Asters' family law team in cooperation with leading UK legal advisors has achieved a unique decision during the wartime on the return to Ukraine of the child kept by her father in the UK. Despite the agreement between the parents that the child would live in Ukraine, the father while staying with the child in the UK refused to hand the child over to the mother, obtained a restraining order to prevent the child from leaving the UK and tried to resolve the issue of the child's place of residence with him.
The legal instruments prescribed by the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction were used to protect the rights of the mother and child. Given that the child was particularly in the UK, the case for its return to Ukraine was considered by the High Court in London. The court ruled in favor of the mother and ordered the father to return the child to Ukraine. The Court of Appeal did not accept the father's application to reconsider the case due to the lack of grounds to change the initial decision.
Asters' team formed a convincing evidence base that Ukraine is the place of habitual residence and the center of the child's vital interests. Based on the evidence collected and the legal position that was formed, the courts established that, despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, it would be in the child's best interests to return to Kyiv with her mother.
Based on this decision of the High Court, the restraining order against the child's departure from the UK was canceled, and all court proceedings previously initiated by the father in London were terminated. The child safely returned to Ukraine accompanied by her mother.
Asters team working on the case included Partner Talina Kravtsova, Counsel Yuri Neklyaev and Associate Maryna Korniienko.