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Ukraine’s stolen children crisis looms large as NATO meets on Russia’s war
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The thousands of Ukrainian children abducted since Russia’s invasion began three-and-a-half-years-ago are once again at the forefront of international discussions as NATO leaders convened to discuss the war.
Following Russia’s deadly 2022 invasion, Ukrainian children have been among the war’s chief victims, with Kyiv confirming that there have been at least 19,546 cases of unlawful deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia, Belarus, or Russian-occupied territory, by Russian authorities.
Some reports have suggested the number of forcibly transported Ukrainian children could be significantly higher, ranging closer to 35,000 abductions – many of whom are feared to have been illegally adopted.
A girl waves while sitting in an evacuation bus on Sept. 17, 2024 in Pokrovsk, Ukraine. (Yan Dobronosov/ Global Image Ukraine via Getty Images)
‘JUST EVIL’: TOP REPUBLICAN DETAILS RUSSIA’S ‘HORRIFIC’ MASS ABDUCTIONS OF UKRAINIAN CHILDREN
Fox News Digital could not confirm if NATO leaders, who convened on Wednesday for a debrief by U.S. military leaders, will include how to remedy the immense human rights violations targeting Ukrainian children as they look to establish security guarantees, possibly as soon as this week.
But President Donald Trump, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday followed by a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO leaders on Monday, said the issue of forcibly deported Ukrainian children «is a subject at the top of all lists.»
The issue was reignited after First Lady Melania Trump sent a letter to Putin, which Trump hand-delivered during his meeting on Friday, in which she said, «it is time» to restore children’s «dream of love, possibility, and safety from danger.»
«A simple yet profound concept, Mr. Putin, as I am sure you agree, is that each generation’s descendants begin their lives with a purity—an innocence which stands above geography, government, and ideology,» she wrote.
The first lady did not specifically mention the war in Ukraine, though her letter, first obtained by Fox News Digital, was championed by Kyiv.
Denys Zaporozhchenko (L) meets his children Nikita, Yana and Dayana (R) after the bus delivering them and more than a dozen other children back from Russian-held territory arrived in Kyiv on March 22, 2023. (Sergei Chuzavkov/AFP via Getty Images)
UKRAINE’S ‘UNDERGROUND RAILROAD’ RESCUES ABDUCTED UKRAINIAN CHILDREN FROM RUSSIAN REEDUCATION CAMPS
Zelenskyy appeared to surprise Trump by in turn handing him a letter written by his wife, Olena Zelenska, intended for the first lady.
The contents of the second letter have not been disclosed, but Trump noted his wife’s compassion when it comes to the issue of children – a topic Zelenska has also worked to address.
«She sees the heartbreak, the parents, the funerals that you see on television, always funerals,» Trump said.
Some children have been returned to Ukraine incrementally through the help of third-party mediators, like Qatar and the Vatican, though reporting suggests only some 1,500 have been released by Russian authorities.
Ukrainian negotiators have been pushing for the return of the Ukrainian children for months as they meet with Russian counterparts in Turkey.
While prisoner-of-war swaps have been agreed to, Zelenskyy said Russian officials have refused to hand over any Ukrainian children directly to Kyiv.
Illustration picture shows a symbolic action led by members of Avaaz and Ukrainian refugees with the deposit of thousands of teddy bears and toys representing the thousands of children abducted following the war in Ukraine, at the Rond-point Schuman, in Brussels, Feb. 23, 2023. (Nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images)
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«We cannot reach an agreement with them on the return of the children,» Zelenskyy told reporters last week, adding that despite attempts it remains «impossible» without the help of other parties involved.
«That is why we wanted to get certain matters settled in this trilateral track: ceasefire, an all-for-all exchange, and the return of children,» he added. «This is something everyone benefits from: President Trump benefits, the Russians lose nothing, the Ukrainians lose nothing. It’s a fair compromise.»
ukraine,russia,volodymyr zelenskyy,donald trump,melania trump,vladimir putin,human rights
INTERNACIONAL
Judge orders migrant deported in ‘error’ free from ICE custody with criminal case looming
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A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from re-arresting Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia into federal immigration custody — an update that comes just days before he is slated to appear in Nashville for a key court date in a separate criminal case.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis agreed to convert her previous emergency order blocking ICE from immediately re-detaining Abrego Garcia into a longer-term form of injunctive relief sought by his lawyers.
She said Tuesday that the Trump administration failed to provide the court with any «good reason to believe» that they plan to remove him to a third country in the «reasonably foreseeable future.» Instead, she said, they «made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success.»
The order clears the way for Abrego Garcia to participate in a key hearing in Nashville next week on whether a separate federal judge should dismiss his criminal case on the grounds of «vindictive» and selective prosecution.
ABREGO GARCIA REMAINS IN US FOR NOW AS JUDGE TAKES CASE UNDER ADVISEMENT
President Donald Trump and a protester holding a sign urging the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (Getty Images )
Xinis also said the government has «done nothing» to show the court that Abrego Garcia’s continued detention in ICE custody is «consistent with due process.»
