Third party needed to bring Ukrainian children home from Russia – (Un)Safe Country podcast

Ukraine needs a third party that could take on a leadership role with regard to legal as well as political obligations around the issue of bringing home Ukrainian children who have been deported and forcibly removed by Russia. 

Source: Kateryna Rashevska, an expert at the Regional Human Rights Centre and member of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Application and Implementation of International Humanitarian Law in Ukraine, in the new episode of the Ukrainska Pravda podcast (Un)Safe Country

Quote: "Yes, we need a third party, even if it is Qatar – fine. But this third party must be ready to take on this leadership role, to take on legal, not just political, obligations."

Details: Ukraine and Russia also have such an experience of cooperation – the grain deal, in which a series of agreements between Ukraine and a third party, and between the third party and Russia, were concluded through Türkiye, through the UN Secretary General.

Quote: "We agreed on the grain, but we can't agree on the children, either because we don't want to or because it doesn't work out. I am sure that Ukraine wants to. Whether any of our international partners want to that the Russian Federation would agree to is another question. Because Canada obviously wants to, the United States definitely wants to. The question is that Russia does not want them. And so we need to look for someone else. And no one else is ready yet to simply enlist some support from other members of the coalition and try to organise this process."

Details: Listen to the latest episode of the (Un)Safe Country podcast to learn more about the Ukrainian children who have been deported and forcibly displaced by Russia, ways of getting them back, the number of children who have been brought back so far, the policies, protocols and mechanisms for bringing children back, the reaction and actions of Ukraine’s international partners on the issue of Russian crimes against Ukrainian children, and the possibility of punishment for Russia.

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