Story By: Elena Kalioglo, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

There is heated debate in Russia over this young woman aged 20 who dumped her two children with her mother and said she was going away to start a new life because she was fed up with being a mum.

Russian media reported how Valeria Merkuryeva, from the Leningrad Region, was living with her common-law husband Nikita, 26, since she was 15 and the couple had two children.

But she took the boys, aged three and 18 months to her mother and then left leaving behind the note. In it she wrote: “I’m tired of being a mother, it’s too hard for me. I’m going to another city to start a new life.”

It was also revealed that she had started learning Korean, and had told friends that she dreams of going abroad.

Nikita, who was at work at the time when he got a call from his mother-in-law, said: “She (Valeria) told me she was giving me the children and she has run away.

“I must admit I was pretty stunned, I left work straight away of course and went and picked up my boys.

“I knew she was unhappy, we talked about breaking up but I had no idea she would do something like this.”

He said he knew it was tough but that on the other hand his partner ‘Lera’ blamed everyone except herself for the situation she was in.

He said that his mother had filed a police report and they are now looking for Valeria, but he was not supporting it, saying he did not want to force her to come back. He said: “I will raise the children myself.”

He added: “I blame myself for everything. I haven’t slept all night. I wonder where she could go? I hope all is well with her. If she comes back for the sake of the children, I will be happy to be with her again.”

Online commentators slammed the woman’s decision saying to the left-behind dad: “Find yourself a normal woman and live happily with children. Those who abandon children are not people, they are dirt, and it will not give you a family.”

But others had more sympathy like ‘Anna_Kuteri’ who said: “Twenty years old and with two children, and tired. She is still a child herself. Why are they trying to rush into adulthood so early? I do not understand.

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