Dmytro Lubinets, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, said on the air of the telethon that Qatar was an intermediary in the return of the deported Mariupol teenager Bohdan Yermokhin from Russia and is ready to expand its activities in the issue of the release of Ukrainians.
"Qatar wants to participate in the return of not only Ukrainian children, but also civilian hostages. I can already say about this, we had repeated communications. Qatar is already doing it," Lubinets said.
He added that the international organization UNICEF joined the process of release for the first time. The ombudsman is confident that the organization will also be involved in the future. He did not disclose the details of Yermokhinʼs return, but noted that it was Qatar and UNICEF that contributed to the teenagerʼs successful return.
- On November 19, the ombudsman, the Office of the President, Qatar and UNICEF returned 18-year-old Bohdan Yermokhin from Mariupol, who was deported to the Moscow Region, to Ukraine. He reached Ukraine through Belarus.
- The Russians took the boy out of occupied Mariupol in the spring of 2022. He was given to a foster family in 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. Then they handed him a summons and wanted to send him to the Russian army. The head of the Presidentʼs Office wrote that Yermokhin appealed to Volodymyr Zelenskyi for help.