Two American babies born to a surrogate in eastern Ukraine and evacuated to Russia after the war began have been returned to their US parents, the private group behind the operation, Project Dynamo, said Wednesday.
The twins, a boy and a girl, were “rescued” Tuesday after the organization’s first mission to Russian territory, Project Dynamo said in a statement.
The Tampa, Fla.-based group was formed in 2021 by ex-military personnel to assist in the evacuation of US-Afghanistan allies during the chaotic military disengagement from Afghanistan.
The children were not abducted but evacuated to Estonia’s “contacts” in Russia, Peter D’Abrosca, a spokesman for the group, told AFP.
The surrogate lived in Donbass, an eastern region of Ukraine partially occupied by Russian forces. Fleeing the war, she first sought refuge in Crimea before reaching St. Petersburg, where, according to the publication, she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, in early September.
The babies were taken to an orphanage in the city and the parents, a Texas couple who asked for anonymity, had tried unsuccessfully to get them back. The parents then contacted the NGO and one of their co-founders, Bryan Stern, traveled to Estonia to set up the mission from the town of Narva on the Russian border.
The release doesn’t specify how the babies were retrieved, saying only that “mission setup took about a week and was completed in one day.”
Bryan Stern expressed his “deep appreciation to the US embassies in Moscow and Tallinn, without giving details of the assistance they may offer.”
When asked what help the US embassies were offering, the NGO spokesman simply said they had “played a role”.
The US State Department also declined to investigate.
“This information is known to us,” said a spokesman. “Due to privacy concerns, we will not comment further at this time.”
US citizenship is automatically granted to children of American couples born abroad to surrogate mothers or by in vitro fertilization, provided at least one parent has a biological bond with the baby.
