From Le Figaro with AFP
Published 1 hour ago, updated 1 hour ago
Russian Children's Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova surrounded by Ukrainian children at the Qatari Embassy in Moscow on February 19, 2024. ALEXANDER NEMENOV / AFP
Eleven children aged 2 to 16 were welcomed at the Qatari embassy in Moscow and will be transferred to Ukraine via Belarus this Tuesday.
Eleven Ukrainian children were due to leave Russia for Ukraine on Monday to be reunited with their families. Another transfer took place through the mediation of Qatar. These children, aged 2 to 16, and their relatives were welcomed at the Qatari embassy in Moscow on Monday and are expected to enter Ukraine via Belarusian territory on Tuesday, report journalists from the AFP news agency. Some children in this group, including two aged five and six, suffer from chronic illnesses and have special medical needs. According to Moscow, a total of 59 children have already been returned to Ukraine via this mechanism.
Russia is accused by Kiev of “deporting” thousands of children from areas it occupied in Ukraine to its territory. For its part, Moscow asserts that it transferred these children to ensure their safety in the face of fighting and to be ready to hand them over to their relatives in Ukraine if they request it. Because of this policy, the International Criminal Court last year issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin and Russian Children's Commissioner Maria Lvowa-Belova for “war crimes.” A decision that the Kremlin considers null and void.
Mediation “for as long as necessary”
“Qatar is working closely with its Russian and Ukrainian counterparts and making progress on the reunification initiative, but is also looking for opportunities to build trust in other areas,” said Lolwah al. -Khater, Minister of State for International Cooperation of Qatar, released in a press release. “We will mediate between the two parties for as long as necessary in the hope that this can lead to a de-escalation of the conflict,” she added.
Qatari diplomats will accompany the eleven Ukrainian children on their way to Ukraine. Among them is 13-year-old Adélia, who is forced to join her aunt after losing her mother in the fighting in their village of Mikhailovka near Melitopol in southeastern Ukraine, now occupied by Russian forces. A four-year-old boy who traveled to Krasnoarsk in eastern Siberia with his now seriously ill father was picked up in Moscow by his Ukrainian mother, who brought him back to Kiev.
A 16-year-old boy who lost his family during the evacuation of the Lugansk region, an occupied city in eastern Ukraine, returns to his aunt. She will also be able to see another 14-year-old boy again, whose mother, a member of the Ukrainian armed forces, was a Russian prisoner of war for several months in 2022.
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