MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. Russian children’s rights ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova said on Monday that her office has helped 25 Ukrainian children reunify with their families after being separated due to combat operations.
"Thanks to our assistance, 25 children from 16 families have reunified with their relatives living in Ukraine and other countries. This number does not include children who were spending their vacations in Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory with the legal consent of their parents. Additional efforts were needed to reunify them with their parents," she wrote on her Telegram channel.
According to the ombudswoman, the work on reunification of families has been conducted since the first days of the special military operation. "We collect and analyze all applications - from people, volunteers, agencies, international organizations, as well as from the Ukrainian side. We have a direct working channel of communication on this matter with Ukraine," she noted.
Productive cooperation, in her words, is maintained with the International Committee of the Red Cross. "Representatives of international organizations or delegations we regularly meet with are often misled by the Ukrainian side and its propaganda about both the number of children and our efforts. When during talks we present systematized information, documents, photos, and evidence, it becomes clearer to them what the real situation is," she added.
She also stressed that she knows nothing "about any talks with Saudi Arabia and Turkey on this matter" that were circulated by the mass media.
Reports about talks on the return of children evacuated from Ukraine to Russia appeared in Britain’s The Financial Times. The newspaper claimed that Saudi Arabia and Turkey are acting as mediators in talks between Kiev and Moscow on the return of Ukrainian children who were evacuated to Russia from the conflict zone. The newspaper cited four sources saying that clandestine talks on this matter have been underway for several months.