Russia is operating a potentially unprecedented system of large-scale re-education, military training, and dormitory facilities capable of holding tens of thousands of children from Ukraine for long periods of time, the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) writes in a report.
Here is the report (pdf).
- Children from Ukraine have been taken - either temporarily or indefinitely - to at least 210 locations in Russia and temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. The actual number is likely higher, as there are multiple sites still under investigation by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) and additional locations may exist that have not yet been identified. The facilities in this study have been active since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
- Children have been taken to at least eight different location types: cadet schools, a military base, medical facilities, a religious site, secondary schools and universities, a hotel, family support centers and orphanages, and most frequently, camps and sanatoriums.
- Re-education activities have occurred at the majority of locations identified. Re-education activities involving children from Ukraine have occurred in at least 130 sites (61.9%) identified in this study. The activities constituting re-education include cultural, patriotic, or military programming that aligns with pro-Russia narratives.
- Children from Ukraine underwent military training in at least 39 locations (18.6%) identified by HRL. At least 34 of these facilities are newly identified. HRL identified activities that constitute militarization programs, including combat training, ceremonial parades and drills, assembly of drones and other materiel, and education in military history.
- Russia’s government directly manages more than half of the locations identified in this report. According to publicly available Russian incorporation data, at least 106 of the 210 locations identified are managed by Russian federal or local government bodies. Russia’s government manages 55% of the locations where re-education activities occurred and 58% of locations where militarization of children from Ukraine occurred.
In March 2023, the U.N.'s International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for children's rights in the Office of the President of Russia, accusing them of committing "the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."
Vladimir Putin is clearly a 'rimworld' fan.