After infrequent discussions, Russia and Ukraine will swap almost fifty displaced children

Doha: Under an agreement mediated by Qatar, Russia and Ukraine have decided to swap over fifty children who were uprooted by Moscow’s invasion, the Kremlin’s children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova said in Doha on Wednesday.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has Lvova-Belova wanted on claims that Moscow, during its full-scale onslaught, forcefully abducted Ukrainian children into Russian territory.

“We had discussions with the Ukrainian side in person for the first time. Nineteen youngsters are scheduled to go to Russia and twenty-nine to Ukraine, according to Lvova-Belova.

She did not elaborate on the reason for the children’s transfer to Russia or their origins.

Since the commencement of the 2022 invasion, Ukraine estimates that Russia has unlawfully stolen more nearly 19,000 of its children; less than 400 of those children have been returned.

Moscow refutes the accusation, claiming that it moved kids out of conflict areas for their protection.

Since the start of the conflict two years ago, the fate of the children in Ukraine has been a particularly sensitive issue.

At the beginning of the invasion, some of the children’s parents were murdered, while others were split off from caregivers by the rapidly moving front lines.

Some were residing in orphanages in Ukraine that were then under Russian occupation.

Ukraine claims that its citizens were forcibly transferred to Russia by Moscow’s military and charges that the Russian government is attempting to eradicate their Ukrainian identity.

Adolescents who have returned to Ukraine claim they were forced to glorify the Russian troops and received patriotic indoctrination from Russia.