Russia overturns court order for man to return daughter to mother in France, citing EU and NATO membership

Russia’s Supreme Court has ruled that a Russian man does not have to return his daughter to her mother, a Ukrainian citizen living in France, after he brought her to Russia without her mother’s permission, state media reported on Wednesday.

According to Russian business daily Kommersant, Alexey Yermakov and Veronika Tyshkova were married in 2018. After their divorce, their daughter moved with her mother to France. In March 2025, Yermakov took their daughter to Turkey and Slovakia for an agreed-upon vacation, promising to return her to France after two weeks. That April, however, he took her to Russia, where she later became a citizen.

Three months later, Tyshkova filed a lawsuit with Novosibirsk’s Central District Court seeking the return of her daughter. In October 2025, the court granted the claim, and the appeals and cassation courts upheld the mother’s position. Yermakov then appealed the case to the Supreme Court.

One of the Supreme Court’s arguments was that France is on the Russian government’s list of “unfriendly” countries and is a member of NATO and the EU. According to the court, this creates risks for the child.