Qatar Plans to Repatriate 3 Ukrainian Children from Russia Following Talks to Bring Them Home

A Qatari official informed Reuters today, Monday, that three Ukrainian children who had been transported to Russia will be handed over to Qatari diplomats in Moscow this week, under a mechanism established by Qatar to facilitate the return of more children from Russia to Ukraine. The official stated that Qatar facilitated the return of another Ukrainian child, a seven-year-old, last Friday, who was reunited with his grandmother while traveling to Ukraine via Estonia. The other three children include a two-year-old, a nine-year-old, and a 17-year-old girl. Kyiv claims that 20,000 children have been moved to Russia or Russian-controlled territories without the consent of their families or guardians. The Qatari official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, noted that the return of these four children serves as a test of the mechanism established by Qatar after months of secret talks with Moscow and Kyiv. Lulwa Al Khater, the Minister of State for International Cooperation, confirmed the mediation in a statement, describing the repatriation of children this week as merely a preliminary step. The official added that the Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, provided a short initial list of Ukrainian children's names who will be returned to a team of Qatari diplomats who verified each child's identity. It remains unclear how many additional children Russia will allow to return to Ukraine through the Qatari mechanism after the initial four.