Whoever watches Ukrainian television heard the name Kira Obedynska several times in April and May.

In the beginning without the face to it.

Twelve-year-old Kira was an orphan, and soon after the start of the war in the Ukraine also an orphan.

Her father was shot dead in Mariupol, the family's hometown, which was besieged by Russian troops - while he was standing on the balcony of his apartment.

A group of residents, including Kira, attempted to flee the town on foot.

A child touched a mine;

Kira was also injured in the explosion.

She has been treated.

In the end, Russian or pro-Russian fighters brought the girl to Donetsk, to the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), which was formed in 2014 under Moscow's guidance.

She was in the hospital there for weeks.

Gerhard Gnauck

Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania based in Warsaw.

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But her grandfather Olexander Obedynskyj, who, like the father who was shot, is at home in competitive sports, "set almost the whole world in motion," a television speaker later reported.

He had previously fled to the unoccupied part of Ukraine.

He managed to get the girl out of the DNR and, through detours, got her to her.

On a stopover, Kira was in Kyiv in a hospital.

One day the door to the infirmary opened and a visitor came.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy walked in, as did Minister for Reintegration of the Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk.

Both wore the olive drab fatigues of the war.

Now the girl herself was seen on television.

A little later, Kira and her grandfather were safe in Chernivtsi in western Ukraine.

There, the sirens of the air raid alarm rarely wail.

Simplified naturalization for orphans

The British broadcaster BBC reported last week how other children fared.

He showed pictures of Maria Lwova-Belowa, Russian President Vladimir Putin's children's representative.

She was traveling with 25 Ukrainian children in the Russian region of Kaluga.

By the end of July, she said, "108 orphans from Ukraine's Donbass region who have received Russian citizenship should have parents."

At the beginning of August, Putin's envoy was also in eastern Ukraine.

Her website states that she also spoke to the DNR leadership about Ukrainian orphans.

“By September, papers will be ready for another 100 orphans and children without custodial parents.

Active work is being done in Russia to select parents who are willing to accept them.” In Kaluga, Lwova-Belowa said the bureaucratic preparatory work for the placement of the children began in June.

So it went very quickly.

It was only on May 30 that Putin decided with a decree to extend the simplified naturalization of Ukrainians, which he had previously decreed, to orphans from all over Ukraine.

Government officials in Ukraine are up in arms against the action, which they brand as a forced adoption.

Minister Wereschuk told the FAZ on Thursday that more than 2,100 children in the affected categories had been brought to Russia from Ukraine.

"We made it clear to Russia immediately after Putin's ukas (decree): All affected children without exception have official guardians with guardianship, for example grandfathers or grandmothers.

Everything that is done in Russia will therefore be illegal.” The UN organization UNICEF and Russia's Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova were quickly informed.

At least there seems to be some sort of working relationship with Moskalkowa.

It looked very different on other levels.

Vereshchuk reports that she was personally involved in the evacuation of children's homes, for example from the then embattled city of Mariupol.

"When we informed the Russian side that we would pick up the children from this or that home the next day, the Russian army drove up in the morning and took the children east."

"They fought back, screamed and cried"

The minister knows a few cases personally: for example, that of 19-year-old Valya, who had to take care of her six- and twelve-year-old sisters after her mother and brother were shot and killed in front of the children.

“The two little girls were taken to Donetsk and prepared for adoption.

They fought, screamed and cried.

The children were only released when Valya traveled through four countries to Donetsk.” In such cases, the Red Cross transports the children.

So far, only 50 children have been able to be brought back to Ukraine.

Vereshchuk, who has been dealing with difficult issues for months, including the prisoner swap with Russia, is angry and says, "Russia steals children to have them adopted."

It starts with locating those affected.

Lawyer Kateryna Raschewska from the Ukrainian activist group Regional Center for Human Rights (RCHR) criticizes the Russian reasoning that bringing the children to Russia is an "evacuation".

Evacuations are temporary, which must end when the country of origin can ensure the safety of the child itself.

UNICEF and the Red Cross should ask Russia for a list of all children brought to Russia.

"Otherwise, Moscow's policy in Crimea after 2014 will be repeated: after the annexation, the authorities sent children to Russia for adoption and did not give any information to Ukraine or any international organization."