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Russian, Ukrainian ombudspersons meet in Belarus

Russian Human Rights Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova noted that the sides "discussed further humanitarian cooperation in providing assistance to civilians, including efforts to locate those missing"

Russian Human Rights Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova Valery Sharifulin/TASS

Russian Human Rights Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova

© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. The Russian and Ukrainian ombudspersons have held a meeting in Belarus, discussing cooperation in providing assistance to the two countries’ citizens, Russian Human Rights Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova said.

"A meeting with the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada’s (parliament) human rights ombudsperson has taken place in Belarus. We exchanged the lists of persons we had visited based on mutual consent and POWs’ letters to their family members, and also discussed further humanitarian cooperation in providing assistance to civilians, including efforts to locate those missing, reunite families and help families visit POWs," Moskalkova wrote on Telegram.

She also said that a 91-year-old woman from Ukraine had reunited with her Russian family in Belarus with the Belarusian parliament's assistance. "Her son asked us to help him move his mother to Russia so that he could take care of her. We made an agreement with the Ukrainian side that the woman could leave for Russia but the problem was that she is unable to move on her own," Moskalkova explained. The Ukrainian ombudsperson and the International Committee of the Red Cross helped transport her from Ukraine’s Cherkasy Region to the border with Belarus and from there, to Russia.

Moskalkova thanked Russia’s Defense Ministry and Border Service for their assistance in reuniting the elderly woman with her son and grandchildren in Russia.

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