Five Argentine couples escape Ukraine with surrogate babies

Five Argentine couples who were in Ukraine to fetch babies born from surrogate mothers have managed to leave the nation with their newborns, the Foreign Ministry in Buenos Aires said last Sunday.

But dozens of others will not be able to leave, amid the chaos caused by the Russian invasion, according to one report.

The five couples with their newborns were brought to the Argentine Ambassador's home in Kyiv for protection before being taken to Poland, and will return to Argentina shortly, the Ministry said.

The couples had arrived in Kyiv in recent weeks after the birth of their babies in Ukraine, one of the rare countries where surrogacy for payment is legal. Ukraine allows paid surrogacy for married heterosexual couples with medical reproductive problems, according to the AGAR association for assisted reproduction.

The Argentine Embassy, one of four Latin American diplomatic missions in Kyiv, has been working on a joint evacuation plan for all citizens from the region caught up in the war with Russia. 

In a video, one Kyiv clinic said dozens of surrogate babies cannot now be collected by their parents due to the Russian invasion.

– TIMES/AFP