At Astana Airport, the capital of Kazakhstan, Ukrainian citizen Lyubov Rozhanskaya was detained at Russia’s request after arriving from Istanbul, Turkey, to pick up her grandson. She is now being held in pretrial detention in Astana, and a court hearing on extradition is expected within three days.
As reported by Novaya Gazeta Europe, Rozhanskaya is currently being held in pretrial detention in Astana, and a court hearing on her extradition is expected within three days.
According to the extradition case materials, criminal proceedings have already been opened against her in Russia on charges of abducting her grandson.
This concerns the son of her daughter Alla Andreyeva (Sonchik), who was born in 2018 in Andreyeva’s first marriage.
In 2021, Andreyeva moved with the child from Odesa to Kaliningrad Oblast to live with her second husband. After the war began in 2022, she renounced Ukrainian citizenship for herself and the child, and that same year they received Russian passports.
In 2025, Ukraine’s Supreme Court, following a lawsuit filed by the father, determined that the child’s place of residence was Odesa. In the summer of 2026, Rozhanskaya’s family was contacted by relatives of her daughter’s new husband, who offered to hand the grandson over to her and his father.
According to lawyers Aleksey Pryanishnikov and Riza Nurbayeva, despite warnings, Rozhanskaya traveled to Astana to pick up her grandson and was detained upon arrival from Istanbul. Pryanishnikov called what happened “a fairly clearly planned operation” and an FSB provocation, while Nurbayeva said that her client was unaware of the criminal case in Russia.
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