Overview

• Bohdan Yermokhin, an orphaned Ukrainian teenager who was taken to Russia from Mariupol by Russian forces during the war, has returned home to Ukraine.
• Yermokhin's return was facilitated by UNICEF, Qatari negotiators, and officials in Moscow, Kyiv, and Belarus.
• Yermokhin is one of an estimated 20,000 Ukrainian children who have been forcibly taken to Russia since the invasion, a practice deemed a war crime by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
• Before his return, Yermokhin had received a draft summons for mandatory military conscription in Russia, which was expected to be enforced upon his 18th birthday.
• Of the 20,000 Ukrainian children taken to Russia, around 400 have been returned so far.