2024-02-21 13:58:16
February 20, 2024
“I will never forget this woman’s cry when she saw her three daughters for the first time two years ago.”
This is how Maryam Lambert, president of the Orvans Feeding charity, recalled how on December 6, 2023 she witnessed a family reunion on the border of Ukraine and Belarus.
Lambert says that the mother “touched the girls’ faces as if she could not believe herself. I will never forget how they screamed, embraced their mother, hugged her, and cried.”
On that day, in December 2023, eight Ukrainian children were repatriated, among them Anna’s children – Olya, Tetyana and Veronika.
Olya was 10 when she last saw her mother, Tatiana was 15, and Veronika was 17. The family lived in a village near Volnovakha, which was captured by the Russians in February 2022.
Their mother Anna, a soldier in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was on duty at the time and could not go to pick up her children.
While the children were living under occupation with their relatives, their mother knocked on all the doors and asked for help in getting the children out and wrote an appeal to the Office of the Ukrainian Ombudsman.
The children were taken out of Russia in several groups, mediated by Qatar. The Qataris organized two return flights in December, and another in October and November. Anna’s children were discharged in December.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, the Russians forcibly displaced about 20,000 children from Ukraine, of whom only 388 were returned.
The youngest child, two years old, was just six months old when he was separated from his parents and taken to Crimea.
Russia says this is how it protects children in war zones.
Many international and charitable organizations, including UNICEF, the Red Cross, and the Orphans Feeding Foundation, are helping to return these children, but according to Ukrainian officials, there is only one country that publicly supports these efforts, which is Qatar.
Other Arab countries also tried to enter into this process, but to no avail, according to BBC sources.
A source in the Ukrainian government said, “Mediation is being offered and Ukraine is not against it. We are working with everyone. But not everyone has such influence on Russia. Qatar has influence. I do not know exactly where it comes from, but the result is clear – Qatar can one way or another reach an agreement with them.” “
Mediation has long shaped Qatar’s foreign policy, a strategy that earns the Gulf state greater status within the international system.
BBC Ukrainian service revealed how the Qataris were able to negotiate with Russia and how they returned the children to their families.
Thanks to Qatari mediation, 16 children were returned to Ukraine during the past four months
There are many stories about how each child ended up far from his parents, either in separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine or in Russia.
Return of children through Qatar
October 16 – Four children
November 19 – one child
December 5 – Eight children
December 16 – Three children
How was Ukraine able to involve Qatar in the return of children?
Ukraine was the first to ask Qatar to mediate the return of children, and according to BBC sources, this was preceded by months of secret negotiations at the highest levels.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke several times by telephone with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. In July 2023, Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani visited Kiev, which was the first visit at this level by a prominent Qatari official in many years.
“It was very fruitful negotiations,” Zelensky said at the time, and it appears that they were indeed fruitful talks.
Although Qatar does not supply weapons to Ukraine and does not support sanctions against Russia, it helps in the humanitarian field – it has allocated $100 million to support the energy sector, ambulances and hospitals.
Omar Ashour, professor of security and military studies at the Graduate Institute in Doha, says, “My interpretation is that they understand what it means for a small country to be threatened by a large neighbor, but at the same time they have their own interests in Russia and fear for them, and they continue to deal with them, and for this reason they do not help.” “Ukrainians have weapons, but they help, for example, with children.”
Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets visited Qatar in August, and the official statement said, “We worked on finding ways for future cooperation, and discussed protecting the rights of Ukrainian children.”
And unofficially – they agreed to return the children.
Two months later, in October 2023, the first group of children was returned through Qatari mediation. The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at the time that this was just the beginning.
A Ukrainian government source told BBC Ukraine: “Qatar is the first to talk about the return of children. It informs us when children actually cross the border.”
At the same time, Ukraine does not rule out Qatar’s participation in the return of civilian and military prisoners.
How do Qataris hand over children to their families?
Children are usually handed over to relatives in neutral territory depending on how far they have arrived in Russia, and the journey can take from several days to weeks.
Returning children take different routes – some through Belarus, others through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
As for the children who Qatar participated in returning, they are transported via Moscow.
Sources told the BBC: “On Russian territory, the safety of the children and their relatives who came to pick them up falls entirely on the Qatari side. Doha bears responsibility for them and provides them with transportation and insurance.”
Veronika, Tatiana and Olga traveled for several days from Donbass through Russia and Belarus to Ukraine, and then were transferred to the Qatari embassy in Moscow.
Tetiana, who knows English better than her sisters and thus was able to communicate more with Qatari diplomats, told the BBC: “We learned the news during the meeting with the Qataris in Moscow.” “They welcomed us very nice and warm and offered us sweets, caviar and some other interesting foods. We sat with the ambassador, who talked to us about education. He asked about our studies. We also talked about anime with the diplomats. It was nice that the diplomats knew anime books,” she says.
The children spent several hours at the embassy in Moscow, after which they were taken to the airport in a convoy under guard. Qatar transported the girls to Minsk on board its planes.
The group was accompanied by escorts from Qatar all the way to the Belarusian capital.
In Minsk, the children boarded a bus with Red Cross staff, and from there they went to the Ukrainian border, where their mother was waiting for them.
