\n A Ukrainian orphan from Mariupol, who was taken to Russia after it captured the port city last year, will be returned to Ukraine in a rare deal between Kyiv and Moscow, they announced Friday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Kremlin has been accused of illegally transferring thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking President Vladimir Putin's arrest over alleged deportations.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bogdan Yermokhin, 17, was taken by Russian forces from Mariupol to Russia last spring and -- like an unknown number of other Ukrainian children -- placed in a Russian foster family.\n<\/p>\n
\n Moscow said earlier this year that he had tried to escape back to Ukraine but was stopped near the Belarus border.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Bogdan Yermokhin will soon be in Ukraine!\" Ukraine's rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets wrote on social media Friday.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I officially confirm that we have agreements on Bogdan's return to Ukraine, and his reunification with his sister.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The news came after his lawyers told Ukrainian media this week that Moscow had sent Yermokhin -- given Russian citizenship while in Russia -- military call up papers, ahead of his 18th birthday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Moscow confirmed Yermokhin will be returned to Ukraine.\n<\/p>\n
\n Its children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova Belova -- also wanted by the ICC -- said Friday that the teenager will leave Russia via a third country to meet a relative.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The Russian and Ukrainian sides worked on and agreed on a decision on a meeting between Bogdan and his sister in a third country on his birthday,\" she said on social media, without specifying the location.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lvova-Belova had said several times this year that Yermokhin wanted to stay in Russia and was being harassed by Ukrainian officials to return.\n<\/p>\n
\n But she said Friday that Yermokhin had \"changed his mind\".\n<\/p>\n
\n She also said it was normal that he had received summons to appear at a military enlistment office.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Such notices are given to all Russian citizens of his age,\" she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ukraine gave no timeline for when Yermokhin would be returned to Ukraine.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thousands of Ukrainian children are believed to have been taken to Russia during its invasion.\n<\/p>\n
\n Last month, Russia said it would return four Ukrainian children to their relatives after mediation by Qatar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Ukrainian orphan from Mariupol, who was taken to Russia after it captured the port city last year, will be returned to Ukraine in a rare deal between Kyiv and Moscow, they announced Friday. The Kremlin has been accused of illegally transferring thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-124620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n