Turkey, Saudi Arabia in talks on repatriating Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia

Saudi Arabia and Turkey intend to conclude an agreement on the return to Ukraine of children whom the occupiers took to the territory of the Russian Federation and who are currently in orphanages or adopted by Russian families, reports Financial Times, citing four sources familiar with the negotiations.

According to FT, Ukrainian and Russian officials "as part of a previously unreported mediation process" are now compiling lists of thousands of children unlawfully relocated to Russia.

Sources of the publication claim that "extremely delicate negotiations" have been going on for several months, and third parties are still looking for ways to agree on compromises between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, hoping that they can become channels for potential peace talks in the future.

According to two sources familiar with the issue, Roman Abramovich, the former owner of the Chelsea Football Club, who previously acted as a mediator in the negotiations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, is also participating in the discussions.

The need for mediators indicates the difficulties of repatriating resettled Ukrainian children, the article says. Ukrainian and Russian officials refuse to talk to each other directly.

Saudi Arabia raised the issue of deported children at a G20 meeting in Copenhagen in June, according to a diplomat briefed on the talks. The diplomat says Western countries have given Saudi Arabia the green light to continue mediating the issue of abducted children and other issues, including the grain deal and nuclear threats.

One of the journalists' interlocutors said that "the goal is to count all the children to understand how many there are, and then find the best solution for each child."

On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the Children's Ombudsperson of the Russian Federation, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the deportation of children from Ukraine. The warrant issued in The Hague is valid for life.

Ukraine definitely knows the data of almost 20,000 children taken to the Russian Federation, but, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, "it is obvious that this is only a part of larger-scale criminal actions."

On April 27, the PACE recognized the deportation of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation as genocide.