“The Qataris were with us all the time until we reached Minsk,” says Tetyana. “I didn’t feel any fear, at the same time we were returning home, so we were very happy.”
Travel expenses are partly covered by Doha and partly by the Orphans Feeding charity.
According to Maryam Lambert, her foundation pays for car rentals, hotels, and all travel expenses from the children’s accommodations to Ukraine.
According to BBC sources, Qatar is paying for part of the road from Moscow to Minsk.
Comment on the photo,
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani.
What does Qatar gain from this?
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in a television interview that the return of Ukrainian children is our contribution to international security.
According to the Qatari official, Doha was communicating with Ukraine about how to help in this difficult situation, and here came the request related to children.
“We use communication channels and the existing relationship with Russia to keep children safe,” he said, adding that the issue of children here in Qatar is very important, and stressed that these efforts are continuing.
“In this country, everything is for children,” Omar Ashour, a professor of security and military studies in Doha, says of Qatar’s attitude toward children.
He said, “If you told any Qatari official that 20,000 children were kidnapped and taken from their families, no one would be able to ignore such a problem. Everyone wants to help, here caring for children is part of the culture. Interests may conflict and countries may disagree with each other, but they leave the children behind.” “Outside it. That’s what everyone here thinks.”
As for Ilya Kosa, an analyst at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, he is more skeptical about Qatar’s actions and believes, according to what he said, “They are helping because it is good for them at the moment.”
Koussa says that it is a humanitarian role played by Qatar, and the main goal of it, from his point of view, is to improve the image.
Koussa believes that “this increases the diplomatic status of the country, which appears as capable of resolving a crisis. Saving children is always a good story. Therefore, Qatar uses it to improve its international image.”
After each successful special operation to repatriate children, Qatar publishes an official statement in which it thanks Russia and Ukraine “for the cooperation and good faith throughout the reunification process.” For their part, the Ukrainians and Russians praise the role played by Doha.
“Qatar’s participation is invaluable. This independent third party is important to us,” says Maria Lvova Belova, Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights.
Belova usually visits the Qatari embassy when Ukrainian children are brought there, giving them gifts and taking pictures.
She told Al Jazeera, after returning a group of children, that the West does not believe that Russia always returns children, because it explains everything in its own way.
The Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights says that Russia has saved thousands of Ukrainian children from the clutches of war and that there are no obstacles to their return to their relatives in Ukraine.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued two arrest warrants for Lvova Belova and Russian President Vladimir Putin on suspicion of deporting Ukrainian children.
According to Ukrainian authorities, only about 400 of the 20,000 children believed to have been abducted and forcibly removed from Ukraine have been able to return.
what is the opposite?
John Strawson, a professor of international law, says: “Qatar has a global reputation in the field of negotiations, not only between Ukraine and Russia, but rather its efforts in this field began much earlier through mediation between the United States and the Taliban, Israel and Hamas.
“They consider themselves a country that can talk to everyone,” he added.
According to Stresson, a Middle East researcher at the University of East London, Qatar has long established itself in this role – a small country with influence and playing an important role as a negotiator between large countries.
As for his opinion on why Russia gave children to Qatar? John Strawson argues that it may be in Moscow’s interest to return at least some of the children, thus relieving Putin of the dilemma of obtaining a warrant from the International Court of Justice.
He continues, saying: “The Russians cannot just give children to Ukraine. This will make them appear weak or like they are making concessions to the enemy. Instead, they have chosen to make concessions to Qatar.”
Ihor Simivolos, director of the Center for Middle East Studies, says that Qatar is a reliable negotiator, and the negotiator always exchanges interests.
Simivolos believes that “perhaps the negotiator can offer a communications opportunity to Russia. It is always desirable to keep such a partner close in case there is a need to engage in some secret negotiations. Qatar can play that role.”
He went on to say that, for example, if Russia wants to conduct some secret negotiations with the United States, Qatar is capable of such a service.
“It’s just that no one does anything,” he says. “It’s a matter of deferred perspective. The mediator always has his own interest. But this interest can also be intangible, for example, prestige, weight and influence.”
The director of the Center for Middle East Studies says that Qatar has found influence within Russia because they know the keys to negotiating with it.
Ihor Simivolos believes: “They always manage to find ways to deal within Russia, with the United States, and with Israel. The Qataris operate on a large scale. This is part of their security strategy.”
According to Ilya Kosa, Qatar can also use the story with children, if they want to implement something on the territory of Ukraine, to agree something with the Ukrainian authorities.
“Or they do it to tell the media how they succeeded where other countries were unable to achieve anything. Qatar’s attempt at mediation in itself is an interesting story for them, and an interesting story for us, but it is a circumstantial story,” he said, noting that the matter may turn into a kind of From the long-term partnership between Ukraine and Qatar.
Ukrainian officials say there is no suspicion of any compromising of the children.
“Maybe Russia will demand something from Qatar in return,” says Dmytro Lobinets, the Ukrainian ombudsman. “Ukraine is not responsible for that. That is not the question.”
Regardless of what Qatar, Russia and Ukraine agree to, Anna is happy to see her children again.
She told the BBC while crying: “I have waited a lot. Almost two years. My daughters have grown a lot during this period. I am now the happiest person in the world, because they are near me.”
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