Bohdan Yermokhin, who was deported by the occupiers from Mariupol, was brought home.
This was announced by the head of the Presidentʼs Office, Andriy Yermak.
Yermokhin was taken from the Moscow region to Minsk, and from there to Ukraine. His sister accompanied him. Yermak said that today is the boyʼs birthday — he turned 18 years old.
"The guy previously appealed to the President of Ukraine with a request to help him leave for Ukraine. We were in constant communication with Bohdan, and he is already in Ukraine, next to his sister," Yermak wrote and thanked partners from Qatar and the international organization UNICEF for their help.
The story of Bohdan Yermokhin
In the spring of 2022, Bohdan Yermokhin was taken out of Mariupol and given to a foster family in the Moscow region of Russia. At the beginning of 2023, he tried to return to Ukraine on his own, but the Russians detained him at the border with Belarus. The boy was recently served with a summons. The Ukrainian youth could be sent to the Russian army.
The boy and his lawyer asked the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, to intervene in the situation. "I, Bohdan Yermokhin, am on the territory of Russia and I am asking you, Volodymyr Oleksandrovich, to help me return home," says the video shared by Bohdanʼs lawyer, Kateryna Bobrovskaya.
On November 10, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said that Bohdan Yermokhin should be returned to Ukraine soon, and on November 19 it became known that Yermokhin is in Belarus and waiting to enter Ukraine.
- On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Presidentʼs Commissioner for Childrenʼs Rights. They are accused of directing the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, which is a war crime.