All life in occupation: UCRN returns brother and sister to the controlled territory of Ukraine

Inna is 15 and Anton is 14. They spent their entire childhood in the temporarily occupied territory. The children’s hometown came under occupation in 2014.

Due to difficult life circumstances, the mother was deprived of her parental rights. The children’s father died in tragic circumstances a long time ago. The grandmother, who also lived in the TOT of Ukraine, decided that the children should be taken out of the city, where it had become particularly dangerous since the outbreak of full-scale war.

Not knowing how to safely travel to the territory controlled by Ukraine, the grandmother and her children went to Russia, where their relatives lived. There they were already looking for ways to return to Ukraine.

In Ukraine, the children were waited for by their uncle, who turned to the UMD for help. The return team developed a safe route for the children to return from the Russian Federation. Today the whole family is at home in Ukraine.

The uncle is already preparing documents for custody of his nephews. A team of our case managers and psychologists is taking the family under support to help them find a new footing in life.

The names of the children have been changed for security reasons.

The returns are part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative.

“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. Our partners are: Ministry of National Unity of Ukraine, Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, EDUKIDS Charitable Foundation, Media Initiative for Human Rights.