A report released in the US by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab claims that since the start of the war, at least 6,000 Ukrainian youngsters have been taken to indoctrination camps all around Russia.
The book describes how the Russian government has thousands of juveniles from Ukrainian territory that its army has been occupying since the start of the war, almost a year ago, relocate, indoctrinate, and, in some cases, undergo military training.
The study also accuses Russia of speeding up the adoption and foster care of Ukrainian children in Russia, a process that needs to “halt immediately” since it may constitute war crimes.
The Conflict Observatory at this university, which was established with financing from the US Department of State last year, has conducted the research.
From the westernmost districts, which are closest to Ukraine, to Siberia, as well as in lands it has annexed from Ukraine, like the Crimean peninsula, Russia manages 43 of these fields.
According to Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab, “the major goal of these camps seems to be political indoctrination,” adding that the program “involves all levels of the Russian government.”
According to the report, there are “organized indoctrination operations that expose Ukrainian youngsters to Russian-centric instruction in the academic, cultural, patriotic, and/or military domains” in at least 32 of the camps that have been identified.
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It is evident from mounting evidence on Russian behavior that the Kremlin wants to suppress and deny Ukraine’s identity, history, and culture. In a statement, the State Department responded. “Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukrainian children has had disastrous effects that will be felt for centuries.”
At least two of the camps—one in Crimea and one in Chechnya—have provided military training to young Ukrainians. But there is no proof in the article that this is the goal or that they were sent to the front.
The letter explains that many families gave their permission for their kids to attend these camps, which Russia occasionally promoted as free summer camps, and that the youngsters have since returned home after the designated term. He does, however, issue a warning, noting that many parents have been coerced into letting their kids leave, and that at times the return has been postponed for weeks or months. Families have occasionally been informed that their children could not return because “there is war,” and some kids have been trained to return to violent environments. One was informed that he would not return, for instance, until the Russians had retaken Izium, a town in eastern Ukraine that the Kiev army had taken during its counteroffensive. The report issues a warning that at least four times the return of minors has been suspended.
According to the paper, numerous families gave their approval for the placement of their children in these camps.
The paper guarantees that Putin “is highly aware of and encourages” the Ukrainian children’s adoption and camp activities. In regards to the second, he put Maria Lvova Belova, presidential commissioner for children’s rights, in front of him.
There have already been 350 adoptions of kids from Ukraine in Russia, and there are currently a thousand more in the works, according to Lvova-Belova.
The confinement of youngsters in the camps “may constitute war crimes,” and the adoption-related measures “violate the Convention on the Rights of Children.”
Through its embassy in Washington, Russia dismissed the accusations as “absurd” and defended its policy of accepting kids who need to be evacuated “because of the atrocities committed by the Ukrainian armed forces.”