Ukrainian teen may be forced into the Russian army

A 17-year-old Ukrainian who was moved from Ukraine to Russia is facing the prospect of being conscripted into the army fighting against the country of his birth.

Bogdan Yermokhin, originally from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, tried to return to Ukraine in March but was stopped by Russian border guards.

He has now been ordered to report to a Moscow region draft centre next month, after he turns 18.

The teenager was orphaned in 2014 and before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine he lived with a foster family in the port city of Mariupol. The director of a technical college where he was studying became his legal guardian in 2021.

In 2022, Mariupol was seized by Russian forces after one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and Bogdan ended up in Russia. It remains unclear how or why he was moved.

Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, said he was among Ukrainian children “found in cellars” by Russian soldiers, during their brutal siege on the city.

Ukraine has accused Russia of illegally deporting Ukrainian children to Russia, a potential war crime. Kyiv has produced a list of nearly 20,000 children whose identities have been established and whom it says have been forcefully transferred. Ukraine believes the true number could be far higher.

Moscow rejects the accusations and says the children were taken into Russian territory for their own safety.

But in March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Ms Lvova-Belova and President Vladimir Putin. The ICC said Russia’s aim was “permanently removing these children from their own country.”

Bogdan Yermokhin was transferred first to the city of Donetsk in Russian-occupied Ukraine and later to a youth summer camp in the Moscow region with a group of 30 Ukrainian children, including one boy fostered by the children’s rights commissioner herself.

The teenager was eventually put in the care of a local foster family and given Russian documents. He entered a college in Russia to continue his studies and Ms Lvova-Belova also claimed that he worked in summer camp aiming to “integrate” teenagers from Russian-occupied Ukraine.

But in addition to his Russian documents, Bogdan Yermokhin has recently received Russian call-up papers.

This was confirmed to the BBC by Irina Rudnitskaya, who became his legal guardian in Russia in 2022.

If enforced, he could end up in the Russian army, although Ms Rudnitskaya believes he is not at risk.

“He is a student,” she said, adding that new recruits “new recruits do not take part in the Special Military Operation” – using Russia’s official term for its full-scale war in Ukraine.

While Russian authorities have frequently insisted that new recruits are not sent to the front line, the BBC has established on multiple occasions that this has in fact happened.

In April 2023, Maria Lvova-Belova announced at a press-conference that Bogdan Yermokhin had tried to return to Ukraine on his own.

She said that Russian border guards had managed to stop him.

“We caught him on the border with Belarus,” she announced. “We managed to stop him at the last minute.”

Both the Russian children’s commissioner and journalists from Russian state TV were adamant the teenager had been “deceived by manipulation and threats” and they accused Ukrainian authorities of trying to lure him back to Ukraine.

“A very positive boy, he had helped our military, he was so pro-Russian,” Ms Lvova-Belova declared.

Before his failed attempt, at least one other Ukrainian teenager from Mariupol placed in a Russian foster family succeeded in returning to Ukraine.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmitry Lubinets, said the boy, who he named Serhiy, had sought help online from Ukrainian chat bots in December 2022..

Bogdan Yermokhin was also active on social media, but he stopped posting under his name in March, at around the time of his attempt to leave Russia.

The woman who fostered him, Irina Rudnitskaya, is a foster care activist in the Moscow region and local media say she has raised at least 12 children and received medals for her work.

Russian authorities, at least at the beginning, preferred to place Ukrainian children in foster families with some experience, the BBC understands.

Both Bogdan’s Russian foster family and his former Ukrainian guardians have confirmed to the BBC that Russian authorities now consider him a Russian citizen. That means under Russian law he is obliged to serve in the army.

But under international law issuing documents in occupied territories is illegal and Ukraine condemns the practice. This became one of the grounds for the ICC’s arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova.

As far as Ukraine and the rest of the international community is concerned, Bogdan Yermokhin remains a Ukrainian citizen, and the Russian military summons is illegal.

Irina Rudnitskaya says he is studying at a college near Moscow and receives a scholarship as we;; as having a flat to live in “as an orphan”.

Under Russian law orphans are entitled to accommodation, although adult orphans in reality spend years on waiting lists or take their cases to court.

Earlier this year the Russian children’s commissioner denied authorities were engaged in any illegal activity.

Russia also denies it impedes the return of minors to Ukraine. However, its authorities insist only mothers or other close relatives make their way to Russia in person to take their children back to Ukraine.

In many cases this is impossible, particularly when a child is orphaned or if relatives are not in a position to travel.

Bogdan Yermokhin has not spoken to independent media, and the BBC has been unable to independently verify what he plans to do when he turns 18.

But as an adult, he will then be released from his guardian’s legal care and have more opportunity to talk.