Study Shows “Unprecedented” Expansion of Camps Holding Ukrainian Children in Russia

According to a new study by Yale University, the number of places where Ukrainian children are being held in Russia has risen sharply, with more than 210 locations identified for their re-education and militarization.

The Gaze reports on it, referring to Reuters.

The most recent report from Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), which relies on open-source data and satellite imagery, indicates that about half of these facilities are run by the Russian government. 

According to the study, this “represents the highest number of locations to which children from Ukraine have been taken that has been published to date.” 

Researchers added that “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.”

These places include cadet schools, military bases, sanatoriums, religious sites, and universities. Almost half of these institutions are under the direct control of the Russian government.

Ukraine claims that since the start of the full-scale war, Russia has deported or forcibly relocated at least 19,500 children, while Yale University estimates the number to be closer to 35,000.

According to the report, children aged 8 to 18 were held in military training conditions, ranging from drill parades and tactical exercises to drone assembly and shooting competitions. Children were subjected to militarization in at least 39 locations, most of which were only recently discovered.

Researchers have called this system of forced re-education and military training “potentially unprecedented” in scale.

Back in 2023, Yale reported 6,000 children in 43 camps, and it was this data that formed the basis for the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. Now, the network of such facilities has grown significantly.

Although Russia denies the violent nature of the deportations, claiming “evacuation from combat zones,” international research and satellite data prove otherwise.

Ukraine reports that, through the efforts of international organizations and its own structures, it has managed to return more than 1,600 children.

However, as HRL Director Nathaniel Raymond emphasized, a real solution to this problem depends on a unified global response.

"The good news is we now know the scope of what we're dealing with fully," he said. "The bad news is that addressing it, bringing these kids home, depends on absolute total global unity."

As The Gaze informed earlier, the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (HUR) has published information about seven individuals and three organizations involved in the militarization of Ukrainian children in temporarily occupied territories, as well as in the illegal placement of these children in Russian families.