(Al Jazeera Media Network) Nine Russian and Ukrainian children will be returned to their families this week in the latest humanitarian exchange between Kyiv and Moscow mediated by Qatar.
Russian Commissioner for Children, Maria Lvova-Belova, told reporters on Thursday that seven children, aged six to 16, will be sent from Russia to live with close relatives in Ukraine.
Lvova-Belova said the children had been living in Russia under varying circumstances. Most were living with a grandparent, she said, although one 16-year-old boy was living in a Russian orphanage.
Two boys, aged seven and nine, will also be returned to Russia after living in Ukraine for several years with a parent, she said.
Qatar said in a statement that its role as a mediator in the return of the children was “an extension of its approach to mediation and conflict resolution through peaceful means, in accordance with the principles of international law.”
Earlier this year, Qatar also helped to negotiate the return of 22 additional children to their families in Ukraine.
The latest exchange of children follows claims by Ukraine that more than 20,000 children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of a parent or guardian since the war began.
The removal of the children from Ukraine forms the basis of a 2023 arrest warrant issued for Lvova-Belova and Russian leader Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court.
The court said it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe the pair were responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation and unlawful transportation of children in occupied Ukraine to Russia.
Moscow has denied the charges and said it has moved children out of combat zones for their safety.
More than one million Russians and Ukrainians have been either killed or wounded since the war began in February 2022, according to a recent report by US media outlet The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed intelligence sources.
The US is reportedly pressuring Ukraine to lower the age of conscription from 25 to 18 – something Kyiv has been reluctant to do.
Ukraine’s military capability is also under threat following the election earlier this month of Donald Trump as the next US president. The US has supplied Ukraine with more than $64.1 billion in military aid since 2022, but Trump has indicated he wants to end the war, which many see as requiring a settlement that will be to Kyiv’s disadvantage.
