Her case has attracted international attention. But more than a month after Maria, 13, was removed from her father’s care after drawing an antiwar picture in school, the Russian authorities have yet to determine who will take custody of her, and a hearing this week failed to settle the matter.
The father, Aleksei Moskalyov, who is a single parent, was placed under house arrest in early March and charged with “discrediting” the Russian military on social media after the antiwar stance of Maria, known as Masha, came to light. Masha was taken to an orphanage. Mr. Moskalyov, 54, escaped house arrest in late March and was not present for his sentencing to two years in prison.
He was detained soon after in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, and his reported whereabouts — a pretrial detention center in the Belarusian city of Zhodino — appeared to become clear only on Friday morning. He is awaiting a deportation hearing, according to the Russian state news agency Tass.
During all of this time, who would take long-term custody of Masha has been an open question. Masha’s mother had not been in the picture since the child was little, and there did not appear to be any other close relatives to take care of her.
But Masha’s mother, Olga Sitchikhina, came to the orphanage where her daughter was being held on Wednesday and took her home, according to Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights.
“Olga is currently not limited in parental rights, so it was enough to terminate the agreement on the temporary placement of the child in the institution,” Ms. Lvova-Belova wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Ms. Lvova-Belova — who has been accused by the International Criminal Court of the war crime of forcibly deporting Ukrainian children from areas of the country occupied by Russian forces — said that Masha had initially not wanted to live with her mother.
“Her position has changed,” Ms. Lvova-Belova wrote.
“Today, during a conversation with the mother, having learned the details about her life and making an immediate impression, I thought, ‘what if a miracle is really possible,’” Ms. Lvova-Belova added. “Despite all the circumstances of the past. At the very least, they both have this right.”
A custody hearing held on Thursday behind closed doors was inconclusive, but another one will take place on April 20, according to statements made by Vladimir Biliyenko, Mr. Moskalyov’s lawyer.
Mr. Biliyenko showed human rights advocates a letter that he said Mr. Moskalyov had written to his daughter.
“Your father is writing to you. Hold tight please,” Mr. Moskalyov wrote in the letter, which was published by the Echo of Moscow news outlet, according to the lawyer. The letter continued, “If any of our relatives want to take custody of you, agree, it is better than being in an orphanage,” adding, “If they bring you to court, ask to stay with your Dad, beg the judge a lot.”
According to local news media reports, an activist who came to the custody hearing with a drawing featuring the words “Putin Eats Children” was detained by the police and fined 50,000 rubles, or about $615, for “discrediting” the Russian armed forces.
Mr. Moskalyov’s posts on the Russian social networks Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte came to the attention of the authorities last April after an art teacher at Masha’s school tried to generate support among the students for the Russian military. Masha’s contribution: a picture of a mother and daughter holding a “Glory to Ukraine” flag and standing in the path of a Russian rocket. “No to War,” she wrote underneath.
