Saudi Arabia and Türkiye are seeking to broker a deal to repatriate Ukrainian children taken to Russia and held in children’s homes or adopted by Russian families, according to four people familiar with the talks.
Report informs via The Financial Times that officials in Kyiv and Moscow are compiling lists of the thousands of children moved to Russia since invasion of Ukraine.
"The highly sensitive talks, which have been ongoing for several months, indicate third parties are still looking for ways to agree compromises between Ukraine and Russia in the hope they can evolve into channels for potential peace talks aimed at ending the war," FT reports.
The newspaper reads that former Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich is also involved in the discussions.
“There is no [direct] communication with the Russian side,” said Daria Herasymchuk, children’s rights commissioner in president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office. “Moreover, we are convinced that there can be no talks in this direction, because it is not a question of exchange of prisoners of war, these are civilians, these are children.”