Overview of Yale HRL investigations into Russia's deportation, re-education, and placement of Ukraine's children.
medicine.yale.edu
March 17, 2025
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine includes a systematic campaign of forcibly moving children from Ukraine into Russia, fracturing their connection to Ukrainian language and heritage through “re-education,” and even disconnecting children from their Ukrainian identities through adoption. Children documented by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) range in age from four months to 17 years, and many have families looking for them in Ukraine.
-- More than 19,000 children from Ukraine have been deported to Russia. Only 1,236 children have been returned to Ukraine. The actual number of children remaining in Russia is likely significantly higher.
-- Yale HRL has identified more than 8,400 children from Ukraine who have been systematically relocated to at least 57 facilities––including 13 facilities in Belarus and 43 facilities in Russia and Russia-occupied territory.
-- Russia targeted vulnerable groups of children for deportation, including orphans, children with disabilities, children from low-income families, and children with parents in the military....