14 FEBRUARY 2023

RUSSIA’S SYSTEMATIC PROGRAM FOR
THE RE-EDUCATION & ADOPTION
of UKRAINE’S CHILDREN
A CONFLICT OBSERVATORY REPORT© 2023 Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health, New Haven
Cover image “Maria Lvova-Belova brought children from Donetsk People’s Republic to Russia,” Kremlin Executive
Office, October 7, 2022. Source link CC0302 has been withheld due to protection concerns.
Icons are royalty free and sourced from The Noun Project.
This report was produced as part of the Conflict Observatory with the support of the Bureau of Conflict andStabilization Operations, United States Department of State. This report does not necessarily represent the viewsof the United States Government. Learn more at https://conflictobservatory.org.
The Faculty Director of the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at Yale is Dr. Kaveh Khoshnood. Report production
was overseen by Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director of the HRL and produced by the Lab’s research team. All
imagery analysis was conducted by the Humanitarian Research Lab.
Citation | Khoshnood, Kaveh, Nathaniel A. Raymond and Caitlin N. Howarth et al., “Russia’s Systematic Program for
the Re-education and Adoption of Ukraine’s Children.” 14 February 2023. Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale Schoolof Public Health: New Haven.

CONTENTS

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.a. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.b. Key Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.c. Background on system of children’s camps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.d. Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.e. Legal analysis and recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2. LOGISTICS AND CONCERNING TRENDS WITHIN CAMP SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.a. How and why children are transported to Russia and Russia-occupied territory
2.a.i. Supposed recreation camps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.a.ii. Russia’s designation of orphans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.b. Experiences of children in the camps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.b.i. Suspended returns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.b.ii. Communication limitations and restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.b.iii. Consent crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.b.iv. Re-education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
2.b.iv.1. Academic instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
2.b.iv.2. Military training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.c. How children leave camps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.c.i. Ukrainian government and civil society intervention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.c.ii. Parental retrieval of children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3. POLITICAL COORDINATION OF CAMP SYSTEM & ADOPTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.a. Senior federal leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.b. Patronage system, regional & local official involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.c. Russia-aligned occupation authorities involvement in camps and facilities . . . .20
3.c.i. Occupation authorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4. LEGAL ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
APPENDIX I | INVESTIGATIVE METHODOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.a. Introduction
Russia’s federal government is operating a large scale,systematic network of camps and other facilities thathas held at least 6,000 children from Ukraine within
Russia-occupied Crimea and mainland Russia during thepast year. The roles played by forty-three (43) facilities
have been identified and their locations have beensubsequently verified at the time of this report. Thesefindings are based on a conservative reading of data
confirmed to date and released due to the concerning
nature of the trends identified. Additional data analyzed
by Yale HRL suggests that the total numbers of facilities
and children being held are likely significantly higher
than can be reported at this time. Further investigationis ongoing.
These facilities appear to serve a range of purposes,
including what Yale HRL terms ‘re-education,’ an effort
to ostensibly make children more pro-Russia in theirpersonal and political views. Some installations are
in Siberia and along Russia’s far eastern Pacific coast.
Four categories of children appear in this system:

armed conflict was originally obtained, can constitutea violation of the Convention on the Rights of theChild. Some of the alleged actions of Russia’s federal
government and its proxies detailed in this report, suchas unnecessarily expediting the adoption and fosteringof children from Ukraine during the current emergency,
could constitute a potential war crime and crime against
humanity in some cases.
This report is the result of an investigation by the Yale
School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab(Yale HRL), a member of the Conflict Observatory,
which is a project of the US State Department’s Bureauof Conflict and Stabilization Operations. The findingsof this report represent the most detailed public
accounting to date of what has happened to Ukraine’s
children sent to these camps and other relevant facilities
since 24 February 2022.

1.

Children who have parents or clear familial
guardianship;
2. Children deemed to be orphans by Russia;
3. Children who were under the care of Ukrainianstate institutions prior to the February 2022
invasion (often due to severe physical or mental
disabilities); and4. Children whose custody is unclear or uncertain due
to wartime circumstances caused by the February
2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia.1
Children with clear guardianship status predating the
February 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia appear
primarily targeted for re-education camps and similar
facilities. Both those purported to be orphans andthose who were residents of state institutions appear
mostly targeted for deportation to Russia’s territory for
adoption and/or placement in foster care. Many children
taken to camps are sent with the consent of their parents
for an agreed duration of days or weeks and returned totheir parents as originally scheduled.
Other children have been held for months at these camps,
including hundreds of children whose status is unknown;at the time of this report, it is unclear if they have beenreturned to their families. This report has identified
two camps where children’s scheduled return date has
been delayed by weeks. At two other camps identified,children’s returns have been indefinitely postponed.
The separation of children from their parents forindefinite periods documented in this report, even if
initial consent for their temporary relocation during an

4

1.b. Key Findings•

More than 6,000 children in Russia’s custody: Yale
HRL has collected information about at least 6,000
children from Ukraine ages four months to 17 years
who have been held at camps and other facilities
since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24
February 2022. Arrivals to these facilities began in
February 2022; the most recent transfers occurredin January 2023. The total number of children is notknown and is likely significantly higher than 6,000.

