(17 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Doha, Qatar – 17 April 2025
1. Various of Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation Maryam Al-Misnad meeting with Ukrainian families and their children, shaking hands
2. Various of Al-Misnad talking to children as they draw and giving child a school bag
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights:
"We have these conflict from 2014, more than 11 years. And we so appreciate for their participation and activities of all our international partners. But now I see that the main negotiator for returning back Ukrainian children from Russian side to Ukraine is the state of Qatar. And I really believe that this is very important, but for us this is the first step. The second step it can be discussion about peace negotiations, about the returning back civilian people from Russian side, about the hard discussion for all (inaudible), ceasefire and etc., etc."
5. Al-Misnad playing foosball with Ukrainian children
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights:
"Just, I want to please ask him (the emir of Qatar) to discuss with the president of the Russian Federation the whole humanitarian issues. First of all, children, civilian, POWs. And Ukrainian people really want to have this peace. But Ukrainian people want to have a just peace, just for all of us — not only for our country, not only for our nation, for everyone."
7. Russian families and children entering hall
8. Various of Al-Misnad entering hall, walking and shaking hands with families
9. Al-Misnad handing out school bag to child
10. Wide of group photo
STORYLINE:
Qatar hosted 19 Russian and Ukrainian families on Thursday as part of ongoing mediation efforts to help families affected by the war.
The Qatari Minister of State for International Cooperation, Maryam Al-Misnad met the Russian and Ukrainian families, including 32 children, in Doha.
The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said "the main negotiator for returning back Ukrainian children from Russian side to Ukraine is the state of Qatar."
"I really believe that this is very important, but for us this is the first step," he added.
Lubinets posted on his Telegram that “It was thanks to the interaction with the Qatari side that it was possible to organize a programme of recreation and psychological rehabilitation for these children and their families."
During the meeting, children who were returned to Ukraine after forcible deportation had the chance to tell their stories and undergo a programme of recreation and psychological rehabilitation.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, his children’s rights commissioner, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine. The Ukrainian government reported about 20,000 Ukrainian children had been forcibly deported since the start of Russia’s invasion.
Lubinets also asked the Emir of Qatar to discuss the humanitarian issues of the Russia-Ukraine conflict during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday.
"Ukrainian people really want to have this peace, but Ukrainian people want to have a just peace," Lubinets added.
As the meeting was taking place in Doha, a series of high-level talks about Ukraine and its security were taking place in Paris involving U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff.
AP video by Najib Jobain
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