KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — An orphaned Ukrainian teenager who was taken to Russia last year because of his country’s war has returned home after reuniting with relatives in Belarus on his 18th birthday.
Bohdan Ermokhin photographed kissing members of a family circle in Minsk in photographs shared on social media by Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
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Andrii Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, showed that Yermokhin had returned to Ukraine and shared a photo of himself with a Ukrainian flag. Yermak thanked UNICEF and Qatari negotiators for facilitating Yermokhin’s return.
Ermokhin’s parents died two years ago, before Russia invaded Ukraine. At the start of the war, he was taken from the port city of Mariupol, where he lived with a cousin whom his legal guardian placed with a circle of adoptive relatives in Moscow. region and was granted Russian citizenship, according to Ukrainian lawyer Kateryna Bobrovska.
Bobrovska, who represents the young man and his 26-year-old cousin, Valeria Yermokhina, told The Associated Press in the past that Ermokhin had continually expressed a preference for returning home and had spoken daily about “going to Ukraine, with his relatives. “.
Ermokhin among the thousands of young Ukrainians brought to Russia from the occupied regions of Ukraine. The practice led the International Criminal Court in March to charge Russian President Vladimir Putin and children’s rights advocate Lvova-Belova with committing war crimes.
The court in The Hague, Netherlands, issued arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova, saying it found “reasonable grounds to believe” that the two were guilty of the deportation and illegal transfer of young people from Ukraine.
The Kremlin has declared those mandates null and void. Lvova-Belova claimed that the youths were taken to Russia for protection and not kidnapped, a claim widely rejected by the foreign community. However, the Ombudsman for the Rights of the Child announced in an online post on November 10 that Ermokhin would be allowed to return to Ukraine via a third country.
The teen reportedly attempted to return home alone earlier this year. Lvova-Belova told reporters in April that the Russian government arrested Yerkmohin near the Russian-Belarusian border as he was on his way to Ukraine. The mediator argued that he was taken there “under false pretenses. “
Before he was allowed to leave Russia, lawyer Bobrovska described Ermokhin’s pressing desire to return to Ukraine before his 18th birthday, when he could be called up for the Russian army. The young man had earned two official summonses to report to a military enlistment workplace in Russia, even though officials later said he was summoned only for record-keeping purposes.
Last month, Ukrainian human rights defender Dmytro Lubinets said on his Telegram channel that a total of 386 young people had been returned to Ukraine from Russia. “Ukraine will work until everyone returns to their homeland,” Lubinets emphasized.
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Find more at https://apnews. com/hub/russia-ukraine
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