When Ukrainian children’s home director Liubov Rudyka took the minors in her care to Naples after Russia invaded, she thought she was bringing them to safety.
It never occurred to her that Italy might not want to give them back. And yet, four years later, their return has become a legal battlefield.
Ukrainian authorities have told CNN that several children who were evacuated to Italy with Rudyka are among dozens of Ukrainian minors whose return home has been prevented by the Italian courts.
A dispute over their situation escalated in April, after Kyiv announced that one of the Ukrainian children, a 15-year-old boy named Sasha, had been legally adopted by an Italian family – despite having a mother who wants him to return to Ukraine.
Kyiv argues that the evacuations were meant to be temporary and that while the war continues, the situation has stabilized in parts of the country and there are safe places for returning home. (CNN)
Among all the horrors of the Ukrainian war, losing their children to an Italian court was never imagined.
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