•

At least 43 facilities in network: The network
spans at least 43 facilities identified by Yale HRL, 41
of which are pre-existing summer camps in Russiaoccupied Crimea and Russia. Among the camps, 12
are clustered around the Black Sea, 7 are in occupied
Crimea, and 10 are clustered around the cities of
Moscow, Kazan, and Yekaterinburg. Eleven of thecamps are located over 500 miles from Ukraine’s
border with Russia, including two camps in Siberia
and one in Russia’s Far East. The exact numberof facilities is likely significantly higher than the
43 identified in this report. Yale HRL identified
two facilities associated with the deportation oforphans: a psychiatric hospital and a family center.

•

Network of children’s facilities stretches fromone end of Russia to the other: The furthest
camp this investigation identifies is in Magadanoblast in Russia’s Far East near the Pacific Ocean,
approximately 3,900 miles from Ukraine’s
border with the Russian Federation. The campin Magadan is roughly three times closer to theUnited States than it is to the border of Ukraine.

•Primary purpose of the camps appears to bepolitical re-education: At least 32 (78%) of thecamps identified by Yale HRL appear engaged
in systematic re-education efforts that expose
children from Ukraine to Russia-centric academic,
cultural, patriotic, and/or military education.
Multiple camps endorsed by the Russian Federation
are advertised as “integration programs”,
with the apparent goal of integrating children
from Ukraine into the Russian government’s
vision of national culture, history, and society.2•

Children from two of the camps have been placedwith Russian foster families: Yale HRL identified atleast two camps that hosted children alleged to beorphans who were later placed with foster families
in Russia. Twenty children from these camps werereported to have been placed with families in
Moscow oblast and enrolled in local schools there.3•

Consent is collected under duress and routinely
violated: Consent gathered from parents fortheir child to attend a camp included signing overpower of attorney in some cases, including to an
unnamed agent. Other parents allege that the
specific elements of the consent they gave wereviolated, such as the term of stay and procedures
for reuniting with their children. Still other parents
allegedly refused to allow their children to go tocamps but were ignored by camp organizers
who enrolled the children in camps regardless.
In many cases, the ability of parents to provide
meaningful consent may be considered doubtful,as the conditions of war and implicit threat fromoccupying forces represent conditions of duress.

•

Children’s returns from at least four camps
have been suspended: In approximately 10% of
camps identified by Yale HRL, children’s returnto Ukraine was allegedly suspended. At two
camps, Artek and Medvezhonok, children’s
returns were suspended indefinitely according
to parents. Medvezhonok is one of the largest
camps identified, at one point hosting at least 300
children from Ukraine. Officials there originally
told the children’s parents they would return atthe end of summer, but later rescinded the dateof return. Hundreds of children from Ukraine fromat least two other camps, Luchistyi and Orlyonok,
have been or are being held past their scheduled
date of return; Yale HRL has been unable to identify
how many of these children have been reunited
with their parents. Parents also described being
unable to get information about their child’s
status or whereabouts after their return has
been suspended. It is unknown how many of
Ukraine’s children Russia currently holds andhow many have been released to their families.

•

All levels of Russia’s government are involved:
This operation is centrally coordinated by Russia’s
federal government and involves every level ofgovernment. Yale HRL has identified several dozen
federal, regional, and local figures directly engaged
in operating and politically justifying the program.
Activities of officials allegedly implicated in theoperation include logistical coordination (i.e.,transporting children), raising funds, collecting
supplies, direct camp management, and promoting
the program within Russia and occupied areas of
Ukraine. At least 12 of these individuals are not on
U.S. and/or international sanction lists at the timeof this report.

5

1.c. Background on children’s camp system
Russia began to systematically transport children from
Ukraine into Russia days before the full-scale invasionof Ukraine began. These first transports of children inearly February 2022 included a group of 500 purported
orphans ‘evacuated’ from Donetsk oblast by Russia. The
reason given publicly by Russia’s government at thetime was the supposed threat of an offensive by the
Ukrainian armed forces against the so-called Donetsk
People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic(LPR).4 Like other groups of orphans that would laterbe brought to Russia after the full-scale invasion, somewere adopted by families in Russia.5 By early March,
additional groups of children would depart Ukraine forcamps in Russia under the auspices of free recreational
trips.6
Three dominant state-coordinated narratives appear forsystematically moving children from Ukraine into Russia:
1.

‘Evacuation’ of orphans and state wards
from
Ukrainianfacilities
controlled
byRussia after February 2022 and from facilities
that had already been under the control of
Russia-aligned proxies before the invasion;

2. Transfer of children to camps, often with theinitial consent of parents and guardians; and3.

Movement of children to Russia for supposed
medical care, including children residing in
Ukraine’s state facilities prior to February 2022 thatcame under Russia’s control.

The camps and other facilities holding children from
Ukraine are part of a system centrally coordinated by
officials of Russia’s federal government. The managementof these facilities and the logistics chains that support
them fall to regional and local officials supported bymembers of Russia’s civil society and private sector.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin personally appointed
many of the figures involved in this program and publicly
supports their efforts.
The apparent leader of this multi-faceted operation at
the federal level is Maria Lvova-Belova, the Presidential
Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the RussianFederation. She is currently sanctioned by the UnitedStates for her involvement in these activities.7 In January2023, President Putin directed Commissioner LvovaBelova to “take additional measures to identify minors”
living in the occupied territories “left without parental
care, and to promptly provide them with state social
assistance, as well as to provide such persons with social
support established by the legislation of the RussianFederation.”8 Additionally, in his New Year’s speech, Putin
thanked Russia’s citizens for sending “children from the
new subjects of the Russian Federation” on holidays.9

Russia-aligned officials have been bringing Ukraine’s
children from Russia- and proxy-occupied areas tosummer camps in Russia’s territory since 2014.10 Someof the same facilities that have hosted children since2014 continue to host children brought to Russia since
February 2022.11 Current operations, however, differ
in their express purpose, apparent geographic scale,indeterminate duration, logistical complexity, breadthof official involvement, and the number of children
involved. Since February 2022, Russia and its proxies
expanded the promotion of ‘camp holidays’ in Russia andRussia-occupied Crimea to newly occupied territories.
Statements made by high-level regional officials
make clear that these camp programs are designed to“integrate” children from newly occupied territories into
Russian life and to enforce a version of Russia’s history,
culture, and society that serves the political interestsof Russia’s government.12 In some cases, children also
undergo military training.13 (See Section 2.)“Giving [Ukraine’s children Russian]nationality or having them adopted
goes against the fundamental
principles of child protection insituations of war....This is somethingthat is happening in Russia andmust not happen.”- Filippo Grande
UN High Commissioner for Refugees

In the cases of both individuals deemed orphans by
Russia and children residing in state institutions, aRussia-appointed institutional authority or a higherlevel occupation authority directs the transfer of
Ukraine’s children to Russia-occupied Crimea or Russia.14
In at least one case, children whose custody status was
unknown were transferred to Russia’s territory for foster
care and possible adoption.15 Many of these transfers
are coordinated by federal officials and conductedin concert with Russia’s regional leaders and proxyauthorities. Children have been transported by bus,
train, commercial aircraft, and, in at least one case, by
Russia’s Aerospace Forces.16 Alleged orphans and otherchildren from Ukraine’s state institutions are sometimes
temporarily housed at camps and so-called family
centers as waypoints during transit.17
The government of Ukraine and senior human rights
officials at the United Nations have raised alarms
about these activities for nearly a year. In June 2022,
Ukraine’s then-prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova
told journalists, “From the first days of the war, westarted this case about genocide....That’s why this6

forcible transfer of children is very important for us.”18
The then-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Michelle Bachelet similarly told the Security Council in
June 2022 that the Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights (OHCHR) was investigating allegedplans for the forcible deportation of Ukraine’s children
to Russia, “which do not appear to include steps forfamily reunification or respect the best interests of thechild.”19 In September 2022, the UN Assistant SecretaryGeneral for Human Rights, Ilze Brands Kehris, told
the UN Security Council that he had seen “...credibleaccusations that Russia’s forces have sent Ukrainianchildren to Russia for adoption as part of a larger-scale
forced relocation and deportation programme.”20 On 27
January 2023, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Filippo Grandi said, “Giving [Ukraine’s children Russian]nationality or having them adopted goes against thefundamental principles of child protection in situationsof war....This is something that is happening in Russia andmust not happen.” He added that his office was unable
to estimate the number of Ukraine’s children put up for
adoption in Russia because of the limited access that isallowed: “We are seeking access all the time, and accesshas been rather rare, sporadic and not unfettered, if you
see what I mean.”21

1.d. Methodology
The investigative methodology for this report relies on
extensive open source research. This process includes
aggregating and cross-verifying multiple sources
to understand the system of relocations, camps, reeducation, adoptions, and foster placements. Facilities
that allegedly host children from Ukraine wereidentified through social media posts, government
announcements and publications, and news reports.
The locations of these camps and related facilities werethen geolocated by referencing photographs, videos,and descriptions of children from Ukraine at the location
against reference photographs on the camp’s website
or user-generated photographs on mapping sites (e.g.,
Yandex Maps). Information about the activities atthese sites and the experiences of children and parents
was also collected, analyzed, and verified by multiple
researchers. Each location and thematic claim required
independent concurrence by at least two researchers
to be included in this report. Specifically collected Very
High-Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery was used
to verify and corroborate those claims through theidentification of relevant visible components, such asactivity at a location during a relevant period.
Those who facilitate this system were often clearly
identified in open source material gathered through theabove steps. In many cases the information connecting
officials, camp administrators, and civil society andprivate sector actors to camps represents prima facie
evidence of their involvement. Many officials celebrate
their involvement in social media posts, give interviews

to Russian media outlets, or pose in photographs withchildren from Ukraine at camps and facilities in territory
under Russia’s control. When officials do not implicate
themselves in this program through their own words,
multiple credible sources are required to verify theirinvolvement.
The methodology used for this report has the distinct
advantage of collecting data not initially intended
for researchers, prosecutors, or others documenting
alleged abuses. This methodology has limitations. Yale
HRL explicitly relies on open source information to do its
work and does not conduct interviews with witnesses or
victims. When analysts are unable to identify whether achild had returned home, it can be difficult to determine
who has custody of the child through open source means
alone. The 43 facilities identified in this report represent
only those for which data were available to establish
their locations and the presence of Ukraine’s children
to sufficient confidence at the time of publication.
(See Appendix I for further detail on methodology andlimitations.) Further investigation is ongoing.
Similarly, the public’s limited access to these facilities andthe children from Ukraine held there results in specificinformation about conditions and activities in the camps
coming largely from the officials overseeing the system.
Information that casts these activities negatively isunlikely to be reported by these officials. The experiencesof children who have either been returned to theirfamilies or retrieved from the camps by loved ones are
sometimes shared publicly by their families, but thesecases are understandably rare. Many families in Ukraine
do not want to publicly share their experiences because
they fear they will be seen as collaborators with Russia.
Those living under Russia’s occupation may likewise
not report mistreatment due to fear of reprisals from
Russia’s forces. Certain especially sensitive subjects,
such as sexual and gender-based violence, are likely to
be routinely underreported because of cultural stigma
and the risk of retaliation.
All open source materials in Ukrainian or Russian
were initially translated using Google or DeepL andsubsequently verified by a language expert. Names ofcamps in Russia are transliterated, rather than translated,from the Russian.

