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The return of each Ukrainian child deported by Russia requires separate negotiations, documentation, and logistical arrangements due to Russia’s position, making it impossible at present to establish a universal mechanism for the process. This was stated by Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, in an interview with Army FM, UATV English reports.
“As of today, we have succeeded in bringing back 2,274 Ukrainian children,” he said.
According to the ombudsman, the United States has been providing significant assistance in these efforts through a dedicated team established under First Lady Melania Trump.
“We hold negotiations with them every week, and in fact the last four groups of Ukrainian children we managed to return came back thanks to the efforts of the United States,” Lubinets emphasized.
He added that Qatar also plays an important role in facilitating the return of children. In addition, Ukraine cooperates with representatives of the Holy See and several other countries that prefer not to publicly disclose their involvement.
According to Lubinets, international partners help locate information about the children, prepare documents, and organize logistics. Ukrainian charitable foundations are also actively involved in the process.
He stressed that the work is extremely complex and that, due to Russia’s position, it is currently impossible to create a single standardized mechanism for returning Ukrainian children.
“Each returned child requires a separate package of documents, separate negotiations, and sometimes the involvement of different countries or negotiating teams. I often personally conduct negotiations with representatives of the Russian Federation. Even the logistical route can differ from previously used routes,” he said.
As previously reported, 2,126 children abducted by Russia had been returned to Ukraine as of April 30.
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