The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow has decided to arrest Iryna Rudnytska – a clinical psychologist and head of the Interregional Public Organization for the Protection of Family Values – in a detention center. This decision was made as part of the investigation into a criminal case regarding child trafficking.
This is reported by Kyiv24
Case Circumstances and Additional Figures
Iryna Rudnytska is accused under the article concerning the trafficking of two or more children. Along with her, two other individuals have also been arrested in this case: Abdurakhmanov and Mala. According to information published in Russian media, one of the detainees is an entrepreneur from the Moscow region, while the other is a mother whose child may have ended up in a new family as a result of illegal actions.
Iryna Rudnytska is also known as an “associate” of the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. The latter is under an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court due to her involvement in the forcible removal of Ukrainian children to Russia in 2023.
Guardianship over Bohdan Yermokhin and Other Details
Rudnytska was appointed as the guardian of 17-year-old Ukrainian orphan Bohdan Yermokhin, who was taken from Mariupol after the invasion of Russian troops into the city. According to Ukrainian law, the teenager had a close relative in Ukraine – a cousin; however, after the occupation, the Russian authorities illegally appointed a new guardian for him. Yermokhin, whose parents died when he was only eight years old, attempted to escape from his foster family in March 2023 but was detained near the border with Ukraine and Belarus.
After turning 18 and receiving a summons to the Russian military enlistment office for December 2023, Bohdan recorded a public appeal to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, asking to be returned to his homeland. He eventually managed to return to Ukraine.
The criminal proceedings against Rudnytska were opened in late August 2025. According to court documents, at the time of her arrest, she was responsible for 12 children aged between three and 17, including a girl who was taken from the occupied territories of Ukraine in 2022.
The defendant’s lawyer stated that they would appeal her arrest and requested the court to choose a preventive measure not related to isolation from society “for the sake of the children.”
Under the child trafficking article, Iryna Rudnytska faces up to 10 years in prison, as well as a ban on working with children for up to 15 years.