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The orphaned from Ukraine, negotiations on which the return of which continues home, received a summons from the Russian military registration and enlistment office

The orphan Bogdan Ermokhin was brought to Russia from Mariupol. He tried to escape from the foster family near Moscow - he says that he wants to go home to Ukraine, where a guardian is waiting for him - a cousin. But in the apparatus of the Russian Ombudsman for children, they insist that all this is the machinations of the Ukrainian special services, but in fact Bogdan wants to live in Russia. The military registration and enlistment office has already sent a summons to the young man.

Bogdan lost his parents when he was 8 years old. According to his lawyer Katerina Bobrovskaya, Bogdan, Valeria, who issued guardianship this year, was only 16 years old. The boy at first grew up in the orphanage, then he entered the Mariupol school, where, according to Ukrainian laws, the director of the school became his guardian. After the beginning, his Bogdan lived in the besieged Mariupol for several days, and then the Russian military took him first to Donetsk, then to the Moscow Region.

Bogdan Ermokhin is part of the so -called Mariupol “List 31” - journalists managed to establish the names of the children from Mariupol, who, like Bogdan, ended up in Russia. Four of them have already returned home. Including thanks to Ukrainian volunteers who are engaged in the restoration of children's documents, search for guardians, contact Russian officials and agree on ways to return.

Six months of negotiations with the Russian authorities on Bogdan ended in nothing, so Katerina Bobrovskaya decided to publish her information.

“Bogdan himself came to me,” said Bobrovskaya Novaya Gazeta. - Children from the orphanage maintained contact with each other, exchanged information with those who managed to return. So Bogdan was my number. He contacted me and asked to help return to Ukraine.

At the end of May 2022, President Putin signed a decree that simplified the receipt of citizenship for Ukrainian children taken from the war zone. Having become a Russian citizen according to a simplified scheme, Bogdan in July of the same year was transferred to the custody of the famous activist from the Moscow Region Irina Rudnitskaya. She has long been involved in families with foster children. Rudnitskaya is well known in Ruza near Moscow: a doctor by education, during the Second Chechen War, she worked in a military hospital. It is also known that Irina Rudnitskaya is a long-standing ally of the Commissioner for the Protection of Children's Rights in the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova. The adoptive son of the children's ombudsman Philip - from Mariupol, she proudly tells about him in an interview. Philip Golovnya is also an orphan from List 31.

Once in Russia, Bogdan and Philip became the heroes of numerous propaganda plots in which they say how Ukrainian orphanes love Russia.

- A very positive boy, helped our military. Such directly pro -Russian, charged to victory. He helped us a lot as a volunteer. He was one of the curators of our first camp “The Day after Tower”, traveled as a senior counselor, worked there with children from new regions, says Filippe Lvov-Belov.

But not about Bogdan ...

As it turned out, Bogdan, according to the lawyer, allegedly tried several times to leave the foster family. In March 2023, he almost succeeded. Katerina Bobrovskaya, who, as a volunteer, represents the interests of Bogdan and his guardianship in negotiations, does not hide that she tried to help him in this.

Katerina Bobrovskaya:

- He always told me that he wanted to go home to Ukraine. In mid -March, we discussed how we would do it. But at some point he called me on the road and said: “Kat, I'm going. Without documents. " I jumped into the car and rushed to him from Germany. All his documents were in my hands, a passport, a power of attorney - everything that is required to move the child ...

They were detained almost simultaneously: Katerina in the western part of Belarus, Bogdan in the eastern. The lawyer does not want to talk about the details of the detention of Belarusian border guards, formal causes and consequences. But the fact: she returned to Germany, where she was with her family after February 2022, and continued to work. And these are hundreds of letters and appeals in the name of Russian officials, approval with the Ukrainian side, collecting documents ... She managed to find Bogdan Valery’s cousin in Kyiv, which became his guardian.

