Researchers identify over 200 Russian ‘re-education’ sites for abducted Ukrainian children

Researchers at Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) have identified over 210 special sites within Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine where Ukrainian minors are being subjected to indoctrination and forced military training, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

While 54 of the sites have appeared in previous HRL reports, the researchers have revealed the existence of 156 sites for the first time. “The actual number is likely higher, as there are multiple sites still under investigation by HRL and additional locations may exist that have not yet been identified,” the report said.

“Russia is operating a potentially unprecedented system of large-scale re-education, military training, and dormitory facilities capable of holding tens of thousands of children from Ukraine for long periods of time,” Reuters quoted the researchers as saying.

At most of these sites, Ukrainian children are indoctrinated in ideas and values prescribed by the Russian authorities. Minors are forcibly sent to compulsory military programmes, which include combat training, ceremonial parades and military exercises, drone assembly, and the study of military history, the research established.

“The good news is we now know the scope of what we’re dealing with fully,” Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of HRL, told Reuters. “The bad news is that addressing it, bringing these kids home, depends on absolute total global unity.”

In March, the US State Department stopped its funding for the HRL project tracking deported Ukrainian children. As The Washington Post wrote at the time, this led to researchers losing “access to a trove of information, including satellite imagery and biometric data tracking the identities and locations of as many as 35,000 children from Ukraine”.

Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said in May 2024 that Russia had abducted over 19,000 children since the start of the war, only 1,564 of whom had been returned to Ukraine as of late last month. On Monday, Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said that Russia had handed over another 16 children to the Ukrainian authorities.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of overseeing the illegal deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine.