Russian Children's Commissioner says orphan from Mariupol who wanted to go home was not allowed to leave Russia

Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian President's Commissioner for Children's Rights, has stated that the Russian secret services were able to stop a child from Mariupol who was on his way back to his homeland at the border with Belarus.

Source: Russian media outlet Sota, citing a joint briefing by Lvova-Belova together with Maria Zakharova, Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Details: Reportedly the first journalist to ask a question was from the Rossiya (Russia) TV channel. He mentioned Bohdan Yermokhin, an orphan from Mariupol whom the Russian occupiers had taken first to Donetsk and then to a foster family in the suburbs of Moscow.

The journalist said attempts had been made to get the boy back to Ukraine, where his sister is now, allegedly "using threats and manipulations".

Lvova-Belova claimed that Yermokhin is good friends with another boy from Mariupol, Filip, who was taken from Ukraine by the occupiers and whom she has "adopted" herself.

The children supposedly met in a camp where the Russian invaders placed deported children.

The commissioner said that Yermokhin himself is "pro-Russian" and stated that "Ukrainian handlers" had written to him suggesting that he make a video about how bad he feels being in Russia. Later, according to Lvova-Belova, he even tried to leave Russia through Belarus, allegedly "after being persuaded by the same handlers", but he was stopped by the secret services.

The Russian Children's Commissioner also added that Russian families who take in deported Ukrainian children receive threats and promises to take the abducted children back home.

Background:

• On 17 March, per the court's press service, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova. The latter is the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights.
• Putin and Lvova-Belova are suspected of committing the war crime of illegally deporting children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, which has been going on since at least 24 February 2022.
• According to Lvova-Belova, as far back as October 2022, up to 2,000 orphans from social institutions had been taken to Russia, and 350 children from Donbas had already been placed in "foster families" in 16 oblasts of Russia.
• The Ukrainian side has recorded the deportation of 16,221 children.

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