Italy Refuses to Return Children From a Sumy Orphanage to Ukraine While the War Continues

Ukrainian authorities told the broadcaster that several children taken to Italy are among dozens of Ukrainian minors whose return home has been blocked by Italian courts.

The dispute over their status intensified in April. Kyiv then said that one of the Ukrainian children—a 15-year-old boy named Sasha—had been adopted by an Italian family. At the same time, according to the Ukrainian side, his mother, who had previously placed her son in an orphanage, is seeking his return to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian side argues that the children’s evacuation was originally temporary. Kyiv’s position is that, despite the continuing war, the situation in some regions has stabilized and the children have safe places to which they can return.

Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada’s commissioner for human rights, told CNN that Italy is not cooperating with Ukraine on the issue and is not allowing Ukrainian authorities to check the conditions in which the children are living.

CNN notes, however, that Italian authorities from the outset treated the evacuated children as unaccompanied minors. They were granted refugee status and assigned new guardians.

That approach is based on Italian law. About a decade ago, against the backdrop of Europe’s migration crisis, Rome strengthened legal protections for child refugees. In particular, it introduced a ban on returning or expelling from Italy any unaccompanied child, except in cases where such a decision is made by a court under exceptional circumstances.

In the case of the Ukrainian children, foster families who want to keep them in Italy or adopt them are putting additional pressure on the authorities.

“They say they are better off here, that everything is good for them here, and that if they return to Ukraine, there will be war instead,” said Michela Norris, who has helped the children adapt to the new country for all four years.

When Ukrainian authorities said in 2024 that they intended to bring the children back, Norris and other families who had hosted them opposed the move. She launched a petition asking that the children’s interests be taken into account; it gathered more than 18,000 signatures.

“We don’t want the children to stay here in Italy forever. We simply said: ‘Listen, guys, we know the situation in Ukraine is terrible. The war is still going on. Please leave the children here until the war is over, and then take them back,’” Norris explained.