A Ukrainian girl who fled to the Czech Republic with her mother in the first weeks of Russia's full-scale invasion has returned to Ukraine and reunited with her father, after her mother died suddenly in December 2025, Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets announced.
After the mother's death, Czech citizens stepped in to care for the girl until her father, in Ukraine, asked the ombudsman's office to help bring her home. The return took six months — coordinating documents with Czech authorities and preparing the child herself for the move. Lubinets said the case showed that when different countries' agencies work together in a child's interest, even the hardest cases can be resolved.
The girl was one of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, most of them women and children, who found refuge in the Czech Republic after February 2022. Lubinets's office worked with Ukraine's National Social Service and Czech authorities to complete the return. Waiting for the girl in Ukraine were her father, grandmother, aunts, and other relatives. Lubinets thanked the charity Save the Children in Ukraine and the Czech Republic's social services for their cooperation.
Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic hosts one of Europe's largest Ukrainian refugee populations relative to its size. Around 385,000 Ukrainians held temporary protection there at the end of April 2026 — the highest ratio in the EU, at roughly 35 per 1,000 residents — Eurostat figures show. That is down from a wartime peak above 520,000, and, as across the bloc, most of those who remain are women and children.
More than three years into the full-scale war, Czech policy has moved from emergency shelter toward integration or return. Czech intelligence has found that Ukrainian refugees now contribute more to the economy than they cost, even as Prague opens a five-year residence path for those who can support themselves and has discussed return centers with Kyiv for those who choose to go home. The EU has extended temporary protection until March 2027.
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