The Ukrainian teenager Bohdan Yermokhin, deported by the occupiers, who asked President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to bring him home from Russia the day before, will soon be in Ukraine, Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets says.
"Bohdan Yermokhin will be in Ukraine soon! I can officially confirm that we have agreed to return Bohdan to Ukraine and reunite him with his sister. I ask everyone to calm down, and most importantly, not to spread unverified information. Such publicity harms the return process," Lubinets wrote.
For its part, DW reported that the Russian so-called "children's ombudsman" Maria Lvova-Belova said that Bohdan Yermokhin would be allowed to leave Russia and travel to a third country, where he would be able to meet his cousin Valeria, who is his legal guardian.
17-year-old Bohdan Yermokhin, who was recently abducted by Russians, asked Zelenskyy to return him to Ukraine. The boy's lawyer asked the president for "personal control".
The boy, who will turn 18 on 19 November, was served with a summons to the military commissariat in Russia.
Since July 2022, Yermokhin has made several unsuccessful attempts to return to Ukraine. The occupiers issued him a Russian passport.
In July, Ukrainian journalists released an investigative film, The List of 31. It describes how in the spring of 2022, the Russian army, together with collaborators from ORDLO, deported 31 Ukrainian children to Russia and placed them in "new families". Bohdan Yermokhin was among them.