Researchers at the University of Yale published evidence on Tuesday that Russia has trafficked Ukrainian children to at least 210 facilities across Russia and Ukraine’s occupied territories since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) has been tracking the location of 35,000 or more Ukrainian children abducted by Russia since the full-scale war began.
The report, “Ukraine’s Stolen Children: Inside Russia’s Network of Re-Education and Militarization,” used publicly available data along with satellite imaging to identify and corroborate claims that children were being held at each of the 210 sites.
HRL found that the nature of the facilities varied significantly – from medical facilities and religious institutions to cadet schools and military bases.
At 39 or more of the 210 facilities, researchers found evidence that children were subjected to re-education and militarization programs – including, in some cases, the production of military equipment such as drones for Russia’s forces.
This is not the first time that Russia has been linked to the militarization of children – recruiting from Kyrgyz and Uzbek schools to staff drone manufacturing plants in southern Russia.
Genocide scholar Kristina Hook previously told the Kyiv Post that the mass abduction of Ukrainian children makes for a strong case that Russia is committing “the crime of crimes.”
“Millions of Russians are involved in this machinery of terror, including the mass kidnapping of Ukrainian children. Every day, we see a level of radicalization and cruelty that only makes sense if the goal is national extermination,” Hook said.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in 2023 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, for their involvement – which constitutes a war crime.
At least five independent sources corroborating the presence of Ukrainian children at a facility were required for that facility to be included in the HRL report.
The HRL also identified an unspecified number of sites where four independent sources corroborated the presence of children. Although they failed to meet the threshold for inclusion in this report, these facilities remain under investigation.
Since US President Donald Trump slashed his government’s aid budget earlier this year, however, the HRL has become dependent on private donations to keep their doors open.
The Kyiv Post previously reported that it had received enough donations to continue working until October 2025.