7

1.e. Legal analysis and recommendations
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed
UNSC Resolution 1261 in 1999, which details six grave
violations against children during armed conflict.22
These six grave violations are derived from accepted
instruments and bedrock principles of international
humanitarian law, international human rights law, andinternational juris prudence, including the Four Geneva
Conventions and their additional protocols, the Rome
Statute, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.23
Grave violation 5 is the abduction of children by either
state or non-state actors during both interstate andintrastate warfare.24 The United Nations’ 2013 editionof its working paper on the legal foundation of the six
grave violations explains why child abduction during
armed conflict constitutes a grave violation:
Abducting or seizing children against their will or
the will of their adult guardians either temporarilyor permanently and without due cause, is illegal
under international law. It may constitute a
grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and insome circumstances amount to war crimes andcrimes against humanity.25•

Adoptions and other forms of rehoming
Ukraine’s children by Russia and its proxies must
be stopped immediately. All adoption records,
court decisions, and other relevant documents
generated by the Russian government related
to Ukraine’s children from the start of 2022 to
the present should be shared with appropriate
inter-governmental
authorities
at
once.

•

A neutral inter-governmental organization must
be granted immediate and free access by Russia
to the sites identified within this report and otherfacilities at which children from Ukraine are being
held inside Russia and Russia-occupied territory
to meet with the children held there and conduct
unhindered inspections of the facilities.

The alleged actions of the Russian Federation since
its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 canconstitute the grave violation of child abduction during
armed conflict. The rushed adoption and rehoming ofchildren in emergency conditions, transferring children
across international borders unnecessarily, holding
children incommunicado from their families, prolonged
custody of children, even if eventually temporary,
without express parental consent in each case, andpolitical indoctrination and (in some cases) militarytraining of minors may all constitute potential violationsof the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the
Geneva Conventions.26
At present, Russia should be considered in breachof its obligations under multiple international
treaties and instruments to which it is party. Russia
can easily and quickly take the following four steps
to move towards compliance with international
humanitarian and human rights law related tothe treatment of children during armed conflict:•

Russia must create a registry of all children from
Ukraine currently in its custody and share it with
the Government of Ukraine and all relevant intergovernmental organizations responsible for childprotection and the restoration of family links.

•

All Ukrainian children in Russia or Russiaoccupied territory separated from theirparents or legal guardians must be given
the ability to immediately communicate
with family members of their choosing.
8

2. LOGISTICS & CONCERNING TRENDSWITHIN THE CAMP SYSTEM
All the camps analyzed by Yale HRL were hosted on preexisting campgrounds and establishments, many ofwhich are located near the Black Sea. Among the 41 camps
included in this analysis, 7 camps are in Russia-occupied
Crimea and 34 are in mainland Russia. The furthest campidentified was in Magadan, nearly 4,000 miles from
Ukraine’s border with Russia. In most cases, children from
Ukraine living in the same region travel together to thecamps. In many cases, but not all, a group’s destination
is determined by which region of the Russian Federation
has taken patronage over that location (see Section 3 formore on patronage). Three camp locations analyzed inthis dataset were still active as of December 2022 andat least one site was active in January 2023.27 In addition
to 41 camp facilities, HRL also identified a psychiatrichospital in Russia-occupied Crimea and a family centerin Moscow oblast to which children with disabilities andallegedly orphaned children were deported, respectively.
Given President Putin’s empowerment of Commissioner
Lvova-Belova to “take additional measures” regardingchildren in newly occupied territories, it seems likely thatdeportation of orphaned children and programming for
Ukraine’s children in Russia’s territory will continue.28

NUMBERS TO WATCH• 1000+ “ORPHANS”
PENDING ADOPTION• 350 OF UKRAINE’S CHILDREN
ALREADY RE-HOMED• 14,700 OF UKRAINE’S CHILDREN
OFFICIALLY DOCUMENTED
AS “DEPORTED”• 126 DEPORTED CHILDREN
RETURNED TO UKRAINE(JAN 2023)•

ACTUAL ESTIMATE: CLOSERTO SEVERAL HUNDRED
THOUSAND CHILDRENDISPLACED OR DEPORTED

FIG 1 | Russia’s system of re-education camps and adoption# CAMP FACILITIES
1
2
3
4-5
6

9

2.a. How and why children are transported to
Russia and Russia-occupied territory
Children from Ukraine are typically transported to Russia
or Russia-occupied Crimea for four claimed reasons:1.
2.

