Ukraine rejects Russia's offer to include abducted children in exchange lists as unacceptable
Russia proposed including abducted Ukrainian children in prisoner exchange lists, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said at a meeting of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children in Brussels, calling the offer "unacceptable," according to Ukrinform.
Speaking at the coalition's meeting, Sybiha said the return of Ukrainian children must be a fundamental element of any peace process, despite what he described as extensive speculation and pressure from the Russian side.
"Today I want to state this officially: the fate of Ukrainian children will never become part of any compromise. Russia has already proposed including children in exchange lists. But this is unacceptable. The freedom of children is unconditional," said the diplomat.
He stressed that Ukraine has managed to secure the return of more than 2,000 children — not because international mechanisms worked, but in spite of their failures.
Sybiha cited the testimonies of two abducted children: 16-year-old Borys Romanchenko, a Ukrainian child during World War II, and a boy from Mariupol taken by Russian forces. The first said that "they simply took us — and you no longer belong to anyone," while the boy from the temporarily occupied city of Mariupol recalled that "they just took us and told us that no one needed us."
Sybiha also accused Russia of attempting to downplay the issue and said Moscow "fears" it. "They demand it be removed from the agenda. They understand they are committing a crime and they fear justice," he said.
Abduction of Ukrainian children
According to the Bring Kids Back platform, Russia has abducted more than 20,000 children from Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. Of those, 2,133 have been returned.
On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on suspicion of unlawfully abducting Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia.
In July 2023, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office opened an investigation into the Belarusian Red Cross's alleged involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian children.