Saudi Arabia and Turkey are trying to agree on the return of Ukrainian children who were deported to Russia.
This was reported by Reuters with reference to the Financial Times.
Four newspaper sources familiar with the negotiations said they have been going on for several months. The mediator was the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
According to journalists, officials from Kyiv and Moscow compiled lists of children taken to Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
- The deportation of Ukrainian children is one of Russiaʼs war crimes, for which the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Putin and the childrenʼs ombudsman of the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova. Currently, it is known about the forced deportation of at least 19,453 Ukrainian children to Russia. Ukraine also has evidence that Belarus participates in the deportation of Ukrainian children. Russia is also illegally holding approximately 27,000 Ukrainian civilian hostages.
- According to Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, deported Ukrainian children are in 57 regions of Russia.
- The Center of National Resistance compiled a map of the camps where the occupiers sent deported Ukrainian children.
- On April 27, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognized the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the territory of Russia as genocide. PACE called on the International Criminal Court to consider the possibility of criminal prosecution for this crime.