Russia has detained at least 6,000 Ukrainian children in camps and other facilities, according to US research. These facilities seem to be mainly aimed at political re-education. “The locations would be part of a large-scale network controlled by the government,” the researchers report.
The report comes from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which receives government funding to investigate alleged war crimes and human rights violations by Russia. Researchers at the prestigious Yale University say they have identified at least 43 camps and other facilities across Russia and areas under Russian control. The researchers mainly rely on satellite images and public information.
Some of the children have parents or relatives as guardians, while others, according to Russia, are orphans. “In some cases it’s adoption, in other cases it’s summer camp programs after which the kids never returned home,” said Caitlin Howarth, director of the Yale lab, “Sometimes it’s clearly re-education camps, too.” Some teenagers are said to have even had military training, although there is no evidence that they served in the war.
“Humanitarian project”
Russian officials do not deny there are Ukrainian children in Russia, but insist the camps are part of a “major humanitarian project” for traumatized orphans. Its existence was confirmed in social media posts by the Russian government aimed at a Russian audience. However, Russia does not say how many children there are in Russia or where they are housed.
“The first shipments of children took place in early February 2022. This concerned a group of 500 alleged orphans who were ‘evacuated’ by Russia from Donetsk. The reason publicly given at the time was the perceived threat of an offensive by the Ukrainian armed forces,” the report said.
War crime
Russian officials insist that adoption is only allowed for orphans, though the evidence gathered suggests otherwise. “The Yale report verified that 37 Ukrainian children were returned to their families,” said researcher Nathaniel Raymond. The investigation team argues that Russia may be responsible for a war crime. “It is about detaining and monitoring thousands of Ukrainian children without permission.” Ukraine itself says Russia has deported nearly 15,000 children.
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