To attend nominally ‘recreational’ camps;
For ostensible evacuation from fighting in frontline
areas;
3. For apparent medical evacuation; or
4. For adoption by or placement with foster families
in Russia.
The exact number of children who have been transported
to Russia for the reasons mentioned above is unknown.
In January 2023, Russia claimed that 728,000 children
had arrived in Russia since February 2022; this estimate
likely includes children who evacuated into Russia with
their families.29
As of 26 January 2023, Ukraine’s government hadcollected reports of over 14,700 children classified as“deported” to Russia.30 The government portal does not
specify whether these children were unaccompaniedor under what circumstances they went to Russia.
Ukraine’s Presidential Commissioner for the Rights of
the Child and Child Rehabilitation has stated that thisdatabase consists only of “documented cases” where
the child’s full name and date of birth are known.31“These are children who, according to the statementsof their parents, friends and relatives, were recognized

as forcibly deported or displaced.”32 However, thesenumbers represent only the cases that have been
officially documented and reported; the governmentof Ukraine estimates that the actual number is “several
hundred thousand.”33
In summer 2022 Commissioner Lvova-Belova claimed
that 350 “orphans” had been adopted from Russiaoccupied Donetsk and Luhansk and “over a thousand”
were awaiting adoption.34 However, not all children in
Ukraine’s orphanages are necessarily orphans: Ukraine
informed the United Nations prior to the invasion thatthe majority of children of the state “’are not orphans,
have no serious illness or disease and are in an institution
because their families are in difficult circumstances.’”35
According to official statistics published by the
Ukrainian government, as of late January 2023 Ukraine
has recovered only 126 of the “deported” children.36
The United States estimated in October that Russia’sauthorities have taken 260,000 children from Ukraine
to Russia.37 These numbers do not specify how many of
the total number of Ukraine’s children in Russia are ator have been to camps. Russia’s first Deputy Ministerof Education announced in October 2022 that 22,000
children from Donbas stayed in camps in Russia during
summer 2022 and 5,000 more from Kherson oblast
would visit camps in the fall.38 The so-called DPR reported
in November 2022 that over 18,000 children from the

FIG 2 | A child’s journey through Russia’s system of re-education camps and adoption

Child's
returnwithheldConsent violations
Child withfamilyChildren from Ukraine

Purportedorphan, living
in institution,or uncertain
custody
Not all children in
Ukraine's institutional
facilities are orphans

Recruited to camp by local
Russia-aligned persons

Parent forced tophysically retrieve
child in
Crimea/Russia

At camp in Crimea or
RussiaPro-Russia re-education
including militarytraining
Communication
limited/restricted

Apparent evacuation for'safety concerns' or'medical care'
Deported for fostering or
adoptionChild from Ukraine often
given Russian
citizenship

Sent tohospital orother facility in
Russiacontrolled area

Reunited
with family

Location &guardianshipunknown

Held in family
centerFostered or
adopted in
Russia10

region had gone to camps that year with the support ofRussia’s federal government.39

2.A.I. SUPPOSED RECREATION CAMPS
Yale HRL found that children from temporarily occupied
areas of Ukraine have been sent to ‘recreation’ camps
in Russia since February 2022, including children from
Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk
oblasts. Yale HRL found no data to suggest that any
families paid for their children’s trips; it appears that
all camps analyzed in this dataset were provided
completely free of charge to children from Ukraine,
often funded by Russia’s regional governments (seeSection 3 below). Parents and children in Ukraine becameaware of these recreational camps through Russiaappointed occupation authorities, local teachers, andRussia’s soldiers.40 In several cases, officials persuaded
or pressured parents who were reluctant to send theirchildren to Russia.41
Parents from Ukraine cited many reasons for sending
their children to Russia-sponsored camps. Many ofthese parents are low-income and wanted to takeadvantage of a free trip for their child.42 Some hoped
to protect their children from ongoing fighting, to send
them somewhere with intact sanitation, or to ensure
they had nutritious food of the sort unavailable where
they live.43 Other parents simply wanted their child to beable to have a vacation.44 While the majority of parents
appeared to give their consent for their child to attend
a camp, that consent may not be meaningful in manycases (see Section 2(b)(iv)). Children are taken to thecamps in groups by bus, train, and commercial planes.
Several camps were located thousands of miles away,
so some groups of children have been required to takemultiple modes of transportation. Children attending
a camp in Magadan in Russia’s Far East were required
to travel by bus, train, and two flights.45 Once at thecamps, some children from Ukraine are not returned in
the agreed-upon timeframe and are unable to contact
their parents. Some parents are not notified when theirchildren’s return is suspended and, in numerous cases,
parents who were able to regain custody had to makethe difficult and dangerous journey to the camp toretrieve their children in person.46 (See subsection below
on suspended returns.)

2.A.II. RUSSIA’S DESIGNATION OF ORPHANS
Children who are deemed orphans by Russia’s authorities
are taken from Ukraine’s territory for various reasons,often being ‘evacuated’ for claimed safety concerns
which may or may not be true. It is important to notethat there are allegations that not all the children
deemed “orphans” by Russia and its proxy officials arein fact orphans; the government of Ukraine told theUnited Nations before the invasion that some children in
Ukraine’s orphanages “are not orphans, have no serious
illness or disease and are in an institution because theirfamilies are in difficult circumstances.” 47

During one evacuation, hundreds of children fromorphanages and boarding houses were transported fromalready-occupied areas of Russia-occupied Donetsk
and Luhansk oblast in the week prior to the full-scaleinvasion.48 Some of those children stayed at camps andwere later fostered by families in Russia.49
Another group of more than 50 alleged orphans
ranging in age from nine months to five years was takenfrom Donetsk oblast to Moscow oblast via a Russian
Aerospace Forces plane accompanied by Commissioner
Lvova-Belova in October 2022.50 According to the
Kremlin, the head of the so-called DPR “requested
their evacuation to safe areas of the country”, claimingthat “some [children] need lifesaving assistance andrehabilitation,” and stipulating that children’s placementwith families in Russia would be made following their
medical examinations.51
WHY SEND KIDS TO CAMP?
• Protection from fighting• Access to intact sanitation• Regular access to nutritious
food unavailable at home
• A break their families could not afford
REST FOR CHRONIC ILLNESSOne mother sent her daughter to Medvezhonok
because she has a chronic illness and seizures;
she wanted her daughter to have a rest. Once herdaughter’s return was stopped, the mother got thephone number for the camp director through herdaughter.
The director told the mother that her daughter
would not be returned to Ukraine.

