17-year-old Bogdan Ermokhin, whom the Russian military took from Mariupol to Russia in 2022, left for Belarus after he was given a summons to the military registration and enlistment office near Moscow. The teenager himself and his lawyer Ekaterina Bobrovskaya told Vestka about this.
According to the lawyer, Ermokhin is in the country with his sister Valeria Ermokhina.
To meet with a relative before Ermokhin comes of age today, the Russian authorities promised to take the Mariupol resident to a “third country.” At the same time, on November 13, the teenager claimed that he did not know the details of the upcoming trip.
As noted by “Layout”, at the beginning of the month Ermokhin, who performs rap under the pseudonym Dispo, appeared on the poster of a charity concert in Ukraine in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The organizers of the event confirmed to reporters that the teenager was expected in several cities. On November 17, Ermokhin announced the cancellation of performances and explained this by “certain circumstances.”
The teenager's parents died when he was eight years old. At the time of the invasion of Mariupol by the Russian army, Bogdan was studying at the local metallurgical college, and his legal representative was the director of the educational institution. Despite this, the Russian military took the teenager away and placed him in a foster family in the Moscow region. According to Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, Ermokhin was found “in the basements of Mariupol.”
In March 2023, he tried to escape to Ukraine, but Russian security forces stopped him near the border with Belarus. Lvova-Belova herself spoke about this at an April press conference for foreign journalists accredited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She insisted that they “tried to lure the teenager into the territory of Ukraine with the help of manipulations and threats.”
After Ermokhin’s sister appealed to Lvova-Belova and the Human Rights Commissioner in Russia Tatyana Moskalkova, the latter called the teenager to her and asked, whether he wants to return to his sister in Ukraine. He answered in the affirmative, they said “Grati”. However, later, according to Bobrovskaya, at a meeting with Lvova-Belova, Ermokhin “under duress and dictation” had to write that he “wants to stay in Russia.”