The Russian side has its own version of what happened. Lvova-Belyova is convinced that Bogdan became the victim of the Ukrainian special services, who tried to lure the boy to their homeland with deceit and blackmail.

“So, we will learn that he received threats regarding his sister.” The guy was taken fraudfully. We caught him on the border with Belarus. We have accurate data, [it] has several agents up to the detail: "Now you are getting into a white car, a driver is waiting for you there." They took money to him. It was such a systematic work. At the last moment, along with the power structures, he was stopped at the border, ”the Ombudsman told at a press conference in the Russian Foreign Ministry on April 4, 2023.

According to Lvovo-Belova, Ukrainian children are constantly coming offers to record a video about the desire to return to their homeland. The Ombudsman is convinced that these videos are recorded, because on the other side the Ukrainian special services threaten them to loved ones, and not because children really want to go home.

- It seems to me that it is very dishonest to speculate on the emotions of children, dishonestly threaten them to loved ones. As in the case of Bogdan, his older sister is an adult, is located in Ukraine. There should not be such situations. Such methods used by the Ukrainian side are unprovable for us, ”said the children's ombudsman of Russia.

The Russian side does not present any additional requirements for the guardian of Bogdan regarding the documents - the lawyer managed to fulfill all the requirements of Moscow.

But they do not give him away. Persistent. To all questions in the Ombudsman apparatus, in response, they wave with paper with the signature of Bogdan, where he writes that he does not intend to return to Ukraine and absolutely voluntarily wants to stay in the foster family in Russia, says Katerina Bobrovskaya. She claims that Bogdan allegedly signed the paper on the day when the Russian special services caught him on the border with Belarus.

The young man on the phone told the lawyer that after escaping the pressure on him in the foster family seemed to intensify. They stopped letting him go to college.

The lawyer contacted the educational institution and asked why the leadership is not interested in the systematic absence of Bogdan in the classroom. The answer struck her:

- They said they were afraid that the guy would run away, and therefore they do not react to the situation.

The Russian guardian of Bogdan, Irina Rudnitskaya, did not answer the questions of Novaya Gazeta.

Katerina Bobrovskaya suspects that her ward is forced to act against his will in Russia. So, in the summer, on the NTV channel, the PE program was published about the “Ukrainian special services”, in which the teenager confirms the version of the Russian side. Bobrovskaya does not believe in his sincerity.

“Bogdan has poor vision, the frame shows that the boy squints when he reads the text written for him,” the lawyer says. “But worse than that, he continues to demonstrate his pro -Ukrainian position on social networks.” In Russia now it is very dangerous. I am trying to explain to him, but this is a teenager, he does not understand many things yet.

Last year, Bogdan was already summoned to the military registration and enlistment office. According to Bobrovskaya, he passed the medical board.

And recently I received a new agenda that prescribes to appear at the military registration and enlistment office on November 19 - on his birthday, when he will be 18 years old.

Katerina Bobrovskaya:

- We had a meeting on October 23, which was attended by the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Tatyana Moskalkova, Bogdan, Irina Rudnitskaya and his guardian in Ukraine. Bogdan confirmed at all that he wants to return to Ukraine. Moskalkova heard this and personally promised everyone that the guy would be returned. After that, on November 2, representatives of the apparatus of the children's ombudsman of the Russian Federation regarding the reunification of Bogdan and the family contacted me. They asked to contact a certain Julia Fedina. I called to ask where, how and when we can pick up Bogdan. The answer was strange. I was told that the Ombudsman apparatus is engaged in children who have not reached the age of 18. Say, Bogdan is soon 18 years old, he will be able to come. I say that now he is not 18 more, what is the problem to convey to his guardian? I was again asked about documents and did not get in touch anymore.

The lawyer and native boy in Ukraine are worried that after November 19, Bogdan will be called to military service and then, in order to return home, he will have to violate the law of Russia, a citizen of which they made him.

