Russia’s federal government has systematically relocated at least 6,000 children from Ukraine to a network of re-education and adoption facilities in the annexed Crimea peninsula and mainland Russia, Conflict Observatory says in a report.
The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) identified 43 facilities involved in holding children from Ukraine since Russia’s 24 February 2022 invasion.
Camp locations / Yale HRL
The majority are recreational camps where children are taken for ostensible vacations, while others are facilities used to house children put up for foster care or adoption in Russia. Among the camps, 12 are clustered around the Black Sea, 7 are in occupied Crimea, and 10 are clustered around the cities of Moscow, Kazan, and Yekaterinburg, as well as two camps in Siberia and one in Russia’s Far East.
At least 32 (78%) of the camps identified by Yale HRL appear engaged in systematic re-education efforts that expose children from Ukraine to Russia-centric academic, cultural, patriotic, and/or military education.
Yale HRL has collected information about at least 6,000 children from Ukraine ages four months to 17 years who have been held at camps and other facilities since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The total number of children is not known and is likely significantly higher than 6,000.
Сhildren's experiences within the camp system / Yale HRL
“Medvezhonok is one of the largest camps identified, at one point hosting at least 300 children from Ukraine. Officials there originally told the children’s parents they would return at the end of summer, but later rescinded the date of return,” reads the report.
Parents also described being unable to get information about their children’s status or whereabouts after their return has been suspended.
This operation is centrally coordinated by Russia’s federal government and involves every level of government, Yale HRL believes. At least 12 officials involved in it are not on US or international sanction lists so far.
“This report explores evidence indicating potential violations of international law. The Fourth Geneva Convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both of which Russia is a state party to, provide legal guidelines for the treatment of children who have been separated from their families during times of war. Violations of initial consent, the forcible transfer of children, and the failure to return children to their parents all constitute potential violations of international humanitarian and human rights law,” the report reads.
On 18 January, Daria Herasimchuk, Ukraine’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, reported verifying identities of at least 13,899 children who were abducted and deported by the Russian army.
A total of 128 children displaced to Russia previously were returned to Ukraine, as per Yulia Usenko of the Prosecutor General’s office.
