The Minister of State for International Cooperation of Qatar, Lolwa al-Khater, said that the Russian Federation agreed to release six more kidnapped Ukrainian children.
Six Ukrainian children will return home
It is reported that the Ukrainian children's release should occur on December 5. According to this publication, several Ukrainian children have met with Qatari diplomats at the Qatari embassy in Moscow.
According to the unnamed official, six children will leave Moscow and head through Belarus to Ukraine.
One of the officials said on condition of anonymity that the mother of one 11-year-old boy is a serviceman and is in Russian captivity.
His father died about ten years ago and now he will stay with his maternal aunt. Until now, he lived with relatives in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, the official added.
The group is known to consist of children from 8 to 15 years old.
Building on the momentum of recent weeks, Qatar continues to mediate between the Ukrainian and Russian governments, successfully facilitating the reunification of six more Ukrainian children with their families ahead of the holidays, Al-Khater noted.
What is known about the abduction of Ukrainian children
For Children's Day in 2023, the Online.UA team presented the documentary project "Abducted Childhood", which tells the story of Ukrainian children forcibly deported and abducted to Russia.
Ukraine has identified 20,000 children who were abducted into Russia or taken to Russian-controlled territory without the consent of their families or guardians.
About 400 children have been returned to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Still, the UN human rights agency has expressed concern that no system is in place to facilitate the return.
At the same time, Russia claims to have "evacuated" 744,000 Ukrainian children. Since diplomacy with the aggressor country does not work, Russia continues to remove children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine illegally.
