The US will ask Russia to return Ukrainian children "as a confidence-building measure".
Trumpʼs national security adviser Michael Waltz said this in an interview with CBS News.
The TV host asked Waltz why the State Department stopped funding a Yale University program that helps find Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
He replied that Secretary of State Mark Rubio was reviewing all of these programs and that he could not speak about this particular program.
“President Trump spoke to both leaders [of Ukraine and Russia] about the prisoner exchange. Both the Russians and the Ukrainians exchanged prisoners, about 200, immediately after their calls. And he also talked about the future of these children. So these are, of course, first and foremost, confidence-building measures,” he said.
When asked whether the US was asking for the return of Ukrainian children "as a confidence-building measure. Weʼre talking about a number of confidence-building measures. This is one of them," Waltz said.
- The deportation of Ukrainian children is one of Russiaʼs war crimes, for which the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the Russian Childrenʼs Ombudsman, Maria Lvova-Belova. Currently, it is known that at least 19 546 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Russia, 1 240 of whom have been returned. Ukraine also has evidence that Belarus is participating in the deportation of Ukrainian children.
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