Russians issue summons to teenager taken from Mariupol

A 17-year-old Ukrainian teenager, Bohdan Yermokhin, who was taken to Russia from Mariupol in 2022 and put under guardianship, has been issued a summons to the military enlistment office.

Lawyer Kateryna Bobrovska, who calls herself the Bohdan's lawyer, told the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty project How Are You? Also, the boy's guardian in Russia reported this to the Russian service of the BBC.

In March 2023, Bohdan Yermokhin tried to escape from Russia to Ukraine, but Russian security forces stopped him near the Belarusian-Ukrainian border.

The lawyer says that Bohdan Yermokhin was ordered to report to a military enlistment office near Moscow in December 2023, when he will be 18 years old. She believes that he will most likely be sent to serve in the Russian army.

The woman who takes care of him in the Russian Federation says that he is being summoned to the military enlistment office to verify his data, not to be conscripted. Bohdan is a student, so he has a deferral. Irina Rudnitskaya claims that conscripts are not allegedly being sent to war.

Both Rudnitskaya and Bohdan Yermokhin's adoptive mother, with whom he lived before entering college, told the BBC separately that Yermokhin now has only a Russian passport.

 Ukraine, as well as international humanitarian law, does not recognise "passport issuance conducted by Russia on the basis of occupation". The guy remains a citizen of Ukraine, so any conscription of him to the Russian military enlistment office is illegal. Ombudsman Liubinets stated in April this year that the boy was a Ukrainian citizen.

Lawyer Bobrovska says Bohdan tried to escape from Russia. But all attempts were unsuccessful.

Earlier, the ombudsman reported that the boy has an official guardian in Ukraine — his cousin.

Bobrovska says that Bohdan's sister, as well as he himself, appealed to Dmytro Lubinets for help in returning the boy to Ukraine.

"Back in April-May (2023 — ed.), Bohdan Yermokhin himself sent a letter to the email address of our ombudsman asking for help in returning to Ukraine. Our Ombudsman wrote an official appeal to Tatyana Moskalkova (Russian Ombudsman — ed.). This call for help was also ignored. This is exactly why the boy fled and wanted to return unofficially. Russia simply ignored all the moments, did not provide an opportunity and showed by all its actions that you cannot return to Ukraine officially," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty cites the lawyer.

Kateryna Bobrovska also says that the boy is under pressure. In particular, the Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, forced Bohdan to write a statement that he does not want to return to the territory of Ukraine until he reaches the age of majority.

On October 24, Bohdan Yermokhin and his so-called foster Russian mother met with the Russian Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova. They called the boy's sister, Valeria, via video link. She was the one who informed Bobrovska's lawyer about this information.

"There was a lot of press there, they warned us that everything was being recorded. They asked the child: "Do you agree to go under the care of your sister in Ukraine?" Bohdan answered affirmatively: "Yes". Moskalkova, when she heard 'yes', said: "In this case, you should be released, transferred to guardianship, I will do everything to make it happen as soon as possible," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty writes citing the lawyer.

Bohdan Yermokhin's guardian and lawyer handed over all the documents to the Russian side, but the Russians did not want to release the child.

Bohdan Yermokhin is originally from Mariupol. According to his former teachers, he was orphaned at an early age. His parents died when Bohdan was about eight years old.

On September 1, 2021, Bohdan Yermokhin entered the institution's first year of his studies. He studied to become a car mechanic and lived in a student dormitory. That is where he met the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military.  

It is currently impossible to establish exactly how the minor Bohdan got to the Russians and who was directly responsible for this. All that is known is that the Russians took the boy from the temporarily occupied Mariupol together with 30 other underage Mariupol residents in the spring of 2022.