Russian Activist Olga Dorokhina Abducts Child from Occupied Kherson

The woman who took a 4-year-old child from the occupied Kherson region was a representative of the Russian organization "Wife and Mother of a Hero. Crimea" Olga Dorokhina.

According to Suspilne, Dorokhina was born in the city of Yelets (Lipetsk region, Russia), and in 2016 her family moved to the temporarily occupied Simferopol. Her eldest son Vladislav Dorokhin served in the Black Sea Fleet, and after the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia, he joined the 810th Marine Brigade. He died in June 2022 in the Donetsk region at the age of 21.

After her son's death, Dorokhina joined the organization "Wife and Mother of a Hero. Crimea" organization and began traveling to the occupied territories of Ukraine on so-called "humanitarian missions". It was during one of them that she took her child out of the Kherson region.

Olga Dorokhina's husband, Oleksandr, is a former employee of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service and a veteran of the Chechen war. He worked in the penal colonies of Yelets and Simferopol and has been retired since 2017. On social media, he posts photos of his deceased son, footage from the war in Chechnya and events of FSIN veterans.

According to Kateryna Rashevska, a lawyer with the Regional Human Rights Center, the child abducted by Dorokhina could have been a foster child of the Kherson Regional Children's Home, from which the Russian military took the children to an unknown destination in 2022.

It is also possible that the child was not an orphan before the full-scale invasion. In this case, his or her removal can be regarded as an abduction. If he or she was orphaned because of the war, this indicates a forced deportation. According to international law, even in the case of official adoption, such a situation is a violation of the rights of the child, as he or she has the right to preserve his or her national identity.

The lawyer also adds that the Dorokhin family is hiding information about the child so that Ukraine cannot identify and return him. However, Ukrainian human rights activists already have data on the children who were taken from the Kherson Regional Children's Home, including their photos, names and surnames.

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