(Reuters) – Nine children deported to Russia since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine returned home on Friday with the help of Qatar acting as an intermediary, Ukraine’s ombudsman said.
Dmytro Lubinets, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the children ranged in age from 13 to 17, with a 20-year-old man also included in the operation.
Several suffered from disabilities and a number of them had been taken from an orphanage in southern Kherson region, first to the Russian-held town of Skadovsk and then to Russia itself, Lubinets said.
Several of the returnees lost one or both parents to the war and were turned over to grandparents, the ombudsman added.
“We are always ready to bring children home on a large scale, but the Russians will do everything to drag out the process,” Lubinets said on national television.
Lubinets said Qatar authorities were engaged in negotiations to bring home more and that he had turned over to them a list of 751 children with paperwork completed for their return.
Ukrainian authorities say about 20,000 children have been unlawfully taken to Russia since the invasion, with only a few hundred brought back home.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, in connection with the deportations.
Russia denies allegations of deportation, saying children were moved to areas outside combat zones, and dismisses the arrest warrants as meaningless.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksander Kozhukhar; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
