US may ask Russia to return Ukrainian children as confidence-building measure, says US National Security Adviser

US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz believes the United States may ask Russia to release illegally deported Ukrainian children "as part of confidence-building measures".

Source: Waltz in an interview with CBS News on Sunday 23 March

Details: The host asked why the State Department had stopped funding a Yale University programme that helped locate Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.

Waltz replied that "Secretary Rubio is conducting a review of all of those programmes" and that he could not comment on that particular one.

Quote: "But I can say that President Trump has spoken to both leaders about prisoner exchanges. Both the Russians and Ukrainians exchanged prisoners, nearly 200, immediately following their call. And he's also talked about the future of these children. So that's certainly, first and foremost, and, kind of, confidence-building measures." 

More details: When asked to clarify whether the US was requesting the return of Ukrainian children "as a confidence-building measure", Waltz said: "We're talking through a number of confidence-building measures. That's one of them".

Background:

• Elon Musk's large-scale cuts to funding in the US government have suspended the work of a Yale University team that helped rescue hundreds of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
• A group of Democratic lawmakers said there was reason to believe that evidence of Russia’s abduction of around 30,000 children from Ukraine had been lost after US funding was withdrawn.
• In response, a State Department spokesperson stated that the information gathered under the Yale University project on Russia’s abduction of children from occupied Ukrainian territories had not been deleted despite the end of funding.
• In March 2023, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, who is also accused of war crimes related to the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children.
• In December 2024, during Joe Biden’s presidency, the US State Department announced visa sanctions against five individuals involved in the forced deportation, relocation and imprisonment of Ukrainian children.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!