ROME, Nov 21 Transfer of a teenager to Ukraine Bogdan Ermokhin, taken from Mariupol, took place through the mediation of Pope Francis' envoy to Ukraine, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the Catholic newspaper Avvenire reported on Monday.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, Tatyana Moskalkova, reported that Ermokhin was handed over to his sister from Ukraine in Minsk. She expressed the hope that the Ukrainian side will also help in reuniting Russian children and adults with their relatives in Russia.
According to the Italian publication, in addition to the Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets, the situation with the teenager was dealt with by the Holy See, which, as stated by the Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine Monsignor Visvaldas Kulbokas, reported Ermokhin to “the Russian authorities based on the results of the Zuppi mission”, who visited Moscow in the summer and Kiev.
The visits of the papal envoy to Russia and Ukraine, and then to the USA and China, “made it possible to insist on the need to develop a mechanism for the return of Ukrainian children,” writes Avvenire.
«Currently, thanks to the work of various organizations, about 500 minors have been returned to Ukraine. Bogdan's return home was perceived in Ukraine as a sign of concrete hope, while work continues to return dozens more children,» the article says. The publication cites a statement from the Vatican ambassador in Kyiv, who said that the Russian authorities invited the apostolic nuncio in Moscow to the airport to be present at Ermokhin’s flight. According to Kulbokas, this shows that «Russian authorities have also given the Holy See a role in the boy's repatriation.»
As the newspaper la Stampa reported in this regard, the transfer of Ermokhin to Ukraine suggests that “between Kiev and Moscow there is a “mechanism” for the repatriation of minor Ukrainians, “initiated thanks to the good wishes of Zuppi.” “This mechanism, about which the parties have never spoken publicly before, it is beginning to produce results,” the publication said.