The girls had been unable to see their mother due to the ongoing war. Today, they finally met. The Ministry of Reintegration and the Ukrainian Child Rights Network assisted in bringing the sisters out of the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk region.

During the large-scale invasion, the daughters were living with their grandparents in a small village located in the Luhansk region. Their mother was working in the city at the time. The village was quickly occupied, making it impossible to evacuate the daughters immediately.

In 2022, they were required to study the russian curriculum at school, with no alternative. Subsequently, the occupation authorities started to exert pressure on the grandparents. The grandparents threatened and insisted on formalizing custody of their granddaughters, following the russian model. However, the girls’ greatest desire was to meet their mother.

Finally, they are reunited with their mother and are safe.  The Ministry of Reintegration, the Ukrainian Child Rights Network, and the Way Home project collaborated to make this possible. They worked together to search for and return missing children.

If you witness the illegal transfer of children to the temporarily occupied territory or the territory of the russian federation, report it to the Ministry of Reintegration’s specialized specialist, Natalia Yemets, at (050) 562-03-13.

To contact the National Information Bureau, dial 16-48.