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Qatar brokered a deal to reunite four Ukrainian children with their families after they were separated from their parents during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sweeping invasion of the country.
The children, who range in age from 2 to 17, are the first to be returned to Ukraine after Qatar and several other mediators stepped up efforts to treat the children this summer.
One of them has returned to Ukraine via the Baltic states and Poland, another is traveling via Qatar with his mother, and the remaining two are expected to travel to Ukraine via Qatar later this week.
The family reunification talks focus on thousands of Ukrainian children who were brought to Russia and held in children’s homes or adopted by Russian families.
Some of the children, including four who returned amid negotiations with Qatar, were stranded in Russia or Russian-controlled territory when the war broke out. Others were forcibly taken to Russia by soldiers and placed with Russian families.
Ukraine accuses the Kremlin of trying to erase the children’s Ukrainian identity and says the alleged abduction of up to 20,000 children amounts to genocide.
The issue led the International Criminal Court in March to file war crimes charges against Putin and Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova. Because it is so controversial, neither Ukraine nor Russia has spoken directly about the issue.
Qatar was involved in highly sensitive secret negotiations that also involved Saudi Arabia, Turkey and former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.
“Over the past few weeks, we have maintained an ongoing dialogue with our Ukrainian and Russian counterparts to identify areas of mutual interest to facilitate indirect negotiations,” said Lorva Khat, Qatar’s foreign minister for international cooperation.
“We hope that the commitment shown by both parties to this initiative will pave the way for further dialogue aimed at easing tensions and building trust on both sides,” she said.
While the war continues to rage a year and a half since Russia’s full-scale invasion with no clear end in sight, mediators and Ukraine’s Western allies are hopeful that talks on issues such as children will eventually lead to a broader peace negotiation.
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Kiev President Volodymyr Zelensky, told the Financial Times in September that Ukraine had been negotiating with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for months. Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Abramovich are working together to try to reach an agreement on the issue. children. He said Ukraine had been in contact with “many countries… including the Vatican.” . . to the Global South on this matter”.
“We work very hard,” Yermak said of the organization. “This is a big job and we have a concrete roadmap (for the return of Ukrainian children). I don’t just hope, I believe (that Ukrainian children will return through this mechanism).”
Yermak said Abramovich, who had previously mediated with Ukraine in peace talks with Putin’s support, was “using our intelligence to help” with the repatriation of Ukrainian children and prisoners of war.
At an international summit in Saudi Arabia in August seeking a solution to Russia’s war in Ukraine, Yermak said he met with Prince Mohammed, who was “fully ready and willing to participate”.
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