Russia has repatriated 27 children from Iraq where their mothers are imprisoned for being members of Islamic State (IS).
The Emergency Situations Ministry said on February 10 that the move comes after 30 children in a similar situation were sent back to Moscow in December.
"Late in the evening on February 10, an Emergency Situations Ministry plane flying from Iraq will land and deliver 27 children between the ages of 4 to 13, from 10 regions of Russia,” a spokesperson for the ministry said in a statement.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said that the children’s fathers died during battles over the past three years between jihadists and Iraqi troops.
Last month, the Kremlin said 115 Russian children below the age of 10, and another eight between 11 and 17, were still in Iraq.