Ukraine returns another child earlier deported by Russia

That’s according to the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, who broke the news on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

The Office has helped a Ukrainian mother get her son back from Russia, the Ombudsman said.” Nikita and his mother are now in Ukraine. However, the story of their return home can become a movie plot, where a mother goes to another country, which abducted her son under the pretext of ‘evacuation,’” noted Lubinets.

According to the official, the woman almost ended up behind bars in Russia. However, the Ombudsman's Office reacted in time and helped the Ukrainian mother take her child and return him to Ukraine.

"Before going to the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian national turned to a non-governmental organization that helped her with the trip. But no organization/community can guarantee safety on the territory of a foreign country, and the woman was one step away from being thrown behind bars in the Russian Federation. I emphasize that Ukraine currently has no diplomatic relations with the terrorist state, and it is also impossible for citizens of our country to obtain consular services there! And it will be difficult for the state to help the Ukrainians who turn to non-state organizations, especially when the Russian Federation provides no information," Lubinets emphasized.

He noted that Russian authorities practice two-to-three-day detentions of Ukrainians who try to get their loved ones back home on their own or with the support of NGOs. In Belarus, same practices could be applied, Lubinets warned.

He called on citizens of Ukraine who are trying to get their children from the temporarily occupied territory or the Russian Federation to contact state agencies only because it is they that can help them or provide security guarantees. They need to call the hotline of the Ombudsman’s Secretariat: 0-800-50-17-20.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, a 14-year-old girl who ended up in the Russian Federation after the large-scale invasion was finally returned home.