On May 23, a Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman was freed from Russian captivity. His 15-year-old daughter had recently been brought back from temporarily occupied territories (TOT).
That is according to Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets, who announced the news on Telegram, Ukrinform reports.
“The father of the girl, who was recently returned from TOT, has been freed from captivity,” Lubinets wrote.
According to him, “yesterday we managed to free a Ukrainian defender who had been held in Russian captivity for three years. He is the father of a 15-year-old girl whose return from Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories was facilitated through the Bring Kids Back UA initiative run by the Ombudsman’s Office.”
Lubinets stressed that the process of bringing the girl back was long and difficult.
“We were approached by the soldier’s mother, who was suddenly separated from her two closest loved ones: her son, who had been in captivity since 2022, and her granddaughter, whom she had raised since birth,” he said.
At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the girl’s mother took her to Russia and later returned with her to areas occupied by Russian forces. The child lived under harsh conditions for the entire time, and the grandmother lost all contact with her. It was the grandmother who reached out to the Ombudsman’s Office for help.
Lubinets noted that his office helped formalize guardianship for the grandmother. Then, in March, with Qatar’s mediation, the child was finally reunited with her grandmother.
“And yesterday came another step toward this family’s healing: the father, a freed Ukrainian defender, heard his daughter’s voice for the first time in a long while. And soon, he will finally be able to embrace her again,” he added.
According to Lubinets, “this is just one of many stories of families torn apart by war. But it’s moments like these that give us strength to keep believing and fighting.”
As reported by Ukrinform, 390 Ukrainian prisoners of war were returned from Russian captivity on May 23 as part of the “1000 for 1000” exchange.
Source: Ukrainian soldier freed from Russian captivity days after his daughter returned from TOT – Ombudsman