In a separate instance, the Russia-appointed directorof a home for children with disabilities in Kherson
oblast transferred the children from this home to
Russia-occupied Crimea or further into Russiaoccupied territory. These children with disabilities weretransported in two stages: first more than a dozen
children were sent to a psychiatric hospital in Russiaoccupied Crimea, allegedly for treatment; the remaining
children were transported further into Russia-occupied
territory, allegedly to protect them from fighting.52
There are no indications in open source reporting that,in the latter case, Russia’s proxies sought opportunities
to evacuate the children to Ukraine-controlled territory
or to return them to Ukraine’s care after Ukraine’s forces
retook the area.
In September, President Putin ordered mandatory
medical examinations for all children in occupied
territories, which some activists worry could provide
justification for detaining children in Russia for alleged
medical reasons.53

11

2.b. Experiences of children in the camps
Many of the children who have attended these camps
appear to return to their families when scheduled.
However, there have been a significant number ofchildren across multiple camps whose return has beensuspended. Communication between parents, children,and camp administrators has been restricted and limited
in some camps. Additionally, Yale HRL has documented acrisis related to parents’ ability to meaningfully consent
to their children’s involvement in these camps (seeSection 2(b)(iii)). Additionally, Yale HRL has found that
78% of the camps included an identified component of
Russia-aligned re-education, which at times included
military training.

2.B.I. SUSPENDED RETURNS
Multiple groups of children attending the ‘recreational’
camps did not return home at the end of their scheduled
camp term.54 Yale HRL confirmed that four camps
in Russia-occupied Crimea and Krasnodar Territory
suspended returns. Safety concerns and ongoing
hostilities in Ukraine were cited as reasons for delay inall four camps, one of which specified that Ukraine’s
liberation of Kherson compelled them to suspend thechildren’s return.55 Three hundred (300) children from
Ukraine at Medvezhonok were also prevented fromreturning home after Ukraine’s forces liberated Kharkiv
oblast.56 Another camp, which housed children fromboth Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, allowed thechildren from Russia to return home but held the children
from Ukraine for additional camp shifts at the directiveof an authority of the so-called DPR for alleged safety
reasons following Russia’s full-scale invasion.57

WHEN CHILDREN DO NOT COME
HOME: MEDVEZHONOK CAMP
• 300 children from Ukraine were
stopped from going home after
Ukraine’s forces liberated Kharkiv
oblast.
•A camp official told a boy from
Ukraine that his return home wasconditional: he would go home if
Russia re-captured Izyum.

•

Another boy was told he could not
go home due to his “pro-Ukrainianviews.”

Reports suggest that there is a significant lack ofcommunication between parents and camp officials
when delays occur. Multiple reports from parents whosechildren were delayed at one of the camps reveal thatparents were not directly informed about the delays.
Parents found out about the delays through phone
conversations with their children, word of mouth, andlocal news outlets.58 After Ukraine’s forces liberated
their region, one group of parents contacted the camp
officials only to be told that the camp would not be
returning their children.59 After calling the camp director,
one mother was allegedly told that children could not
be returned because, “There is war there.”60 There islittle information on the explanation given to children
regarding the delay. An official at the Medvezhonok
camp told a boy from Ukraine that his return wasconditional: the children would only be returned if Russia
re-captured the town of Izyum.61 Another boy was told
he wouldn’t be returning home due to his “pro-Ukrainianviews.”62Children have been held in excess of several weeks toseveral months. Several hundred children have attended
camp sessions that have been indefinitely extended.63
As of December 2022, over 100 children from Ukraine
were still being held in a camp in Russia-occupied Crimea
roughly two months after they were supposed to returnhome.64 However, there is a lack of sufficient evidence todefinitively determine whether these children continue
to be held at these camps at the time of publication.
Additionally, the number of children whose return was
suspended is likely underreported; Yale HRL was notable using open source methods to identify the return
status of the majority of children who attended camps
or comprehensively trace all groups of children who
had been held. It is important to note that some parents
have expressed reluctance to report their missing childto Ukrainian authorities for fear of being shamed or
accused of being collaborators.65

2.B.II. COMMUNICATION LIMITATIONS& RESTRICTIONSParents’ ability to communicate with their children has
allegedly been limited or restricted. Some of these barriersappeared before children even departed: one motherwho sent her daughter to the camp Medvezhonok
and was later forced to retrieve her said that “we wereconvinced” not to send cell phones with the children.66
Another child who attended camp Medvezhonok said
the children in his group were given smartphones upon
their arrival to camp, while another report said children
were provided smartphones once authorities made thedecision to suspend their return.67 A pro-Russia blogger
stated that children from that camp returned home withthose smartphones, though Yale HRL could not identify
other reports of this claim.68
12

