Ukraine reunites eight more children abducted to Russia with their families

Eight more Ukrainian minors were brought back home after remaining in Russian captivity, says Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets. 

Four girls and four boys were reunited with their parents with the efforts of Qatar, which joined the return of children for the second time.

Children are aged from 8 to 18 years old. Ukraine and Qatar have developed their return path in cooperation with other government agencies to implement the approved action plan within the president's Bring Kids Back UA platform.

Lubinets mentioned the efforts of UNICEF, Ukraine's embassy in Belarus, the Orphans Feeding Foundation, co-founder Mariam Lambert, and the State Border Guard Service administration.

"A pre-Christmas miracle has truly happened for these children today – they will meet and hug their families in their homeland. Our team will continue to work to bring Ukrainian children home. No matter how hard it is, the work will continue!" said Lubinets.

Qatar has successfully mediated with Russia to release six Ukrainian children, the Washington Post cited Lolwah Al-Khater, Minister of State for International Cooperation. As the official noted, a group of six children should have left Moscow on Tuesday and headed through Belarus to Ukraine.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russia's Putin in March. It accused him and Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.

More than 2,000 children Yale identified were transported to the Dubrava children's center in Belarus' Minsk region between September 2022 and May 2023, it said, while 392 children were taken to 12 other facilities.

Taking children under the age of 18 across a border without the consent of a parent or guardian is prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Once in Belarus, children have been subjected to military training and re-education, and Lukashenko approved the use of state organizations to transport children from Ukraine to Belarus and finance their transportation, the Yale report said.

It is unclear how many of the children identified by Yale's research remain in Belarus. Meanwhile, Russian data says Kremlin authorities backed the so-called "evacuation" from the frontline territories of 400,000 Ukrainian children. Ukrainian data says nearly 20,000 minors have been abducted.