Two sisters returned to their parents after 2 years of living under occupation in Luhansk region

For almost two years, Polina and Yelyzaveta*, now 14 and 16 years old, could not see their mother because of the war. Today they finally met. The Ukrainian Child Rights Network and the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine helped to bring the children from the temporarily uncontrolled territory of Luhansk Oblast .

At the time of the large-scale invasion, siblings Polina and Liza lived with their grandparents in a small village in the Luhansk region. The girls’ mother worked elsewhere, the village was quickly occupied, and she could not take them out immediately.

According to the woman, there was a “quiet occupation” where the children remained – there were no hostilities. But in the city on the territory of free Ukraine, where she worked, it was quite dangerous.

Still, the mother was looking for options to get her daughters out of the country. Their grandparents couldn’t accompany them – they had to take care of their 90-year-old great-grandmother. So they were looking for a person who could go with the girls.

In 2022, Polina and Liza attended a school with a Russian curriculum – they had no choice. At the beginning of the next school year, the occupation authorities began to put pressure on the grandparents: they threatened to deprive the girls’ mother and father of their parental rights and insisted on formalizing custody of their granddaughters according to the Russian model. The grandmother did not want to do this. In addition, the girls were asked about their parents. What could they say if their father was serving in the Armed Forces?

And then the mother turned to UMDPL for help. Soon they managed to find a relative who agreed to take the girls out of the occupation.

“We tried to take them out several times, but there were some problems with the paperwork, and then they were sent there for a long time,” says Anastasia, a social work specialist at the Way Home project.

The joint efforts paid off – the family was reunited. Polina and Liza are finally with their mom and safe

*The names of the children have been changed for the safety of the family.

As of 02/24/2024, 69 children have returned to the territory of free Ukraine within the framework of the “WAY HOME” project

===

“The Way Home” is a project aimed at finding and returning children displaced to the Russian Federation or to the non-government controlled areas of Ukraine, as well as reuniting families whose children are without parents during the occupation. The project is implemented by the Ukrainian Child Rights Network in partnership with the international humanitarian organization Save the Children in Ukraine.

Our other partners are: Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, EDUKIDS Charitable Foundation, Media Initiative for Human Rights, Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine.

Join the Way Home project and make a contribution to the return of children, as it requires considerable resources.

Click the SUPPORT US button on this page

The materials developed within the project do not necessarily reflect the official position of Save the Children.