Child kidnapped in Ukraine 'adopted' by Russian politician, her name and surname changed

This was reported by human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.

It recently became known that Russian official Sergey Mironov and his wife Inna Varlamova "adopted" a 10-month-old child taken from Ukraine.

During the occupation of Kherson by Russian invaders, the girl was in an orphanage. However, from there Margarita Prokopenko was taken to Russia under the pretext of "examination and rehabilitation".

Media reports say that later the girl's name and citizenship were changed! Thus, Margarita became "Marina Mironova"! - reported the ombudsman.

Probably, two-year-old Ilya Vashchenko was also taken together with Margarita. The fate of the boy is still unknown.

The guardian of Margarita's sibling appealed to the human rights ombudsman and asked for help in finding the girl and formalising guardianship over her.

Margarita has a sibling of a six-year-old sister and a three-year-old brother. The six-year-old sister lives with a guardian, but the fate of Margarita's brother is unknown. He, like the girl, was in Kherson. That is, the sister and brother were separated by Russians," Lubinets said.

He stressed that the adoption of Ukrainian children in the Russian Federation is illegal. For foreigners have the right to adopt Ukrainian children only after consent to adoption. Russia tries to bypass international and national norms and forcibly grants Russian citizenship to Ukrainian children.

In the opinion of the ombudsman, this becomes the basis for further warrants and a response of the international community. To this end, Lubinets appealed to Ukraine's partners and international organisations.