13-year-old daughter removed from her father for questioning Ukraine war

Yefremov: A father of a 13-year-old daughter in a Russian town, 300 km away from national capital, was separated from her after the child’s drawing criticised Russia’s Ukraine attack.

Residents of Yefremov expressed shock at the development in their town where ‘outward signs patriotic support’ for Russian war still continues, as per a report by news agency AFP.

The case of the father and daughter has become a kind of testament to the ‘repression of any criticism of the offensive’.

This happens even as the people are apparently divided over the continuing fighting in Ukraine.

Last year Maria Moskalyova drew a picture at school showing missiles next to Russian flag flying towards a ‘woman and child standing by a Ukraine flag’.

The headmistress did not wait to contact the police; later the cops reportedly noticed comments posted by girl’s father on social media criticizing the war.

The 54-year-old Alexei Moskalyov will undergo trial on Monday for ‘discrediting Russia's armed forces’.

The offence if convicted will put him behind bars for up to three years as per a law adopted last year, according to the report.

His lawyer Vladimir Bilyenko said the father of the 13-year-old is at risk of losing parental rights in trail that will start on April 6.

Following the tumult of events since March 1, Moskalyov has been under house arrest. The daughter has been lodged in an orphanage and asked not to call her father, town councillor Olga Podolskaya reportedly said.

The incident has attracted national attention causing an online petition filed to return the child to her father.

The father and daughter get support, mostly notably even from Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner paramilitary force, which is at the forefront of the war.