Teenage girl returns to Russia from Ukraine, reunited with mother — ombudswoman

MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. The office of Russian children’s rights ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova has helped reunite a teenage girl with her mother in Russia.

"A 14-year-old girl has returned to the homeland thanks to the support of the office of the Russian children’s rights ombudsperson. The girl was born in Moscow but due to extenuating circumstances moved in with her grandmother in Ukraine," the office wrote on messaging app Max.

According to the ombudswoman, the mother regularly visited her daughter and they were permanently in touch, but after the beginning of the special military operation the woman found herself unable to take her daughter home. She applied for assistance to the International Committee of the Red Cross. "Our colleagues there contacted us, and after a long process of coordination and negotiations, the girl returned home," it said.

The White House said earlier that First Lady Melania Trump had facilitated the reunification of one more child with the family after being separated amid the Ukrainian conflict. Their nationality was not specified.