Ukraine preparing talks to return its people deported to Russia

The Ukrainian side is preparing for negotiations with Russia to return Ukrainians deported from the occupied territories. The process will be held simultaneously with negotiations on the exchange of captives, RBC-Ukraine reports with reference to an interview with Adviser to the Head of the Office of the Ukrainian president Mikhail Podolyak for NV [New Voice of Ukraine]. 

"We will take everyone, it is not a problem,” Podolyak said. “We will take all our citizens, they will return to Ukraine. There is no Russian Federation [for us]. This is a country that will forever be a rogue state. That’s all. It will be impossible to live there, make a career, study.”

The adviser said that Ukrainians deported to Russia will feel uncomfortable there because Ukrainian citizens greatly differ from the Russians.
Podolyak also confirmed that negotiations on the Ukrainians’ return to the Motherland are being prepared.

“We are preparing negotiations at the level of Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk,” the adviser said. “In general, we intend to talk about the exchange of captives, in particular, about the return of our citizens.”
“There are plans, but we must prepare everything legally, because it's impossible just to talk to the Russians,” Podolyak said. “We should use the documents.”

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Russian servicemen had taken about 5,000 children to Russia only from Ukraine’s Mariupol city.