MOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. The list of 339 children provided by Ukraine will be handed over to the Office of Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, has said.
"The whole list will be forwarded to the office of the Human Rights Commissioner," he said on the Rossiya-1 TV channel. Next, according to Medinsky, each name will be "checked."
"If there are children with similar first names and family names somewhere in our childcare institutions, applications from parents or legal relatives must be submitted," he added.
"It’s not that they are with us. It simply means these children are unaccounted for. They could be in Ukraine, elsewhere in Europe, or even in Norway. Our priority is to ensure each of these children is cared for. Children’s well-being is of utmost importance. Most importantly, our goal is to see them return home and be reunited with their families," Medinsky affirmed.
Earlier, he presented journalists with a list of 339 children's names provided by the Ukrainian delegation. He emphasized that the issue of missing children was addressed during the second round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations. The Russian presidential aide highlighted the shifting figures: Ukraine initially claimed that "1.5 million Ukrainian children had been abducted by the Russians." Later, the figures were revised to 200,000, with the most recent official estimate listing approximately 20,000 minors.