«Respondents have done nothing to show that Abrego Garcia’s continued detention in ICE custody is consistent with due process,» Xinis said Tuesday.
She ticked through a list of the Trump administration’s efforts to remove Abrego Garcia to a list of four African nations it had identified as so-called «third countries» of removal in the months between August, when Abrego was re-detained by ICE, and December, when Xinis ultimately ordered his release.
The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Xinis said Tuesday that the administration «refused to procure Abrego Garcia’s immediate removal to Costa Rica,» the location he had identified as his preferred third country of removal, in favor of what she said was attempted «phantom removals» by the government to send Abrego to «three (maybe four) African countries.»
«Indeed, since Abrego Garcia secured his release from criminal custody in August 2025, respondents have made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success,» Xinis said.
ABREGO GARCIA LAWYERS ASK US JUDGE TO ORDER RETURN TO MARYLAND AMID ONGOING CRIMINAL CASE
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, right, and his brother Cesar Abrego Garcia, center, arrive at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore, Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
The Trump administration previously tried and failed to remove Abrego Garcia to the African countries of Liberia, Eswatini, Uganda and briefly, Ghana.
Xinis noted in late November that the government could not take any of those steps without the final notice of removal order, which she reiterated Tuesday in the memo order that the government had not obtained.
«Thus, he must remain on the stringent release conditions already imposed by ICE and in the Tennessee Criminal Matter,» Xinis said.
US JUDGE VOWS TO RULE ‘SOON’ ON ABREGO GARCIA’S FATE AFTER MARATHON HEARING
Abrego Garcia’s status has been at the center of a legal and political maelstrom since March, when he was deported to his home country of El Salvador, in violation of a 2019 court order and in what Trump officials acknowledge was an «administrative error.» Xinis ordered then that Abrego Garcia be «immediately» returned to the U.S.
He was eventually returned to the U.S. in June, where he was taken into federal custody in Nashville and detained on human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop.
The Justice Department later told Xinis it had opened the criminal investigation and presented it to a grand jury at the same time that Abrego Garcia was detained in a Salvadoran prison, and at the same time as government lawyers were telling the court that the U.S. was powerless to order his return.
A woman holds a photo of Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia in front of the U.S. District Court in Nashville. A judge ordered Trump officials to testify in court in January to weigh Abrego’s motion to dismiss on the grounds of «vindictive» prosecution. (Getty Images )
Next week’s hearing in Nashville will be centered on a motion to dismiss Abrego Garcia’s criminal case for «vindictive» and selective prosecution.
The judge overseeing that case, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, had ruled in October that Abrego Garcia had established a «reasonable likelihood» that the criminal case against him was the result of vindictive prosecution by the Justice Department.
Crenshaw had ordered the Trump administration to produce for the court internal documents and government witnesses to testify about its decision to bring the case.
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Senior DHS and Justice Department officials previously suggested they would appeal Xinis’ orders. Trump officials have been sharply critical of Xinis and other federal judges presiding over deportation cages, whom they have repeatedly accused of overstepping their authority as a district judge.
«This order lacks any valid legal basis, and we will continue to fight this tooth and nail in the courts,» DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in response to the court’s earlier emergency order.
donald trump,politics,immigration,supreme court,federal courts,crime world,foreign policy,national security
INTERNACIONAL
Russia sentences American to 4 years for allegedly trying to take Kalashnikov rifle stocks: report
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An American was sentenced Tuesday to four years in jail in Russia for allegedly trying to fly out of an airport in Moscow with the stocks of Kalashnikov assault rifles in his suitcase, a report said.
The unnamed U.S. citizen, who collects Kalashnikov weapons, did not make a customs declaration after purchasing two stocks and checking a suitcase containing the items at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, Reuters reported, citing the RIA Novosti state news agency.
He later was found guilty under an article of Russian criminal code relating to the smuggling of weapons, it added.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department for comment.
RUSSIA UPS JAIL SENTENCE OF US CITIZEN TO 10 YEARS FOR BEATING PRISON STAFF
AK-47 rifles are seen during a training session at a shooting range outside of Kyiv, Ukraine, on the left, in July 2023. On the right are passenger jets at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. An American reportedly was jailed after trying to transport Kalashnikov rifle stocks in a suitcase at the airport. (STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images; Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Russian state media is also claiming the American partially admitted guilt, according to Reuters.
The State Department warns Americans not to travel to Russia «for any reason due to terrorism, unrest, wrongful detention and other risks.»
CHINA PLEDGES AID TO UKRAINE AS US OFFICIALS WARN BEIJING IS QUIETLY FUELING RUSSIA’S WAR
A Kalashnikov of a Ukrainian soldier participating in shooting training is seen in Donetsk region of Ukraine on July 31, 2024. (Jose Colon/Anadolu via Getty Images)
«The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has limited ability to assist in the case of a detention of a U.S. citizen. There is no guarantee that the Russian government will grant the U.S. Embassy consular access to detained U.S. citizens,» the State Department said. «U.S. citizens may serve their entire prison sentence without release. The risk of wrongful detention of U.S. citizens remains high. Even if a case is determined wrongful, there is no guarantee of release.»
