President calls for Vatican's involvement in returning Ukrainian children abducted by Russia

RIGA - President Edgars Rinkevics has called on the Holy See to get actively involved in returning the Ukrainian children that have been abducted by Russia, the president's adviser Martins Dregeris informed LETA. 

On Friday, Rinkevics had a meeting in Munich with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States within the Holy See's Secretariat of State. During the meeting they discussed bilateral dialogue between Latvia and the Holy See, Russia's war against Ukraine and the situation in Belarus. The meeting took place in the framework of the Munich Security Conference. 

In the conversation, Rinkevics called on the Holy See to get actively involved in returning the Ukrainian children that have been abducted and taken to Russia, the Ukrainian territories currently under Russian occupation, and Belarus. 

The president informed Archbishop Gallagher that in late January Riga hosted the conference "Russia's War on Children" with the participation of Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska to raise international awareness of the issue.