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A year and a half ago, young Bogdan was forcibly taken to Russia. He was able to return to Ukraine on Sunday, just before he was old enough to be drafted into the Russian army.
Published on November 21, 2023 12:48 p.m
Reading time: 2 minutes
A mother and her child on the streets of Mariupol, November 29, 2022 (illustrative photo). (STRINGER/AFP)
It’s a soap opera that has been keeping Ukraine in suspense for weeks: the return of Bodgan Yermokhine to the country. The orphan from Mariupol was forcibly deported to Russia by the Russian army in May 2022 along with 30 other children and young people and then placed with foster families for adoption. On Sunday, November 19, he was rescued at the last minute, just hours before his 18th birthday, when he was called to the Russian military recruiting office.
On November 9, Bogdan Iermokhine of Russia made a desperate appeal to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on social media: “I am on Russian territory and I ask you to take me home,” he pleaded. Because his homeland is Ukraine. Bogdan Iermokhin had never given up since he was forcibly taken from his orphanage in Mariupoul by the Russian army.
From Russia, he posted songs of praise for Ukraine on social networks. He tried to escape twice but was caught at the border each time. Contact was then made with a Ukrainian lawyer, Kateryna Bobrovskaya, who brought his fight to an end.
Mediation by Unicef and Qatar
The risk that Bogdan would be drafted into the Russian army on his 18th birthday in November and never be able to return drove the lawyer into turmoil. “He wanted to go back, it was a dream and it just came true,” she explains. This dream came true thanks to the extraordinary mobilization and mediation led by Unicef and Qatar.
According to Ukraine, more than 20,000 Ukrainian minors have been forcibly deported by Russia. These children would be placed in families for “Russification” and would lose all contact with Ukraine, even their identity. This very sophisticated operation earned Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights representative an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court. They are suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity.