The story of the Ukrainian orphan teenager from Mariupol was heard at the US Congress
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16-year-old Bohdan Yermokhin from Mariupol was deported to Russia by the occupiers in 2022. His lawyer Kateryna Bobrovska spoke during the Congress in Washington on April 19. She told the story of a teenager who is not released by a terrorist country, journalist and activist Maria Lebedeva reported. “A teenager named Bohdan approached me. He is a native of Mariupol. He was in Russia together with Roman (another deported boy), and he also got a new family. The adoptive family also took away his documents. Then he turned to come to me for help,” Kateryna Bobrovska began. Speech of a lawyer in the USA. Screenshot from the video recording. She noted that psychological pressure is being exerted on the boy. He really wanted to return to Ukraine and traveled more than 1,000 km to the border. Russian adoptive parents took Ukrainian documents from a teenager from Mariupol. Therefore, the Ukrainian side produced special papers for him, according to which he had to leave the territory of the aggressor country. However, the Russian special services did not release him. Special forces took the boy to the investigative committee for questioning, and then detained him. After that, Bohdan was also used for filming in propaganda stories on Russian television. “When I saw the footage shot with him, already after his arrest, I noticed significant changes. Dark circles under the eyes, a changed hairstyle. He had a haircut, as if for military service. Bohdan’s stories on Russian television did not correspond to reality. Probably Bohdan was intimidated, for him to say what the Russian authorities wanted,” the lawyer continues. Kateryna Bobrovska also had a case with another teenager, Roman, who was successfully brought home. “The similarity between the stories of Roman and Bohdan indicates the systematic nature and prevalence of these crimes in the temporarily occupied territories. It indicates a carefully planned operation to deport Ukrainian children,” Kateryna emphasized during the Congress. Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Russian Federation, stated that the teenager was left in the country despite an attempt to leave. He was detained at the border with Belarus. It is worth noting that Bohdan Yermokhin was an orphan at the time of the full-scale invasion. His legal representative was the director of the Mariupol college where the young man studied. However, the occupiers illegally transferred the teenager first to Donetsk, and then to the Moscow region, where he was transferred to a Russian family. Read also: “Mom, come for me.” How Ukrainian women return their deported children from the Russian Federation and Crimea
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