Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's answer to a media question regarding the anti-Russia campaign waged by the West and Ukraine concerning the "children's issue"
8 August 2025 12:45
1307-08-08-2025
Question: On August 5, the so-called "international coalition for the return of Ukrainian children" co-chaired by Canada and Ukraine adopted a statement demanding that Russia provide a substantive response regarding a list of 339 Ukrainian children that was handed to the Russian delegation during the second round of talks in Istanbul on June 2. Could you comment on this?
Maria Zakharova: My comment is that we're dealing with yet another provocation - a desperate attempt to draw public attention back to the baseless story about the "unlawfully deported and forcibly transferred Ukrainian children." This narrative is completely detached from reality. Russia has never obstructed these children's reunification with their families; in fact, we've done everything possible to facilitate it. Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova and her office are actively addressing this issue.
The absurdity of these "demands" is clear: Russia already provided a substantive response to the so-called "list of 339" on July 23 during the third round of Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul. To reiterate: 30 percent of the names on the list could not be verified, as most of those children were never in Russia, are now adults, or have already returned to their families. As for the Ukrainian children who are actually in our country, they are under state care in appropriate institutions. They are safe now; in many cases, their evacuation from combat zones saved their lives. Local children's rights commissioners are now working to reunite them with their relatives. Politicised statements from such "coalitions" only disrupt these efforts.
The self-proclaimed defenders of children's rights behind this August 5 statement conveniently omitted several key facts. During the July 23 talks in Istanbul, the Ukrainian delegation was presented with a list of 20 Russian children who are either currently in Ukraine or relocated from Ukraine to Western Europe, including to countries that endorsed this very statement. Now, the burden falls on these states to provide Russia with a substantive response regarding our "list of 20."
The authors of the statement also chose to remain silent about the fact that Ukrainian shelling of Donbass since 2014 has killed over 350 children and left more than 1,400 injured.
These crimes were deliberately ignored, proving that this "coalition's" statement is little more than another exercise in Russophobia and blatant double standards. The document isn't about protecting children; it's about perpetuating a smear campaign against Russia. If we truly want to reunite minors with their families, the only solution is depoliticised cooperation between child protection officials from countries that are genuinely committed to this goal.
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