⬛ ZELENSKYY: “YOU DON’T EXCHANGE CHILDREN”
President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russian representatives proposed exchanging Ukrainian children for Russian soldiers during discussions.
His response was blunt.
“Can you imagine how we can exchange our children? We can’t.”
Zelensky emphasized that children are civilians, not prisoners of war.
“You can return civilians. You don’t exchange civilians,” he said.
The statement touches on one of the most emotionally charged issues of the war.
Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of forcibly transferring and deporting Ukrainian children from occupied territories. Kyiv has long argued that these children were not taken as part of any lawful wartime process, but were removed from their homes and families against their will.
For Zelensky, the very suggestion of an exchange carries a troubling implication.
If children are being offered in a swap, it suggests they are being treated as bargaining chips rather than civilians who should simply be returned.
Ukraine continues to seek the return of its prisoners of war and captured soldiers.
But Zelensky drew a clear moral line.
Soldiers are combatants.
Children are not.
And in his view, the fact that such a proposal was reportedly made raises serious questions about how Russia views the children taken from occupied Ukrainian territory.
“You don’t exchange children,” Zelensky said.
“You return them.”