Yale University researchers have published a report stating that Russia is holding at least 6,000 Ukrainian children in dozens of special camps, writes Reuters.
“The main function of the camps seems to be political reeducation,” the researchers wrote. The actual figure could be much higher, the report elaborates.
The report says Yale University researchers have identified at least 43 camps and other institutions holding Ukrainian children that were part of a “large-scale systematic network” administered by Moscow since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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Those displaced include children with parents or those under family care, as well as those who are considered orphans by Russian authorities, who were in the care of Ukrainian state institutions before the invasion, or whose custody was uncertain due to the war, the researchers note.
The report cites the facts of how the Russian authorities prevent the return of children to Ukraine and their “re-education” so that they become pro-Russian. The authors of the document also give examples of the transfer of Ukrainian children for adoption to families in Russia.
According to one of the researchers, Nathaniel Raymond, the youngest child listed in the Russian program was only four months old, and in some camps, children as young as 14 received military training. The authors of the report, however, added that they found no evidence that these children later participated in hostilities.
Earlier, the head of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, said that Russia violates “fundamental principles for the protection of children” in wartime by issuing Russian passports to Ukrainian children and giving them up for adoption in Russia.
According to the Children’s Ombudsman of Ukraine Daria Gerasimchuk, about 14,000 children were illegally deported to Russia from the occupied territories of Ukraine, while only 125 children have been returned to the country so far.
Earlier, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on a simplified procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship by orphans from the “DPR”, “LPR” and Ukraine. The decree also applies to children left without parental care, and incapacitated persons – citizens of the “DNR”, “LNR” and Ukraine.
The Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War prohibits the transfer of children from the territory of hostilities to the territory of the aggressor state. They should be provided with humanitarian corridors to the safe zone of their home country or to a neutral country.
