[2025] EWHC 795 (Fam)

Should children be exposed to the risks of war, which include a statistically low, but ultimately unquantifiable, probability of dying or suffering very serious injuries?

This question, as well as others, arises in the context of an application under the 1980 Hague Convention brought by the father of five-year-old twins by which he seeks their return to Ukraine.

For convenience, I shall refer to the father as ‘F’, to the children’s mother, who is the respondent to the application, as ‘M’ and to the twins as ‘G’ and ‘B’ (one of them is a girl and the other a boy). The parties have been represented by Mr Evans (F) and Mr Gration KC and Mr Bartlet-Jones (M). I am grateful to all of them and to their instructing solicitors for the assistance with which they have provided me in a case I have not found easy to resolve.