Bohdan Yermokhin, a 17-year-old Ukrainian who was taken to Russia last year from the southern city of Mariupol, will be returned to Ukraine following an agreement between the two countries, a top official in Kyiv said on November 10.
"Bohdan Yermokhin will soon be in Ukraine! I officially confirm that there are agreements on Bohdan's return to Ukraine and his reunification with [family]," Ukrainian Ombudsman Bohdan Lubinets said on social media.
Aleksei Venediktov, a prominent and well-connected Russian journalist, quoted Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova as saying an agreement was reached to allow Yermokhin to meet his cousin in a third country on November 19, the day he turns 18.
Earlier this week, Yermokhin's lawyer and his guardian in Russia said a Military Commissariat had sent a letter to Yermokhin informing him he must register for military service.
According to Russian law, Yermokhin -- who takes a pro-Ukrainian position and has stated he wants to go home -- may be subject to conscription into the army after he turns 18.
But it was not clear he would be required to serve because he is a college student and has a deferment.
Lvova-Belova told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service earlier that Yermokhin was not in danger of being drafted because of the deferment.
However, Yermokhin's Ukrainian lawyer, Kateryna Bobrovska, said Yermokhin met with Lvova-Belova in late August and was forced to write a statement saying he wants to stay in Russia until he comes of age.
On November 10, Bobrovska posted a video on Facebook in which Yermokhin asks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to "help me to return home."
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.
Ukraine views Yermokhin as a Ukrainian citizen and maintains that any attempt to draft him by the Russian Military Commissariat is illegal.
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.”