The British journalist and director Shahida Tulyaganova, who shot and this fall introduced the film “Children of Ukraine”, recorded an interview with Lvova-Belova. For this, Tulyaganova specially flew to Moscow and personally met with the Ombudsman. She said to Novaya Gazeta that she asked Lviv-Beelov about the fate of Bogdan Ermokhin. In response, the Ombudsman, says Shahida Tulyaganov, showed the same paper with the signature of Bogdan, which Lviv-Belyova called the “irrefutable evidence” of the boy’s reluctance to return to Ukraine.

Last year, Lviv-Belova said that Russia “saved” at least 700 thousand Ukrainian children. She later clarified that it was a total number of children from Ukraine who entered Russia after February 24. And foster families in the Russian Federation found only for 380 children. In Moscow, they insist that no one interferes with their return to their homeland in the presence of official guardians. Kyiv claims that they know nothing at least about 19 thousand Ukrainian orphans. 386 children returned to Ukraine. Negotiations on their fate are conducted unofficially.

Direct speech

Maria Lvova-Belova:

“I really hope that Bogdan will go home” (from an interview with Radio Liberty*)

- We call you about Bogdan Ermokhin. <...> Why is it not released to Ukraine?

Maria Lvova-Belova: Why not let go? Release. <...>. We are ready to convey it. But according to all the rules - with documents, with everything. Because the boy is a minor, crossed the border with incomprehensible people [with Belarus]. And it is clear that as a responsible person I could not allow it. After that, Bogdan said that he did not want to go anywhere, wrote a receipt that he wants to stay in Russia. This is all documented. Naturally, I could not do this by force.

After that, a wave began, as if he was going to go again. And in general, the latest news is such that we contacted his sister, who should come to pick him up. Documents are drawn up now. Because the boy is a minor. You yourself perfectly understand that by all the rules it should be his guardian. Since now Bogdan really wants to return to his own sister, we, of course, are supporting all this. And in every way we contribute to this.

Today, an agreement has been reached on simplifying the procedure for documents with the Moscow region. And I really hope that next week a meeting will take place, and Bogdan will go home.

- Could you comment on the situation with the agenda? He will soon become an adult, and there is information that Bogdan ...

- This is only his information that he would be imprisoned, and that there will be a summons in the army. Firstly, he is a college student, this gives a delay from the army, and in principle, no agenda in the army can come under Russian law.

- So you do not confirm this information?

- Of course not. How can the agenda come to the army until adulthood? You hear yourself, no? While he is not 18 years old, no agenda ... Our children are not called into the army. No agenda can come.

Another moment: he studies at college, this gives him a delay, he will definitely not have any army under 18 years old.

“Could you orient us on the deadlines when you are going to return Bogdan to Ukraine to his guardian, sister?”

- My sister and I talked just yesterday. Now it all depends on her when he can come to Moscow, but we really hope that it will be next week. <...> Bogdan's sister is a citizen of Ukraine. And, accordingly, the package of documents that we work with the Ukrainian side is known for a long time.

Therefore, this is a long process. And it was precisely when Bogdan came to our meeting, we discussed that: “Bogdan, if you say now that you want to return, we begin to study a package of documents.” He replied: "No, I want to stay." And then he wrote a statement with his own hand that he wants to stay. <...>

- publicly Bogdan declares completely different. He says that he is a Ukrainian and wants to return home.

- Well, that's great. He will return home. I tell you about it now.

- That is, all the documents that are necessary for his return are ready?

- No, not ready. We are now negotiating with the guardianship of the Moscow region on an accelerated manner, which will allow us to pass Bogdan as quickly as possible. But this will not be the order that we have developed with the Ukrainian side for the duration of the reunification of children. In fact, we are all concessions so that Bogdan can reunite with his sister. As a sister yesterday explained why there was such a delay, why did nothing happen for so long, because she had a divorce, and Ukrainian custody, as I understand it, slowed down the process of paperwork.

From the editorial office
He does not mind the publication of personal data and the images of Bogdan.

* Baded by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the list of media “foreign agents”.