Parents of children who were delayed also report being
unable to get information about their child’s status.
One mother whose daughter went to Medvezhonok
said parents were not given any contact information
for the person in charge of the children. Instead, parents
and guardians were told information would be passed
through the village council. The same mother only
received updates about her child from another parent
who went to retrieve their child from the camp.69 She
learned that her daughter had been taken to a hospital
due to a “nervous breakdown” because her mother did
not retrieve her from the camp, but the mother could
not get any more information about her daughter’s
whereabouts or health.70
Another mother sent her daughter to Medvezhonok
because she has a chronic illness and seizures andwanted her to have a rest. Once her daughter’s returnwas suspended, she got the phone number for thecamp director through her daughter, and the director
told the mother her daughter would not be returned
to Ukraine.71 Other parents read about the suspended
return from Medvezhonok in the news or guessed
what had happened but were seemingly never directly
informed or provided consent to the indefinite hold.72
Another mother from Kherson oblast went to retrieve
her daughter from a camp in Russia-occupied Crimea
only to find out her child had been moved to the Republicof Adygea and she had not been informed.73

2.B.III. CONSENT CRISISParents were required to submit and sign various legal
documents consenting to their child’s attendance at thecamp and giving Russia’s officials authority over theirchild. In addition to reports of parents having to submit
copies of the passports along with original copies of
the child’s birth certificate, Yale HRL has identified
multiple reports of parents being required to sign powerof attorney in order for their child to attend summer
camp.74 In at least one of these instances, parents were

! CONSENT CRISIS• At one site, camp officials statedthat several teenagers from Ukraine(ages 14-17) were present despite
explicitly lacking parental consent.
•

Russia’s federal law establishes
18 as the age of majority,
making a legal guardian orparent’s consent essential.

NO INFORMATION,
PROBABLE HARM
• Parents not given contact
information for camp officials• Children moved across regions andinto medical care for emergent
issues without parental notification• Families forced to gather
news through word of
mouth and the media• Some parents told not to send cell
phones with their children to camp
A girl at Medvezhonok had a nervous
breakdown when her mother did not
arrive to retrieve her. According toanother parent who witnessed theevent, the girl was hospitalized. The
child’s mother has been subsequently
unable to obtain any information about
her daughter’s whereabouts or health.

forced to sign over power of attorney to an unknown
person or entity — the field for the name of the person
who would receive legal authority over the child was left
blank.75 This camp subsequently indefinitely suspended
the children’s return home, with leaders stating that they
were no longer able to return the children despite an
initial ’promise’ that children would be returned.76 In thiscase and at least three others in which children’s returnwas suspended, the failure to return children on time (orat all) may violate the terms of the consent forms thatparents signed.
While many parents signed consent to send their childto a camp for a limited period, data suggests that manyof these attestations of consent occurred under duress,
which violates the conditions of consent. Russia’s
forces, occupation authorities, and teachers have all
been mobilized to recruit children for camps.77 For someparents, these recruitment efforts may be implicitly
threatening. Many parents also centered their decision tosend their children to camps around conditions createdby Russia’s invasion: parents reported that they sent
their children to camp to remove them from the dangerof fighting, to stay somewhere with intact sanitation,or to get nutritious food of the sort unavailable where
they live.78 These reasons, which are the direct results ofRussia’s invasion, represent an indirect form of coercion
that call into question the validity of any consent.
13

Yale HRL identified multiple instances in which theterms of consent forms signed by parents may havebeen violated. There appears to be a complex andvaried system of consent throughout these camps.
Data suggests that in many cases, parents have willinglyconsented to send their child to one of these camps.
However, Russia has not informed parents of their child’s
location.79 While Yale HRL was able to identify limited
information on specific consent procedures throughopen source investigation, evidence suggests Russia’s
engagement in the suspension of returns and lack ofcommunication to parents on the whereabouts andstatus of children overrides any previous consent that
may have been established.
One camp held children whose parents allegedly did notconsent to their children attending the camp. The camp,which had over 200 children from Ukraine aged 14-17,
publicly acknowledged that they were holding children
whose parents forbade them from attending.80 Russia’s
federal law establishes 18 as the age of majority, meaningthat a parent’s consent is the consent required.81
One mother sent her 13-year-old daughter to one of thecamps in Krasnodar Territory of Russia, stating that she
originally signed medical forms allowing her daughter
to be provided first aid and medical care if necessary. As
noted in the previous section, after her daughter wassent to the hospital for an apparent nervous breakdown,
the mother stated that she has not received information
since this incident occurred and does not know where
her daughter is located.82

FIG. 3 | Boys at a military training facility learn to handle
firearms. Their uniform attire shows Russia’s flag on theright arm, and the Chechen Republic’s flag on the left.
Source: Source CC0300 has been withheld due to protection
concerns.

FIG. 4 | Children attend classroom instruction as partof re-education programming, a part of 78% of camps
assessed for this report. Source has been withheld due toprotection concerns.

2.B.IV. RE-EDUCATIONThe emphasis on re-educating children from Ukrainewith Russia’s state curriculum and culture is integral tothe camp network. Yale HRL defines re-education in thiscontext as the promotion of cultural, historical, societal,
and patriotic messages or ideas that serve the politicalinterests of Russia. The widespread re-education of
Ukraine’s children has occurred in 32 (78%) of camps
ranging from Russia-occupied Crimea to Magadan
in the Russian Federation’s Far East. The systematic
pro-Russia education of Ukraine’s children takes many
forms, including school curriculum, field trips to culturalor patriotic sites throughout the country, lectures from
Russia’s veterans and historians, and military activities.83
2.B.IV.1. ACADEMIC INSTRUCTION
In addition to pro-Russia patriotic and military-related
education, camps also re-educated children from Ukraine
on various academic subjects, ranging from history totheater according to Russia’s education standards.84
Various camps were also a part of university-affiliatedefforts in which children from Ukraine attended an
education-focused camp hosted by one of the regional
universities across Russia. The stated goal of these
programs was to attract children to Russia’s universities
for future enrollment.85 One such camp, located in
Siberia and attended by 25 children from Ukraine aged
12 to 16, introduced the children to various educational
institutions in the region and exposed them to Russia’s
curricula.86 In all camps that withheld the children’s
return to Ukraine, education was provided either at thecamp or in local schools.87 One camp noted that highschool-aged children were provided education at thesite in Russia, while younger children were sent to school
alongside local children in a nearby rural area.88
Russia’s government has supported these re-education
endeavors: federal, regional, and local government
officials and agencies provide school supplies, support
cost-free educational excursions, and coordinate
14