A terminal at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, in August 2023. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)
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«Russian officials often question and threaten U.S. citizens without reason. Russian security services have arrested U.S. citizens on false charges,» it added. They have denied them fair treatment and convicted them without credible evidence. Russian authorities have opened questionable investigations against U.S. citizens for their religious activities.»
russia,crime,state department,world
El presidente iraní, Masoud Pezeshkian, afirmó que su país está dispuesto a que haya una verificación de que no busca dotarse de armas atómicas, coincidiendo con el ciclo de negociaciones con Estados Unidos sobre el programa nuclear.
«No estamos buscando en absoluto tener armas nucleares», declaró Pezeshkian en una entrevista publicada este martes. «Si alguien quiere verificarlo, estamos dispuestos a que se lleve a cabo dicha verificación».
Irán y Estados Unidos mantuvieron este martes unas breves negociaciones, en las que no hablaron directamente, sino que se intercambiaron mensajes a través de Omán, en su papel de mediador, y tras las cuales la vía diplomática se mantiene abierta en la búsqueda de un acuerdo sobre el programa nuclear iraní.
Al término del encuentro, el ministro de Exteriores de Irán, Abás Araqchí, declaró que se había logrado «un buen progreso respecto a la sesión anterior» (hace veinte días), que en esta ocasión el ambiente fue «más constructivo e incluso se refirió a avances sobre «una serie de principios rectores», según los cuales se redactará un posible borrador de acuerdo.
«Tenemos una decisión más clara sobre qué acciones deben tomarse», declaró, sin ofrecer detalles de lo conversado.
Más optimismo aún mostró el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de Omán, Badr bin Hamad al Busaidi, que hizo de mediador y quien habló de «buenos avances» en la identificación de «objetivos comunes» y de «cuestiones técnicas relevantes».
A través de una declaración por redes sociales, el ministro omaní también se refirió a los esfuerzos que se hicieron para definir los principios a los que se refirió su homólogo iraní, aclarando siempre que queda mucho camino por andar y que habrá otra reunión próximamente.
La figura del director general del Organismo Internacional de la Energía Atómica (OIEA), Rafael Grossi, tomó relevancia en esta segunda ronda de las negociaciones, que se reanudaron tras los ataques de Estados Unidos contra tres instalaciones nucleares iraníes el pasado junio, en una operación conjunta con Israel.
Grossi, quien es candidato a ser secretario general de la ONU, se reunió el lunes con Araqchí, y hoy mismo lo hizo con la delegación estadounidense, que han liderado el enviado especial de la Casa Blanca, Steve Witkoff; y Jared Kushner, yerno del presidente Donald Trump.
En una comparecencia horas después en la Conferencia de Desarme de la ONU, reunida en la sede europea de la organización en Ginebra, Araqchí ofreció algunas claves de lo abordado con Grossi cuando, tras denunciar los ataques estadounidenses de mediados de 2025, dijo que en la actualidad «no existen modalidades» que hagan posible la inspección de las instalaciones afectadas por parte de la OIEA.
«Esas instalaciones requieren un marco acordado mutuamente entre Irán y la agencia. Esto es algo en lo que estamos trabajando», reveló el ministro en ese momento y mostró la disposición de Irán a responder a algunas de las exigencias de Estados Unidos.
Aunque no se sabe con certeza en qué condiciones se encuentran esas plantas, informes de organismos internacionales apuntan a que sufrieron daños significativos.
Sin embargo, durante la jornada también hubo mensajes duros -implícitos y explícitos- de Irán con respecto a Estados Unidos, a su forma de negociar y a sus exigencias, al tiempo que le recomendó actuar con prudencia en relación a sus amenazas de atacar militarmente si el régimen iraní no se pliega a sus exigencias.
A este respecto, Araqchí dijo en la ONU que en caso de que EE.UU. le agreda, su respuesta «no se limitará a sus fronteras», mientras que desde Teherán se anunciaba el cierre durante varias horas para maniobras navales de partes del estrecho de Ormuz, una vía marítima muy importante geopolítica y comercialmente.
Trump ha manifestado su interés por resolver la cuestión nuclear iraní -tras señalar que estaría involucrado a distancia en las negociaciones de hoy-, en particular después de la violenta represión armada de las manifestaciones multitudinarias que tuvieron lugar en las primeras semanas de este año en Irán y en las que murieron miles de personas.
Estados Unidos junto con los otros cuatro países del Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU, más Alemania, alcanzó en 2015 un acuerdo sobre el programa nuclear iraní, el cual establecía medidas para garantizar que se adecuara únicamente a fines civiles a cambio del alivio de sanciones, pero Trump retiró a su país del mismo en 2018, durante su primer mandato.
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