In Istanbul, Russians admitted to kidnapping Ukrainian children – Zelenskyy
During negotiations in Istanbul on June 2, the Russian delegation admitted that the Russian Federation had abducted Ukrainian children. This was announced by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a conversation with journalists.
"First, they [the Russians] told us not to 'put on a show for childless European grandmothers' – this is their attitude [to] us raising the issue of children. We told them that you stole 20,000 [children], and they said that 'we didn't steal 20,000, it's a question of hundreds at most'. Our team was offended by this, and, to be honest, I'm not offended. I think this is an important fixation not of the number, but of the very fact that they agree that they stole children," the head of state said.
The day before, Zelenskyy reported that during the negotiations, the occupiers offered to return up to 10 children to Ukraine, despite the list of almost 400 abducted minors that Kyiv had provided.
- According to the Human Rights Commissioner Lubinets, as of October 2024, the occupiers had abducted more than 20,000 children from Ukraine. Another 1.5 million children may be deported.
- The new Istanbul talks lasted a little over an hour, during which Ukraine and Russia agreed to hold a new exchange of prisoners and 6,000 bodies of those killed on both sides.
- Russia has also finally handed over to Ukraine the promised "memorandum" – a vision for ending the war. Kyiv provided Moscow with such a document in advance. The parties will study each other's memoranda for a week.