6,000 Kidnapped

From Stand With Ukraine’s Facebook:

REPORT!: Russia has held more than 6,000 children from Ukraine in 43+ camps and other facilities for systematic re-education, and in some cases foster/adoption from Black Sea to Russia’s Far East finds Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at Yale School of, Public Health (SPH)

More than 6,000 Ukrainian children were in Russia’s custody. Children from Ukraine aged four months to 17 years old have been held at camps and other facilities since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

The report documents Russia’s systematic relocation, re-education, and in some cases foster or adoption of Ukraine’s children.  These activities constitute alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity including Geneva Conventions & Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The network of facilities, primarily camps, but which also include a psychiatric hospital and a family center, stretch across 4,000 miles from the Black Sea to the eastern coast of the Pacific Ocean, including sites in Siberia and Magadan Oblast in Russia's Far East, a location 1,300 miles from Alaska and approximately 3, 900 miles from Ukraine’s border with Russia. There are at least 43 facilities in network. 12 camps around the Black Sea, 7 in occupied #Crimea, 10 clustered around Moscow, Kazan, and Yekaterinburg. 11 of the camps are located over 500 miles from Ukraine’s border, including two camps in Siberia and one in Russia’s Far East.

>3/4 of camp facilities appear engaged in pro-Russia re-education, including documented military training. 

~10% of camps suspended children’s return to their homes, including two locations where children’s returns appear to indefinitely suspended.

At least 32 (78%) of the camps engaged in systematic re-education efforts that exposed children from Ukraine to Russia-centric academic, cultural, patriotic, and/or military education. This shows clear attempts at Russification, as well as attempting to wipe out Ukrainian identity and culture.

Officials across all levels of Russia’s federal government and regional administrations are engaged in this systematic effort to re-educate and transfer children. At least 12 of these individuals are not on U.S. and/or international sanction lists at the time of this report. They need to be added to these sanction lists ASAP.

The children from Ukraine include those with known parents or guardians, purported orphans, children living in institutional facilities, many with documented disabilities, and children with unknown/unclear guardianship status. 

Two camps hosted children alleged to be orphans who were later placed with foster families and enrolled in local schools in Russia. Twenty children from these camps were reported to have been placed with families in Moscow oblast and enrolled in local schools there.

At two camps, Artek and Medvezhonok, children’s returns were suspended indefinitely according to parents. Medvezhonok is one of the largest camps identified, at one point hosting at least 300 children from Ukraine.

Intentionally separating children from their parents, even temporarily, can constitute a war crime and, in some cases, a crime against humanity,” said Kaveh Khoshnood, faculty director HRL Yale SPH.

“Parents have reported signing power of attorney for their child to an unknown entity & being unable to contact their children or camp administrators. In several cases, the scheduled return of these children to their families has been indefinitely delayed or cancelled.”  It is unknown how many of Ukraine’s children Russia currently holds and how many have been released to their families.

“Russia's actions are an urgent human rights and child welfare emergency,” stated Khoshnood. “This report is the first comprehensive effort to document this disturbing and allegedly illegal pattern of child separation, indoctrination, and forced adoption.” 

In this thread we will highlight further information on this report funded by the U.S. State Department highlighting horrific abuse of Ukranian children by Russia. We will also highlight other examples of the abuse of Ukranian children in this thread.