Russia's Military Commissariat has sent a letter to a 17-year-old boy who was taken to Russia last year from the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol informing him that he must register for military service, a lawyer for the teenager and his guardian in Russia said.
Bohdan Yermokhin, who was placed under guardianship in Russia after being taken from Mariupol, received the letter from the Military Commissariat, said lawyer Kateryna Bobrovska, who says she represents Yermokhin in Ukraine.
Irina Rudnytskaya, Yermokhin's official guardian in Russia, also confirmed the information to the BBC.
Yermokhin, who takes a pro-Ukrainian position and wants to go home, will soon turn 18 and, according to Russian law, may be subject to conscription into the army. But it is not clear that he would be required to serve because he is a college student and has a deferment.
The commissioner for children's rights in Russia, Maria Lvova-Belova, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that Yermokhin is not in danger of being drafted because of the deferment.
She also said that the teenager could return to Ukraine if he wished, adding that his sister is to pick him up next week. According to Lvova-Belova, documents for his departure are being prepared.
Bobrovska, however, said Yermokhin was received by Lvova-Belova in late August and was forced to write a statement that he wants to stay in Russia until he comes of age.
Bobrovska said that after Yermokhin's 18th birthday in December he may be drafted into the Russian armed forces.
"Most likely, he will be sent to serve in the Russian Army," Bobrovska said.
Yermokhin, who lost both parents a few years ago, lived with a foster family in Mariupol, where he studied at the Mariupol Higher Metallurgical Vocational School.
Shortly after the city was occupied by Russian troops in 2022, Yermokhin was taken to Russia and transferred to a foster family in the Moscow region.
Both Rudnytskaya and Yermokhin’s adoptive mother, whose family raised the boy before he entered college, independently told the BBC that Yermokhin currently has only a Russian passport. This allows the Russian state to consider him for the draft. However, international humanitarian law does not recognize "passporting carried out by Russia, based on the fact of occupation."
Ukraine views Yermokhin as a Ukrainian citizen and any attempt to draft him by the Russian Military Commissariat as illegal.
Yermokhin has repeatedly stated that he wants to return to Ukraine. In March, he tried to escape to Ukraine through Belarus but was caught by Russian security forces near the border and detained. Russian authorities said that as a minor he could not decide for himself where to live.
Lvova-Belova, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague along with Russian President Vladimir Putin for their roles in the deportation of Ukrainian children, insisted that what happened was a provocation and that Yermokhin was lured to the territory of Ukraine “with the help of manipulation and threats."
He has not commented on the incident but has expressed his support for Ukraine on social media.
“I just want to go home…. When a shell flies, my hatred for the enemy flies in response. And with every tear of Ukrainians it intensifies.”