be much higher, this figure only concerns officially identified children. According to kyiv, just under 400 of them have so far been repatriated.
