Yale Experts: Up to 35,000 Ukrainian Children May Be Held in Russia or Occupied Territories

Up to 35,000 Ukrainian children remain missing and are believed to be held in Russia or Russian-occupied territories, according to new findings from Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, The Gaze reports, citing The Guardian.

The report, based on satellite imagery, Russian databases, official documents, and family testimonies, concludes that children have been systematically taken from care homes, evacuated without parental consent, or forcibly separated from families—sometimes directly from the battlefield. In some cases, children were promised brief stays at summer camps, only to be withheld indefinitely across the frontline.

“This is likely the largest child abduction in war since World War II – comparable to the Germanification of Polish children by the Nazis,” said Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab.

As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, thousands of children disappeared. Many are feared to have been subjected to forced Russification, including military training, ideological re-education, and adoption by Russian families under newly relaxed laws.

Testimonies from rescued children paint a harrowing picture. A nine-year-old described being punished for speaking Ukrainian and being forced to sing the Russian anthem and draw the Russian flag. Others recall being told that their parents would be punished if they did not comply with camp rules.

Human rights activists warn that once Ukrainian children are entered into Russia’s adoption or foster care system, recovering them becomes nearly impossible—especially in cases where the child has lost a parent or been orphaned in occupied territory.

The abductions are considered by many experts to constitute a war crime. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.

So far, just over 1,360 children have been returned to Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian organization Bring Kids Back. Behind each number is a dramatic rescue story, such as that of Natalia from Kherson, who traveled alone across multiple checkpoints and under shelling to recover her two teenage sons from a camp in Anapa, Russia.

Ukrainian evacuation specialists and child protection advocates stress that the return of abducted children remains a non-negotiable point in peace talks. “We are discussing territories – and our people, our children, are our territories,” said Ksenia, a volunteer with the charity Helping to Leave. “Russia doesn’t have any right to them.”

As The Gaze previously reported, the United States’ leading initiative tracking Russia’s systematic abduction of Ukrainian children faces shutdown after funding was cut by the Trump administration, raising fears that thousands of children may vanish without a trace.