Kyiv returned two sisters from Ukraine to Russia on Friday, a day after Moscow repatriated eight Ukrainian children in a Qatari-mediated agreement, Russia’s presidential children’s rights commissioner said.
The girls were reunited with their mother, who had been working in Russia and was unable to visit them after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022. In Ukraine, they had been living with their grandparents.
A video posted on Telegram by presidential children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova showed the emotional reunion at an airport in Minsk, Belarus, where the mother hugged her daughters and thanked those involved in their return.
Lvova-Belova said she met the family at Qatar’s embassy in Moscow, which helped mediate the reunification. She did not specify whether the family was Russian or Ukrainian.
Since July 2023, Qatar has facilitated the return of dozens of Ukrainian children taken to Russia and Russian-occupied territories.
Lvova-Belova said that, overall, 17 children from 11 families have been reunited with relatives in Russia, while 95 children from 74 families have been returned to Ukraine.
Kyiv rejects Moscow’s characterization of the process as a “child exchange,” arguing that Ukraine has not kidnapped or detained Russian children.
In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Lvova-Belova and Russian President Vladimir Putin on charges of illegally deporting Ukrainian children.
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