Russia announces agreement with kyiv to exchange 48 children

The Russian Commissioner for Children, Maria Lvova-Belova, announced on Wednesday April 24 an agreement with kyiv to exchange 48 children. In details, “29 children will return to Ukraine and 19 to Russia”, declared the manager to the press, without giving more details on the profile of the minors concerned. This statement came after a first meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials on the subject in Qatar, mediator in this matter.

Like Vladimir Putin, Maria Lvova-Belova has been targeted since spring 2023 by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court which believes, like Ukraine, that thousands of Ukrainian children have not been displaced by the fighting but knowingly deported by Russia – accusations that Moscow firmly rejects.

In March, four Ukrainian children were repatriated from Russia, already with the mediation of Qatar, after a similar operation the previous month involving eleven minors. Ukraine estimates that at least 20,000 Ukrainian minors have been deported to Russia in two years, although the total could be much higher, as this figure only concerns officially identified children. According to kyiv, just under 400 of them have so far been repatriated.