A legal custodian in Ukraine has been fighting for her return for years.
Inna Varlamova (center) holding Margarita / Marina at a baptizing ceremony in Russia. Sergey Mironov at right.
In the first part of this article readers learned how Margarita was abducted from Ukraine and taken to Russia. This part is the continuation of her story.
Margarita’s adoption
Margarita Prokopenko was only ten months old when two women – Inna Varlamova and Yana Lantratova – picked her up from the Kherson children's home.
The most significant development in her case took place in Russia, where Margarita was secretly given a new identity.
In December 2022, according to documents obtained by investigative journalists, Margarita was formally adopted by Sergey Mironov, the leader of the Just Russia Party, and Inna Varlamova, his fifth wife.
The adoption changed the girl's name from Margarita Prokopenko to Marina Mironova. Her recorded birthplace was also changed from Ukraine to Podolsk, a city in the Moscow region. The birthdate remained unchanged.
The adoption was particularly consequential because Russian adoption law permits the adoptive parents to change a child's name and certain personal details, including the place of birth. The original identity of the child was therefore obscured in Russian records, making it more difficult for relatives and Ukrainian authorities to trace her.
The case was first reported publicly in November 2023 by the investigative outlet Important Stories (IStories). Its investigation linked the child taken from Kherson to the adoption records naming Mironov and Varlamova as her parents.
The Russian politician rejected the allegations at the time, describing them as “fake news allegedly produced by Ukrainian intelligence services and their Western partners.” He did not provide a public explanation for the reported change of the child's identity and did not agree to a DNA test, according to Novaya Gazeta Europe.
Journalists found Margarita with the Mironov family
In 2023, investigative journalists began piecing together what had happened to Margarita and other children removed from the Kherson children's home.
The BBC's Panorama, working with Ukrainian human rights investigator Victoria Novikova of The Reckoning Project, traced Margarita through Russian documents, travel records and interviews with witnesses.
The investigation identified Varlamova as the woman who had visited Margarita in hospital in Kherson. Russian documents authorized the child's transfer to Moscow for “medical examinations,” although her treating doctor in Kherson questioned the need to take the baby so far away.
The BBC investigation meanwhile traced Varlamova's travel to occupied Ukrainian territories and her return to Moscow, while Russian records and sources helped establish her connection to Mironov.
A particularly important clue was the matching date of birth in the records for Margarita Prokopenko and Marina Mironova: 31 October 2021. The adoption documents obtained by the investigation linked the two identities.
In November 2023, IStories published its findings that Mironov and Varlamova had adopted Margarita and changed her name and citizenship. Mironov denied the report, calling it a politically motivated attack.
At around the same time, Ukrainian authorities and investigators continued working to establish the child's identity and whereabouts. Novikova updated Repina with information about Margarita, with her date of birth providing the key link between the Ukrainian and Russian records.
In November 2023, Repina finally received official Ukrainian documents confirming her legal guardianship of Margarita Prokopenko.
This was an important legal development. Repina could now formally demonstrate that she was the child's Ukrainian guardian and could submit an official request for Margarita's return.
She contacted Russia's human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, and sent a request through the Russian president's official website. She also contacted Russian social services, which reportedly made one call to verify information about Repina and Margarita. Repina confirmed that she was prepared to take the girl immediately and had suitable living conditions.
However, no arrangement for Margarita's return followed. The Russian side turned a deaf ear to Repina’s request.
In response to the allegations, Mironov accused Ukrainian intelligence services and the West of spreading disinformation to discredit him, in a social media post. He subsequently neglected journalists’ requests for an interview about Margarita/Marina, including questions about her adoption, new identity and the possibility of DNA testing, but the politician ignored that request too.
International organizations get involved
Repina continued her efforts and appealed to international organizations.
She contacted, for example, the Dutch-based Emilia Foundation, which helps reunite Ukrainian children with their families, and sought the intervention of the Ukrainian authorities. She also asked for assistance from the U.S. administration.
Ukrainian cyberpolice obtained correspondence associated with Varlamova and provided Repina with photographs of Margarita as she appeared after being taken to Russia. These images helped confirm that the child was alive and growing up in the Mironov family.
Repina also sought a DNA test to establish Margarita's identity conclusively. She proposed that the test could be conducted in a neutral third country, such as Turkey or Qatar, so that the Russian side could verify the relationship without requiring the child to be returned to Ukraine first.
According to Repina, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky helped issue a Ukrainian passport for Margarita in anticipation of a possible reunion. However, the Russian side did not respond to her proposals.
Incidents in Greece
In autumn 2024, Repina with both of her girls moved into a newly-rented apartment in Athens, Greece. Before they moved in, unknown men reportedly approached the building's administrator and asked about the occupants.
In November, shortly after the family settled in, someone broke into the apartment and searched through their belongings. Repina said that jewellery, including a valuable gold necklace, had been left untouched. She suspected that the intruders had been looking for Margarita's documents or biological material that could be used for DNA testing.
Darina Repina with Anya (left) and Teresa. Image from her personal album.
This suspicion was Repina's personal interpretation of the incident and had not been officially confirmed by the police.
In November 2025, she joined other Ukrainian mothers and grandmothers at a press conference in Paris to raise international public awareness about Ukrainian children kidnapped for Russian families.
In March 2026, an unknown person broke into Repina's car in Greece. According to her account, nothing was stolen, including the vehicle documents and electronic equipment.
Repina interpreted the new incident as a sign that her family was under surveillance and someone was trying to intimidate her.
By this point, Repina had made repeated requests to Mironov and Varlamova, asking them to return the child or agree to a DNA test. She maintained that she would accept Margarita regardless of any developmental or medical difficulties and that her family was ready to welcome her.
Ironic appointment
In May 2026, Yana Lantratova was appointed Russia's human rights commissioner. This placed her in a position of responsibility for human rights complaints in Russia, despite her alleged involvement in the transfer of Margarita from occupied Kherson – and possibly other children from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Security Service had previously cited Lantratova in absentia in connection with the forced deportation of children and alleged violations of the laws and customs of war.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants on the name of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights over the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied territories of Ukraine.
In July same year, Lvova-Belova reported that more than 700,000 Ukrainian children had been deported from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government's portal Children of War has a database of 20,570 confirmed Ukrainian minors forcibly transferred to Russia between February 2022 and May 2026.
Afterword
Margarita Prokopenko’s biological father had died before she was taken to Russia while her biological mother remained to struggle with drug addiction. No other living relatives appeared to fight for her return.
It is unknown who has adopted Ilya Vashchenko. He received a birth certificate only in September 2023. The document suggests that the boy is in the Moscow Region.
Darina Repina has been writing letters to Margarita Prokopenko in a hope that she will read them one day. Here’s one of them:
“Hello, Margarita. We are waiting for you. We are happy that the moment has come when you are reading these words. I hope that you are safe and sound, in good health, and that you will be able to come to us. We will be so happy when you are with us and can hug Anya, and I can hug you. I really want to smell you, because I remember your scent from back then, at the hospital and in the orphanage. You never forget something like that. And your tiny hands…
“We have kept many childhood belongings for you, things that belonged to Anya and Teresa. They are waiting for you as a symbol of our family. Drawings, toys – we have kept everything safe for you. We very much hope that this moment will come soon. We will never let you go again.”
Read part 1 HERE
Main sources and references:
https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/05/26/ee-zovut-margarita
https://l0tge5hs---app-b2ctx63wlq-lz.a.run.app/en/articles/2026/05/26/the-fight-for-margarita-en
https://war-sanctions.gur.gov.ua/en/kidnappers/persons?kp%5Bpub_id%5D=63