To this day, several children remain in Italy, moreover, they are to be prohibited from contact with anyone outside Italy. The Ukrainian representatives, Rudyková and the families of the children demand their return, the Italian authorities refuse to comment on the matter with regard to the privacy of minors, writes CNN. And it is not even clear what the children themselves want.
According to Ukrainian laws, Rudyková was the legal representative of the children, but the laws of Italy regarded the children as unaccompanied minors. They were granted refugee status and assigned new guardians. This approach is based on the tightening of the legal protection of child refugees from the time of the European migration crisis – such as the ban on the return or expulsion of any unaccompanied child from Italy, unless ordered by a court in exceptional circumstances.
According to the lawyer Rosa Emanuela Lo Farová, who deals with the cases, in some cases it was completely impossible for the children to communicate with their original guardians, friends and generally with anyone from Ukraine. According to her, some of the foster families pressured the authorities so that the children could be adopted. They argued that the situation in Italy is safer for children. Kyiv, on the other hand, claims that the departure of the children was only supposed to be temporary and that although the war continues, the situation is stabilized and safe in many parts of Ukraine.
After arriving in a small village in the northern Italian region of Lombardy in 2022, local teacher Diego Mosca took care of the children together with his cousin Michela Norisová. He started setting up schools for them and inventing weekend and holiday activities. Everything went without problems, but when the employees of the home, who had traveled to Italy with their children, announced that they wanted to return, it caused a shock. Norisová started a petition, which was signed by over eighteen thousand people. According to her, they don’t want to keep their children in Italy forever, just until the war ends in Ukraine.
The children’s home was located in the city of Sumy. One of the 25 children was then ten-year-old Saša. The Ukrainian court decided that he and his two younger sisters will be taken away from their parents because of the problematic situation in the household. However, the parents did not lose parental rights. According to Rudyková, all three siblings should return when the domestic situation improves. But the war came into that.
When it became clear that the war would not just end, Ukraine decided to return the children back. Rudyková found them a safe home in the west of the country. The Ukrainian consulate began to fill out requests for return, but the Italian courts evaluated the case of each child separately. Some children returned, others did not. Saša’s two sisters are now back in Ukraine, Saša remained alone in Italy. And in April, his adoption was approved by the foster family, which has been taking care of him since 2022.
According to the UN Office for Refugees, the return to the country of origin should only take place voluntarily and only if, according to the host country, it is in the best interest of the child. However, according to Lo Farová, it is difficult due to the fact that the children came to Italy at a young age and do not remember much from life in Ukraine.
It is not entirely clear what Saša wants, but he agreed to the adoption. According to his family in Ukraine, he should have told them that he wanted to return to Ukraine. According to Rudyková, he should have stated that he did not know. His father is fighting in the war and has been missing since 2025. Natalia’s mother wishes for her son’s return, and the Ukrainian authorities support her in this. According to her, Saša is forbidden to talk to her or his sisters. Le Farová tries to block his adoption.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, more than 4,800 children were evacuated from Ukrainian institutions to several European countries in 2022. Some of them were orphans, while others, such as Saša and his sisters, were placed in state care. Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets told CNN that the authorities are currently preventing the return of more than 300 children to Ukraine, most of them in Italy, Germany and Austria.
