— Envoy says westren blame of kidnapping of ‘thousands’ of Ukrainian children by Russia has been proven completely unfounded during direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations
ISLAMABAD: Russian Ambassador Mr Albert P. Khorev on Thursday said that Russia hopes that Pakistan and India would resolve all outstanding issues through diplomatic channels and if both countries agree, Russia is ready to mediate for peaceful resolution of issues between the two neighbours.
Addressing a press conference here at the Russian Embassy, Mr Khorev said that Russia is concerned over tensions rising between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Russia urges both neighbors to use diplomatic channels to resolve their issues. He said that terrorism is a matter of grave concern for Russia. He said that Russia is ready to mediate between the two countries for resolution of their issues.
Speaking about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Ambassador Albert Khorev said that one of the most pressing issues in resolving the conflict in Ukraine is the December 3 meeting in Moscow between Russian President Vladimir Putin and American negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
“The parties engaged in extensive, five-hour discussions regarding the peace plan proposed by US President Donald Trump, which is based on the agreements reached by the Russian and US presidents at the summit in Anchorage on August 15… The meeting in Moscow was constructive, very useful and substantive, although it also touched upon issues that Russia disagrees with,” he said.
The envoy said that the efforts to reach a negotiated solution to the Ukrainian crisis are proving difficult and the Trump administration, acting constructively and based on the realities on the ground, faces opposition from Europeans who still seem to harbor illusions about the possibility of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia and ending the conflict on their terms.
“In this regard, the so-called ‘children’s issue’ is being actively exploited. The West accuses Russia of kidnapping ‘thousands’ of Ukrainian children – a claim that was proven to be completely unfounded during direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations held this summer. During specific discussions, the Ukrainian delegation was unable to provide a list of even one thousand Ukrainian children ‘kidnapped by the Russians’”.
He said the Russian negotiators received a list with the names of only 339 children, allegedly evacuated to Russia from the conflict zone. Substantive work on the return of evacuated minors to Ukraine is being carried out by the Office of the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
“Against the backdrop of ongoing efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis through diplomatic means, the EU’s relentless attempts to invent new quasi-legal structures, such as the so-called ‘Register of Damage to Ukraine,’ the ‘International Claims Commission for Ukraine,’ and the ‘Special Tribunal for Crimes of Aggression against Ukraine.’ Any decisions made by these bodies will be considered null and void by our country, and any actions by third countries in support of them will be perceived by Russia as a hostile move and will receive an adequate response,” the ambassador said.
“We hope that sensible states, not willing to follow the lead of the Russophobic Western group, will give an objective assessment of these harmful European initiatives and will not allow themselves to be drawn into neocolonial projects. Behind these pseudo-legal formats lie the Europeans’ desire to justify the Kiev regime’s material claims against Russia and to create an ‘information background’ for the theft of Russian sovereign assets frozen in the West,” he asserted.
Ambassador Khorev said that the Kiev regime, suffering one setback after another on the front lines and long dependent on its Western patrons, is facing a colossal funding shortfall and the European sponsors, having spent billions of their taxpayers’ money, are also in a difficult financial situation.
“Their situation is so difficult that they are actively discussing the option of seizing Russian sovereign assets held in European financial institutions. There is no other word for these plans: it’s theft. In this regard, I would like to emphasize that stealing Russian funds will not change the course of the conflict and will not prevent Russia from achieving the goals of the Special Military Operation, but it will lead to severe consequences for Western financial institutions and individuals responsible for the thievery. The former European colonial powers will not be able to seize resources with impunity, as they did in the past,” he concluded.
