The case involving 13-year-old Maria Moskalyova has garnered international attention, as Moscow cracks down on criticism of the offensive in Ukraine.

The girl had drawn a woman and a child near a Ukrainian flag and missiles flying at them, with a Russian flag next to them.

Her headmistress contacted the police.

In early March, Russian authorities separated her from her father, and late yesterday a Russian official wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) said Maria was in her mother’s custody.

“Masha (Maria) at the start did not want to go to her mother,” Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova wrote on Telegram.

“Her position has changed, she told me about it on the phone,” added Lvova-Belova, who is wanted for her alleged role in “deporting” Ukrainian children.

AFP was not able to verify this, and activists and lawyers had complained they had no access to Maria.

The girl had not lived with her mother, Olga Sitchikhina, in years.

After being taken from her father Alexei Moskalyov, Maria was placed in a centre in her small town of Yefremov, south of Moscow.

Her father, due in court today to potentially lose custody of her, sent a letter to his daughter through his lawyer, in which he told her “hang in there”.

Last week, he had made the shock move of fleeing house arrest while a Russian court found him guilty of “discrediting” the Russian army and given a two-year prison sentence.

Authorities detained him in the Belarusian capital Minsk.

‘Ask for your daddy’

Local media quoted the director of the rehabilitation centre where Maria was placed as saying that “social teachers and psychologists” had worked with the girl.

The Kremlin had defended the case against Moskalyov, describing his parenting as “deplorable”.

Last week, after Moskalyov fled house arrest, activists published a letter from Maria to her father that lawyers confirmed was authentic.

“I love you very much and know that you are not guilty of anything,” the letter read.

She called him “my hero”.

He answered in a letter published by his lawyer on monitoring site OVD-Info.

“Mashenka, your dad is writing. Please hang in there, people are thinking about how to help you,” the letter read.

He told her she should agree if relatives came to ask for her custody, “it’s better than being in an orphanage”.

“If they bring you to court, ask for your daddy, ask the judge really hard.”