Russia holds 35,000 abducted Ukrainian children — Yale research
Russian authorities may be hosting as many as 35,000 children abducted from occupied Ukrainian territory, according to the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), ran under the auspices of the Yale School of Public Health.
The Guardian cited HRL’s research in an article published on June 27.
Experts believe some children have been illegally adopted by Russian families, transferred to “youth military camps,” or placed in boarding schools, forcing desperate Ukrainian parents to travel to Russia in search of their kids.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russian occupation forces have been removing Ukrainian children en masse. The children include those from boarding schools as well as those who were orphaned or were forcibly taken from their families.
One such case is the story of Natalia from Kherson. In February 2023, Natalia returned two of her teenage sons from Russia on her own. When Kherson was under Russian occupation in 2022, “officials” advised her to send her children to a camp in Anapa, Russia’s Krasnodar Krai, for 21 days. When Kherson was liberated, the children were not sent home. With help from a Ukrainian organization, Natalia obtained the necessary documents and made a long journey through checkpoints to reunite with her sons.
The initiative Bring Kids Back has so far helped return 1,366 children, though researchers estimate that tens of thousands may still be illegally held in Russia or on occupied territories.
The HRL identified the abducted children through an analysis of databases, family ties, official documents, and satellite images. HRL director Nathaniel Raymond described the kidnappings as potentially one of the biggest crimes against children since World War II.
“This is likely the largest child abduction in war since WWII—comparable to the Germanification of Polish children by the Nazis,” he said.
“Taking a child from one ethnic or national group and making them part of another ethnic or national group – that’s a war crime.”
Raymond added that the kidnappings serve a political purpose, with the children being used as bargaining chips to influence Ukraine’s position in negotiations.
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