Kidnapped Ukrainian children are being put to work in weapons factories making drones that will be used in Putin’s war against their compatriots, research by Yale University has found.
Since the war in Crimea began over a decade ago, Russia has been abducting kids from Ukraine on an “industrial scale.” The policy went into overdrive after the 2022 full-scale invasion, and there are now over 20,000 recorded cases of state-sponsored child kidnapping.
Shocking details of what the stolen children are being forced to do have been uncovered by researchers at The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) in a new report that identifies 210 facilities in Russia and the occupied territories. These sites, the academics say, are being used for a “potentially unprecedented system of large-scale re-education, military training.”
Combining publicly available information, such as Kremlin announcements and social media posts, with high-resolution satellite imagery, HRL pinpointed locations stretching over 3,500 miles and 59 regions “from the Black Sea across Siberia to the eastern coast of the Pacific Ocean.”
Children were being brought to sites, ranging from camps and cadet schools to churches and hotels, after being separated from their parents in areas where battles were happening or processing centres near the frontlines.
But HRL also found boys and girls were permanently kept in Russia after being sent to summer camps, originally meant to be a temporary trip for “re-education.” In some cases, children ended up in Russian fostering and adoption programmes and became Russian citizens.
At one facility in Krasnodar Yale found boys and girls were being used to manufacture military equipment for Russia’s armed forces, including drones, mine detectors, robots and rapid loaders for assault rifles.
“Forced militarisation” was taking place in 40 of the locations with young Ukrainians participating in “combat and paratrooper training”, as well as having shooting and grenade throwing competitions.
Re-education initiatives using “cultural, patriotic or military programming that aligns with pro-Russia narratives” were found in more than half of the facilities.
This, the HRL said, was part of an effort to strip away the Ukrainian identity from the people living in land invaded by Putin.
“These activities fit within a broader campaign under Putin’s orders to Russify the residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine,” the report continued.
“[The] HRL has previously documented the systematic and intentional nature of this campaign, and the ways in which it explicitly targets children, especially those in vulnerable categories such as orphans and those living close to the frontline.”
Last month, the Express launched its campaign Return the Stolen Children in partnership with Save Ukraine, rescuing children abducted by Russia and supporting families affected by the disappearances.
The aim of the campaign is to ensure that the plight of the boys and girls taken by Russia isn’t forgotten and the war crime of their abduction remains firmly part of all discussions related to the conflict.
Learn about the work of Save Ukraine at saveukraineua.org. To help Ukrainian kids rebuild their lives, visit: https://giving. classy.org/campaign/585068/donateor email: help@saveukraineus.org