MOSCOW: On Monday, eleven Ukrainian children left Russia for Ukraine in the newest round of family reunifications between the warring parties, facilitated by Qatar.
The kids, who range in age from two to sixteen, were welcomed at the Qatari embassy in Moscow on Monday. On Tuesday, they will go on a protracted trek across Belarus and enter northwest Ukraine.
Several youngsters with specific medical needs, including two five- and six-year-olds with chronic diseases, are part of this most recent operation.
Under the plan, groups of kids started to be moved from Ukraine to Russia in October.
According to Russia, the procedure has been used to repatriate 59 children to Ukraine.
Moscow has said it is just doing this for the children’s safety, but Kyiv has accused Moscow of splintering families and sending kids from areas of Ukraine under Russian control to Russia in order to brainwash them.
President Vladimir Putin and his children’s commissioner were the subject of an arrest order issued by the Hague-based international criminal court a year ago on charges of forcibly deporting Ukrainian children.
Lolwah Al-Khater, Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation, said in an announcement that the country has been “working closely alongside its Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, making success on the reunification responsibility, but also looking for ways to build trust in other areas.”
“As long as it is requested, we will keep mediating between the two sides in the hopes that it will ultimately result to a de-escalation in the conflict,” she declared.
The kids will be accompanied by ambassadors from Qatar.
One of them is a sixteen-year-old kid who is being reconnected with an aunt who has taken care of him after his family members perished during the evacuation from the Lugansk region of Ukraine.
Reunited with his mother is a five-year-old kid who had been living in Russian-held territory with his grandparents.
Additionally, in 2022, a 14-year-old kid will be allowed to see his mother again; she was detained by Russia as a victim of war for an extended period when she was an active member of the military.
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
