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Four children from Ukraine are to be to be returned to their families from Russia in a deal brokered by Qatar. The youngest is two years old, while the oldest is 17. A seven-year-old boy returned to Ukraine on Monday via Estonia after he was reunited with his grandmother in Qatar's Moscow embassy last week, the official said. The two-year-old boy was handed over to Qatari diplomats in Moscow on Monday, and a nine-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl are due to be handed over this week, the official said. The Ukrainian Presidential Office said the children would all be home soon. "We are bringing home four Ukrainian children illegally deported to the Russian Federation," Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office, said on X, formerly known as Twitter. He gave no further details. Kyiv says about 20,000 children have been taken from Ukraine to Russia or Russian-held territory without the consent of family or guardians. It calls this a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide. Moscow, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year, denies committing the accusation and says it has protected vulnerable children from the war zone. The return of the first four children tests a system the Gulf Arab state established after months of secret talks with Moscow and Kyiv, the Qatari official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the process. Qatar's minister of state for international cooperation, Lolwah Al Khater, confirmed the mediation in a statement and described this week's repatriations as "only a first step". Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, shared a short initial list of Ukrainian children to be returned with a team of Qatari diplomats who verified each child's identity, the official said. It was not clear how many additional children Russia would authorise to return to Ukraine via the Qatari mechanism, the Qatari official said. About 400 children have been returned to Ukraine since Moscow's invasion, but the United Nations human rights agency raised concerns last week that there was no system to facilitate such returns. Qatari diplomats will accompany the children over the border with Estonia, Latvia or Belarus or to Qatar by chartered jet before returning them to Ukraine, the Qatari official said. "Both Ukrainian and Russian officials have been cooperative," the Qatari official said, adding that Ukraine approached Doha to mediate with Russia over the children. The seven-year-old boy reunited with his grandmother on Friday had been in Russia at a children's home "as a result of being separated from his mother who was in Russia when the war broke out", a Qatari official told Reuters. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in March for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ms Lvova-Belova, accusing them of the war crime of illegally deporting children from Ukraine. Both deny the allegations against them. Reuters reporting contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Russia is sending more forces to an eastern Ukraine city after its assault slows, analysts say Poland's ruling conservatives lose majority in parliament to centrist coalition, final count shows Trump scheduled to be questioned in lawsuits from ex-FBI employees who sent negative texts about him

Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a rare trip abroad to join ally China in marking the 10th anniversary of an international cooperation forum. The two-day visit is only his second known trip abroad since the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader in March over Ukraine war crime allegations. The Russian president and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are holding talks to bolster their shared trade and security amid Western sanctions against Moscow over Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Several other world leaders also arrived in Beijing for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum championed by Mr Xi, including Vietnam’s president Vo Van Thuong, but Mr Putin is being heralded as the talks’ chief guest. The Russian presidential entourage was greeted by Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao after Mr Putin’s plane touched down at the Beijing Capital International Airport on Tuesday. Beijing has supported Russia in rejecting resolutions on Ukraine in the United Nations Security Council, part of Western efforts to isolate Russia over the war. China has rejected Western criticism of its close partnership with Russia in spite of the war in Ukraine, which entered its 600th day on Monday. Mr Putin is expected to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Vietnam, Thailand, Mongolia and Laos on Tuesday and attend the forum’s official opening reception hosted by Mr Xi, Tass news agency reported. On Wednesday, he will address the forum after Mr Xi as the chief guest and will meet the Chinese president for talks after. Before embarking on the trip, Mr Putin said in an interview with CCTV that he had met with Xi more than 40 times so far and the two have “many fond memories”. He praised China’s ambitious BRI project and said contrary to the West’s perception, Beijing was seeking cooperation and not to “put someone under its thumb”. China launched its signature BRI project in 2013 and funded $900bn in infrastructure and other projects to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through overland and maritime routes. The project has since faced many challenges, including concerns about debt sustainability and the impact of China’s economic slowdown. Mr Putin said his meeting with Mr Xi would encompass talks on Belt and Road-related projects, which he said Moscow wanted to link with efforts by an economic alliance of ex-Soviet Union nations mostly located in Central Asia to “achieve common development goal”. This is his second visit outside Russia after his visit to Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, earlier this month. The ICC accused Mr Putin of committing a war crime by “illegally deporting children from Ukraine”. The ICC obliges the court’s 123 member states to arrest Mr Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory. The Kremlin leader last visited China for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022 when Mr Xi declared a “no-limits" partnership with Russia. Mr Xi met Mr Putin in March during a three-day trip to Moscow amid the Pentagon’s fears of Beijing’s potential military cooperation between the two countries for supplying weapons to be used in Ukraine. They greeted one another as “dear friend” when they met in the Kremlin, and held informal talks for over four hours. Read More Russia mounts ‘intensive’ offensive to break ‘powerful’ Ukrainian defences in Kupiansk-Lyman Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin suffers serious losses in largest offensive in months Viral hate and misinformation amid Israel-Hamas crisis renew fears of real-world violence

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