South Africa, the Vatican and Qatar have pledged to act as intermediaries to facilitate the return from Russia of some 20,000 Ukrainian children displaced by the war.
Qatar has also pledged, along with Lithuania, to act as a transit country to help the return of Ukrainians held in Russia.
The pledges came at a two-day ministerial conference in Quebec, Canada, at which some 45 nations signed a joint declaration in which they made a commitment to help in the repatriation of Ukrainian civilians, prisoners of war and children taken by Russia.
The signatories undertook, among other things, to cooperate in collecting data to help Ukraine identify its missing nationals.
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said Thursday’s joint declaration would held coordinate existing efforts to locate the missing Ukrainians.
Brazil, China and India did not attend
Qatar, a long-standing mediator in this thorny issue, has helped since July 2023 to repatriate Ukrainian children transferred to Russia and the territories under Russian occupation since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The United Arab Emirates will also play a crucial role in mediating the exchange of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war.
More than 70 countries attended the meeting in Montreal. However, it was not clear exactly how many signed Thursday’s final declaration and how many abstained, according to the Canadian and international media covering the conference.
Conference officials also did not release the list of countries that sent delegations to the conference, but a number of major players stayed away, including Brazil, China and India.
Foreign Minister Joly said many countries felt “direct pressure from Russia” not to attend the summit, according to The Canadian Press, Canada’s national news agency.
Direct pressure from Russia
“Russia made many representations in many capitals of the world saying that they should not come to Montreal. It shows that what we’re doing is shedding light on an issue that embarasses Russia,” she was quoted as saying.
Kyiv is calling for the return of nearly 20,000 minors “deported or forcibly displaced” to Russia since the start of the invasion.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the war crime of “illegal deportations.”
These accusations have been repeatedly rejected by the Russian authorities, who say they are protecting the children from the fighting and are ready to return them to their families in Ukraine if they so request.
According to Kyiv, around 860 children have so far been repatriated.
Source: The Brussels Times
