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International Child Abduction Laws in Ukraine

International child abductions happen with frightening regularity, and these traumatic events typically involve one of the parents. The reasons for such drastic actions are different: sometimes a Ukrainian-born mother cannot adapt to her new life abroad and returns to the safety of her native Ukraine, taking along her child without the father’s consent. Or a divorce has gone terribly wrong, and the mother takes the child back to Ukraine despite a court order that allows the father visitation rights.

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Annulments

The effects of a divorce can be long lasting and far-reaching. This is generally not the case with an annulment. An annulment does not include dividing up property and paying alimony because the marriage is treated as having never existed. From a legal perspective, if certain conditions can be proved in a court, then annulment becomes simply a procedure for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the inception, as if it never happened in the first place.

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Child Custody and Visitation

It seems like only yesterday a child’s parents loved each other and lived together quite happily. Today they find themselves bitterly disappointed in their relationship and want to terminate their marriage. Cold, hard statistics show that Ukraine, unfortunately, is now passing through an avalanche of divorces, which arguably have the greatest impact on innocent children.

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Child Support

Child support is based on the policy that parents are obligated to pay for the support of children, even when the children are not living with both biological parents. One parent will typically be awarded legal custody, with visitation rights awarded to the non-custodial parent, who remains obligated to pay a proportion of the costs involved in raising the children. In Ukraine, parents are obligated to support their children until they will reach the age of 18 or, in certain cases, even after attaining this age (Art. 180 of the Code).

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Child Kidnapping

Child kidnapping is a crime that happens with frightening regularity. And it often involves the parents. Sometimes a Ukrainian-born mother cannot adapt to her new life abroad and returns to the safety of her native Ukraine, taking along her child without the father’s consent. Or a divorce has gone wrong, and the mother takes the child back to Ukraine despite a court order that allows the father visitation rights. In any case, domestic child kidnapping is a fairly common event that carries criminal consequences for the offending parent.

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Establishing Paternity

“Paternity acknowledgement” is a voluntary process when an unwed father becomes legally recognized as the biological father for child support purposes. This acknowledgement does not establish a legal, court-recognized paternity, unless it is then taken to the Rayon level. Once the Rayon court recognizes the paternity, the father then has legal, enforceable visitation rights, and, of course, the financial support responsibilities as well.

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Divorce

Whether you are legally separating or filing for divorce, it is extremely important that you don’t allow your emotions to get the best of you, especially if child custody or property separation are a part of your problem. First and foremost, you should consult a family law specialist.

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Pre-nuptial Agreements

It seems wrong to contemplate the ugliness of divorce, and often devastating consequences, during the honeymoon season. For that reason, many otherwise intelligent and rational couples ignore the risk of their split-up sometime in the future. Indeed, there are always significant, long-lasting consequences resulting from termination of marriage, including separation of joint property, custody and visitation rights, payments of alimony and child support, just to name a few.

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Surrogacy in Ukraine

With each year, surrogacy is increasingly more commonly used by couples to resolve problems arising from reproductive dysfunctions of different types, which lead to impossibility to conceive and give birth to a child in a natural way. It is not surprising that in today’s day and age, progressive parents turn to science to help them build a family. Fortunately, Ukraine is a very liberal country in this regard. Below we analyze the current situation with surrogacy in Ukraine from both practical and legal viewpoints.

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