A woman from Odesa who had been detained at Russia's request was released from custody in Kazakhstan

Lyubov Rozhanska, a resident of Odesa who was detained in Kazakhstan at Russia’s request, was released from pretrial detention and traveled to an EU country. She is now returning home.

DW reports this, citing the Ukrainian woman’s lawyer.

Rozhanska was detained on October 1 in Astana at Russia’s request. She was suspected of “child abduction.”

After her detention, a Kazakhstani court was supposed to determine her pretrial detention status within three days. However, this did not happen, so she was released from pretrial detention and was able to leave the country.

The Odessa resident flew to Astana to pick up her grandson. In 2021, his mother took the boy to Russia and later obtained Russian citizenship for herself and her son.

In Ukraine, a court considered a lawsuit filed by the child’s father and determined that the boy’s place of residence should be Odesa, where his father lives. According to media reports, the man serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As the lawyer explained, the Ukrainian relatives had been trying for several years to reach an agreement with the boy’s mother regarding his return to Ukraine.

In 2023, two Ukrainians traveled to the Kaliningrad region acting on behalf of Lyubov Rozhanska. They were supposed to pick up her grandson, but Russian security forces detained both of them.

In October 2025, they were sentenced to 15 and 16 years in a strict-regime penal colony. They were charged with illegally crossing the Russian border, espionage, and attempted kidnapping.

Ukrainian authorities sought Lyubov Rozhanska’s release. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada’s Commissioner for Human Rights, joined the effort.

Ірина Глухова