Her case has attracted international attention. But more than a month after Maria, 13, was removed from her father’s care after drawing an anti-war 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 anti-war stance of Maria, known as Masha, came to light. Masha was taken to an orphanage. 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 whereabouts — a pretrial detention centre 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,” Lvova-Belova wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

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,” 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,’” 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, Moskalyov’s lawyer.

New York Times News Service