Ukraine manages to return teenager who lived in foster care in Russia

Ukrainian parliamentary ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said:

serhiy, 16, returned to Ukraine nearly eight months later after being taken to the Russian Federation.

The boy lived near Mariupol and lost his parents shortly before the war, but he has a sister and now also compatriots who are willing to help him. After the Russian occupiers seized his home settlement, he and many other children were taken to Donetsk and then to Russia.

Sergei studied at a college in the Russian Federation, there mastering the field of auto mechanics. The family the boy had to be with had three children of their own and already one adopted. Sergei did not speak to his new "family".

The ombudsman did:

Fortunately, the treatment in that family was not abusive, but all the time the thought that he had to return to his homeland kept haunting him. He found help on the internet.

Sergei sent a message to one of the chatbots saying that he wanted to return to Ukraine and received a positive reply.

Lyubinets told us:

"At the train station where we were waiting for him, near the St Nicholas Train from Ukrzaliznytsia, the guy received the gift he needed for his studies from Murat Shahin, Chairman of the UNICEF Representative Office in Ukraine.

The Ombudsman's Office said it would make sure that Sergei would first of all receive proper psychological support and a legal guardian in the person of his sister, and if necessary, medical assistance and resumption of his studies.