US to discuss return of deported Ukrainian children with Russia as «confidence-building measure»

The United States is discussing the possibility of returning Ukrainian children who were forcibly taken to Russia as one of the key steps to build trust between the parties.

This was stated by White House National Security Adviser Mike Volz, CBS News reports.

According to him, President Donald Trump raised the issue of abducted children in conversations with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia.

«President Trump spoke with both leaders about the exchange of prisoners. The Russians and Ukrainians exchanged nearly 200 prisoners immediately after their conversation. He also discussed the future of these children. This is definitely one of the key steps to build trust,» said Michael Volz.

He added that the United States is implementing Donald Trump's vision of ending the war, which he put forward during the election campaign.

When asked whether the US would demand the return of Ukrainian children as a prerequisite, Michael Volz answered in the affirmative: «We are discussing a number of confidence-building measures. This is one of them».

Earlier, it was reported that the US Government Performance and Accountability Office (GPO), headed by Elon Musk, had stopped funding a group of researchers who were looking for deported Ukrainian children. After that, Reuters wrote that data on 30,000 Ukrainian children had allegedly been deleted.

Later, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said that the information about the deletion of data on Ukrainian children deported by Russia was not true.

According to her, since the issue of returning children was discussed by US and Ukrainian Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, this is a clear signal that work in this direction will continue.