Russia and Ukraine held the first personal negotiations on the return of displaced children

Russia and Ukraine have held face-to-face talks for the first time on the exchange of children displaced by war, Moscow's children's rights ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova said on Wednesday.

In accordance with the agreement reached in Qatar, 48 children are expected to be exchanged, the state agency RIA Novosti quotes Lvov-Belova.

Qatar said it brokered the Russian-Ukrainian children's exchange in response to requests from Moscow and Kyiv to explore potential areas of cooperation.

“As a result of negotiations, we fixed a list of 29 children who should go to Ukraine and 19 to Russia,” said Lvova-Belova.

She did not provide details about why the children were in Russian hands or where they came from.

Lvova-Belova and President Vladimir Putin are wanted by the International Criminal Court in connection with Moscow's transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia, which is considered a war crime. Russia, which is not a member of the ICC, insists the warrant against Putin is “invalid.”

Kyiv said some 20,000 children had been forced to move to Russia since Moscow's invasion in February 2022, in what Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called "genocide."

Lvova-Belova on Wednesday called the figure “fake” and said it refers to the early period of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when the front line was constantly shifting, RIA Novosti reported.

The fate of children has been very sensitive in Ukraine since the war began two years ago.

Some of the children's parents were killed and others were separated from their guardians by fast-moving front lines at the start of the invasion.

Some lived in Ukrainian orphanages in territories occupied by Russia.

Ukraine says Moscow forces illegally deported them to Russia and accuses Russian authorities of trying to erase their Ukrainian identity.

Teenagers who returned to Ukraine said they were subjected to Russian patriotic education and forced to praise the Russian army.