Qatar helps secure release of four Ukrainian children from Russia

Four Ukrainian children are set to return to their families after mediation from Qatar between Ukraine and Russia, Qatari officials announced Monday.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement it has received the children at the embassy in Moscow in the first phase of an eventual reunification with their families in Ukraine.

Lolwah Al-Khater, a minister of state for international cooperation with Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, shared pictures of the children at the embassy on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter.

Qatar, a small but influential Arab nation in the Middle East, said it would continue to play a “constructive” role in further peacekeeping processes.

“Qatar stands firmly in support of the efforts made by both the Ukrainian and Russian sides to safeguard the rights and well-being of the children affected by the ongoing crisis,” the foreign ministry wrote in the statement.

Thousands of Ukrainian children have been taken into Russia since the war began in February 2022, according to Ukrainian officials, who have accused Russia of carrying out a mass kidnapping of their youth.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant over the spring for Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing alleged war crimes for the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine into Russia. An arrest warrant was also issued for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, commissioner for children’s rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, over her role in the deportations.

The release of the four children Monday appears to have come after months of talks and could be a sign of further agreements.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani traveled to Kyiv in July and was thanked publicly by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal for efforts to help mediate on the repatriating of Ukrainian children.

The Qatari prime minister also traveled to Moscow in June to discuss the war in Ukraine with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.