Lubinets asks Kazakhstan not to hand over Ukrainian woman who came to collect her grandchild to Russia

Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets has officially appealed to his Kazakh counterpart, demanding the blocking of the extradition procedure for Ukrainian citizen Lyubov Rozhanska, who was detained in Astana at the request of Russian authorities. The primary objective of the protection effort is to prevent the woman from being handed over to the control of Russian security services.

Circumstances of detention at the airport

The incident occurred on 1 October. Rozhanska was stopped at Astana airport after arriving on a flight from Istanbul. According to her defenders, she is currently being held in a pre-trial detention centre. The Russian side is demanding extradition within the framework of a criminal case opened back in 2023. She is accused of attempting to abduct a child.

According to Lubinets, the trip to Kazakhstan was of an exclusively humanitarian nature: the grandmother had come to pick up her minor grandson, who is located on the territory of the Russian Federation. The Ombudsman claims that the child's Russian relatives may have deliberately convinced Rozhanska to come to Astana, concealing from her the existence of a criminal proceeding.

«Росія домагається її видачі» ("Russia is demanding her extradition"), Lubinets emphasised.

Defence version: a trap set by relatives

Lawyer Oleksiy Pryanyshnikov stated that in July 2026, the boy's relatives on the Russian side contacted Rozhanska. They offered to hand the child over to his Ukrainian father. According to the defender, by that time a decision had already been made in Russia to select a preventive measure for the woman in the form of detention, and documents for her search and subsequent extradition were being prepared.

History involving an 8-year-old boy

At the centre of the conflict is an 8-year-old boy, born in 2018. In 2021, his mother Alla Andriieva moved to the Kaliningrad region of Russia with her son, where the family of her second husband resided.

In March 2022, the woman filed an application in the Russian Federation to renounce Ukrainian citizenship for herself and the child. Subsequently, they acquired Russian Federation citizenship.

However, in March 2025, the Supreme Court of Ukraine, considering the father's lawsuit, determined the boy's place of residence to be the city of Odesa, where his father, a Ukrainian citizen, lives.

According to the lawyers, the plan was to bring the boy to Astana, where he was supposed to be met by his grandmother. However, instead of a meeting, Rozhanska was detained at the request of Russia, transmitted through the mechanisms of the CSTO.

Diplomatic pressure and threat to safety

Ukraine's foreign affairs department has already appealed to Kazakhstan to reject the extradition request. Ukrainian consuls have received preliminary consent to visit the citizen in the pre-trial detention centre.

Dmytro Lubinets separately held a telephone conversation with Kazakhstan's Ombudsman Artur Lastayev. He requested that the conditions of Rozhanska's detention, the legal grounds for her arrest, and access for Ukrainian diplomats and a lawyer be verified and guaranteed.

«Передача українки під контроль російських силових структур становитиме безпосередню та серйозну загрозу її особистій безпеці, здоров’ю та дотриманню її основоположних прав» ("Handing the Ukrainian woman over to the control of Russian security services will pose a direct and serious threat to her personal safety, health, and the observance of her fundamental rights"), Lubinets stated.

The Ukrainian Ombudsman emphasised that this case illustrates the risks for relatives who independently attempt to retrieve children from Russia or through third countries. He called on people to contact state authorities in similar situations and reminded them of the Ombudsman's Office hotline — 1678.

Currently, Rozhanska remains in custody in Kazakhstan, while the Ukrainian side continues its work to prevent her extradition to the Russian Federation.