A UK family court judge has praised two parents who ‘put aside personal conflicts in the context of gross international ones’ after a father living in Ukraine withdrew his application to have his children returned to Kyiv.
Deputy High Court judge Dexter Dias KC’s judgment was delivered in private with an approved version published as part of the transparency in the family court initiative.
The family of four lived in Kyiv when Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The mother, identified as SW, and children fled toward the Slovakian border while the father, identified as NW, stayed in Kyiv as he did not wish to leave his parents.
SW successfully applied for the UK’s ’Homes for Ukraine’ scheme. She and the children arrived in April 2022 and in September the mother issued divorce proceedings in Ukraine. The following month, the father applied under the Hague Convention 1980 for the summary return of the children
Dias said: ‘The father reassessed the changing circumstances following the issuing of proceedings and sought permission to withdraw his application. He has been living in Kyiv. He knows very well what is happening around him.’
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