The Russian authorities are conducting a systematic and large-scale program to deport children from Ukraine and their further forced adoption and re-education in Russia. This operation with the intention of “russifying” Ukrainian children was personally initiated by Vladimir Putin and his subordinates, according to a new report by the Humanitarian Research Laboratory at the Yale School of Public Health.
The study was conducted within 20 months of the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and is said to be the most comprehensive account to date of the scale of deportation of Ukrainian children. The authors of the study reliably identified the names of 314 children who were illegally taken from the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions to Russia and sent for forced adoption. In total, more than 30 thousand underage Ukrainian children were taken away during the war.
In the period from May to October 2022 children under the direct control of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation were taken out of Ukraine on military transport planes under the flags of the Russian Federation, according to the material. At first they were taken to intermediate points, in particular, in temporary detention centers and schools in Kursk and Rostov regions. Now the removed children may be in at least 21 regions of Russia.
At least 208 of the 314 identified children have been placed in Russian databases for adoption or placed in the care of Russian citizens. 67 children have already become “naturalized Russian citizens,” but Yale University researchers reasonably assume that the number of formally “naturalized” Ukrainian children is much higher. To legitimize the program of deportation and “naturalization” of Ukrainian children, the Russian authorities resort to the services of psychologists, the study notes.
The Russian system of forced adoption and foster care was created on the orders and with the support of President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s children’s rights ombudsman, the report authors wrote. Anna Kuznetsova, deputy speaker of the State Duma, “the heads of L/DNR,” the Russian Ministry of Education and United Russia officials are also named among the key officials responsible for developing and overseeing the program.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s children’s rights ombudsman. They are suspected of illegally deporting children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.
Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Laboratory, told Reuters that the Yale University study provides new evidence supporting the ICC’s allegations against Vladimir Putin. The authors of the study compiled a dossier of personal information on each of the 314 children they identified. These documents have been handed over to the ICC prosecutor’s office for review, as well as to the Ukrainian authorities.