Father separated from daughter over anti-war Ukraine sketch retains custody

The father who separated from his daughter because of an anti-war sketch about her Ukraine maintains her guardianship, although he is in prison, his lawyer announced today in this emblematic case for Russia. “The legal action to limit the parental rights of Alexei Moskalyov has been withdrawn, the case is closed,” his lawyer said.

“Alexei will retain custody“, he said, thanking “all those who did not remain indifferent”, mainly journalists, and put pressure on the authorities in this case that shocked a part of Russian public opinion.

Alexei Moskalyov first came to the attention of Russian authorities last year when his 13-year-old daughter made a sketch in her school class showing Russian missiles heading towards a woman and a child next to the Ukrainian flag. The school principal handed the little student over to the police. Police discovered her father’s social media messages critical of the Russian attack.

Subsequently, Alexei Moskalyov, 54, who raises his daughter Maria alone in the town of Efremov, south of Moscow, was charged and convicted in late March of two years imprisonment for “defamation of the army”.

Hours before his sentencing, Alexei Moskalyov broke his house arrest and fled to Belarus, where he was soon arrested. Last week, the non-governmental organization OVD-Info announced that extradited from Belarus to Russia.

However, his lawyer said today that he had been unable to locate Alexei Moskalyov, explaining that he had contacted a temporary detention center in Tula, south of Moscow, where the client should have been transferred. “I was told it is not there yet. I don’t know where he is at the moment“, he said.

Since the beginning of March, the Russian authorities they separated Alexei Moskalyov from his daughterwhich was initially placed in a children’s institution and in early April was handed over to her mother.