MONTREAL – More than 45 countries signed a pledge in Montreal on Thursday to return to Ukraine civilians, prisoners of war and children that Russia has taken since it invaded the country.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said the countries agreed to coordinate efforts to collect information on Ukrainians held in Russia and create safe routes for their return.

“Human life must be protected. “Children, civilians and prisoners of war should be allowed to return home,” he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that approximately 42 thousand Ukrainians were missing and approximately 20 thousand children were deported to Russia. So far, 860 Ukrainian children have returned home, he said.

Thursday’s joint declaration will help coordinate current efforts to locate missing Ukrainians, Joly said. Qatar said South Africa and the Vatican agreed to act as intermediaries to negotiate the return of prisoners of war, civilians and children. Lithuania and Qatar will serve as transit countries for the released Ukrainians.

Officials have not released a list of the more than 70 countries sending delegations to Montreal this week, and as of Thursday evening it was unclear which countries had signed the pledge. However, many major players, including China, India and Brazil, were not present. Mexico and South Africa attended the conference.

Joly said many countries felt “direct pressure from Russia” not to attend the summit. “Russia made representations in many capitals of the world, saying that they should not come to Montreal,” he said. “This shows that what we are doing is shedding light on an issue that embarrass Russia.”

The ICC had previously issued arrest warrants for both Russian President Vladimir Putin and children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of war crimes such as unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of children from occupied regions of Ukraine to Russia. Moscow denied the allegations.