A father with restricted custody took his child from the mother and crossed to Russia by boat, the Lithuanian Police reported on Monday.
“The Russian border guards have only confirmed that a man and a child have been detained. If persons are handed over, a meeting is organised in advance and it takes place through a border checkpoint, this is usually coordinated,” State Border Guard Service (VSAT) spokesperson Giedrius Mišutis told BNS on Monday morning.
The border guards saw a rubber boat crossing the Skirvytė river near Rusnė in southwestern Lithuania, which marks the border with Russia.
“Then the nearest [border] guard with a boat sailed to the spot,” Mišutis said, adding that the man did not respond to the officers who tried to establish contact with him.
Russian border guards then confirmed to their Lithuanian counterparts that a man with a child had been detained.
Police received a report from the child’s mother on Sunday afternoon, who said the father took the child and did not return the baby, born in 2022, at the agreed time. The man crossed into Russia with the child just several hours later at 16:00.
Vilmantas Vitkauskas, the head of the National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC), told LRT.lt that efforts are being made to negotiate with Russia, without giving further details.
“Intensive negotiations are going on, I can tell you that much,” Vitkauskas said.
According to information available to LRT.lt, the parents of the child did not live together and the father had restricted child visitations.
The police launched a probe into child abduction, while the border guards opened an investigation into illegal border crossing.
Russian citizen?
After an inter-institutional meeting on Monday, Vitkauskas said that the initial plan to return the girl to Lithuania through the border guards has failed.
“This happened because of possible, and I want to stress possible, aggravating circumstances. That is, as the Russian side claims, the father of the baby is also a Russian citizen,” Vitkauskas told reporters.
“This, of course, changes the situation and complicates the process. We have to look for other ways to ensure the safety of our citizen,” he added.
According to him, the NKVC cannot at the moment confirm whether the baby’s father does indeed have Russian citizenship. The man has Lithuanian citizenship, but “there is no information in the registers about his Russian citizenship”, Vitkauskas said.
The girl abducted and taken to Russia is 9-10 months old and needs her mother’s care, according to the head of NKVC. In June, a court established the child’s residence with her mother.
“With this in mind, and in the interest of the child’s custody and protection, we very much hope that the Russian side will respond constructively to our request and that she will be returned as soon as possible,” Vitkaskas said.
According to the State Border Border Guard Service, however, Russia refuses to return the father and the baby to Lithuania.
“The Russian border guards confirmed the fact of border crossing and also stated in their reply that the detained father is a Russian citizen, so, according to them, there are no grounds for extradition,” VSAT spokesperson Giedrius Mišutis told Elta news agency.
According to him, Russians do not see any grounds for returning the baby to Lithuania either.
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