The Russian Federation held at least 6,000 Ukrainian children (probably many more) in Crimea and Russia for political re-education, Reuters writes, citing a report by the Humanitarian Research Laboratory at the Yale University School of Public Health as part of a State Department-supported project that examined human rights violations and war crimes reportedly committed by Russia.
The report said Yale University researchers had identified at least 43 camps and other facilities where Ukrainian children have been held that were part of a "large-scale systematic network" operated by Moscow since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The children included those with parents or clear familial guardianship, those Russia deemed orphans, others who were in the care of Ukrainian state institutions before the invasion and those whose custody was unclear or uncertain due to the war.
"The primary purpose of the camp facilities we've identified appears to be political re-education," Nathaniel Raymond, one of the researchers, said in a briefing to reporters.
“Some of the children were moved through the system and adopted by Russian families or moved into foster care in Russia.”
The youngest child identified in the Russian program was just four months old, and some camps were giving military training to children as young as 14 years. Raymond added that researchers had not found evidence those children were later deployed in combat.
"What is documented in this report is a clear violation of the 4th Geneva Convention," the agreement that protects civilians in wartime, said Raymond.
He said it could also be evidence that Russia has committed genocide during its war in Ukraine since the transfer of children for purposes of changing, altering or eliminating national identity can constitute a component act of the crime of genocide.
Yuriy Belousov, head of the Prosecutor General's Office's Department for Combating Crimes in the Context of Armed Conflict, said that the Russian occupiers forcibly deported more than 16,000 Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation during the war.