displaying numerous photos and videos of children
engaging in these activities. There is no documentationof child mistreatment, including sexual or physicalviolence, among the camps referenced in this report;
concerns have been raised regarding the mental healthof some children.93 Past visual indicators of living
accommodations may or may not be consistent withcurrent conditions. Security conditions at the camps,
including any personnel assigned, also remain unclear at
the time of this report.

FIG. 5 | From left to right in the center of the groupare Vladimir Khromov (Representative of the RussianFederation Presidential Commissioner for Children’s
Rights), Zamid Chalayev (Commander, A.A. KadyrovSpecial Police Regiment), and Akhmed Dudayev(Minister of the Chechen Republic for National
Policy, Foreign Relations, Press, and Information).
Source: Source CC0301 has been withheld due to protection
concerns.
university-affiliated camps.89 Institutions such as Russia’s
Ministry of Education have supported the camps, withhigh-level officials acting as liaisons between federal
institutions and the camps involved in re-education
initiatives.90

2.B.IV.2. MILITARY TRAINING
Military training was part of the program at camps in
Chechnya and Russia-occupied Crimea. One camp near
Grozny, Chechnya detailed how boys would take a course“for a young fighter” at the Russian University of Special
Forces.94 This camp was organized at the initiative ofRussia’s federal government and was for designatedat-risk boys, including those with criminal records.95
Another camp in Russia-occupied Crimea titled “Schoolof Future Commanders“ was organized by the Yunarmia
movement — an “all-Russian military-patriotic public
movement” — and attended by approximately 50
children from Ukraine.96 Children at the camp were able
to handle military equipment, drive trucks, and study
firearms.97 Vladimir Kovalenko, chief of staff of theSevastopol regional branch of Yunarmia, was present
at the camp and reported that the camp program was“aimed at fostering patriotism and love for the [Russian]homeland.”98 Children at a school in Russia-occupied
Kherson oblast were also visited by representatives of
Yunarmia who advertised opportunities to visit camps
like Artek and spoke about ”the concept of Motherland
and the requirements to the future defenders of the
Fatherland.”99

According to the Kremlin and Commissioner LvovaBelova, Lvova-Belova personally sponsored numerous
camps, including those Russia has called “integration
programmes” aimed at re-educating children from
Ukraine in accordance with Russia’s education standards,
immersing them in Russia’s culture, and encouraging
children from Ukraine to “become their own” in Russia.91
In addition to high-ranking federal officials, regional
and local officials have engaged in efforts to re-educate
at the camps. Deputy Prime Minister of the RussianFederation’s Republic of Tartarstan Leyla Fazleeva
helped oversee three camps in the region, noting that,“all camps...are aimed at patriotic education of youth,
the development of communication skills and thepreservation of cultural heritage.”92
Aside from limited communication between parents
and children and the widespread re-education andRussification of Ukraine’s children, current campconditions are unclear. Russia’s media has shownchildren participating in skits, songs, and sporting
events, with the social media accounts of various camps

15

2.c. How children from Ukraine leave camps
Children from Ukraine with parental care who attend
the camps leave under varying circumstances: many
children appear to return to their homes in the intended
timeframe, some are held in camps beyond the agreedupon date of return, and others’ return status is
unknown.100 When scheduled returns are withheld, somechildren have been brought home through intervention
by the Ukrainian government, some children have been
retrieved personally by their parents, and others’ fatesremain unknown.101

2.C.I. UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT AND
CIVIL SOCIETY INTERVENTION
Several hundred children from Ukraine’s Kharkiv oblast
were indefinitely held at the Medvezhonok camp andUkraine’s government intervened to return some of
the children. The parents of 37 children coordinatedwith Ukraine’s government representatives and theinternational charity organization SOS Children’s
Villages to retrieve their children several weeks after
they were not returned on the promised timeline.102 The
children and their families were then placed in western
Ukraine for rehabilitation. A further seven children from
Ukraine were retrieved by their parents, but these twogroups appear to represent only a portion of those who
remained in the camp, and HRL was unable to verify at
the time of publication whether the remaining children
had been released.

It is difficult for parents to retrieve their children. Men
aged 18 to 60 years are prohibited from leaving Ukraine.108
Mothers end up as often the only people permitted toretrieve their child.109 This parental retrieval policy poses
an additional challenge for families because fathers, if
aged 18 to 60, are unable to leave the country to retrieve
their child and are not permitted to have someone else
retrieve their child. Even if a father aged 18 to 60 were totravel from Ukraine to Russia-occupied territory, Russia’s
so-called “filtration” system managed by Russia’s forces
and its proxies has a demonstrated history of targeted
extrajudicial detention for male military-aged Ukrainian
nationals.110￼
In single female-headed families with other children,
mothers must either bring their other children or findsomeone in Ukraine to look after them while they
retrieve their child. Additionally, retrieving a childrequires resources including a foreign passport, money
for travel, and the physical ability to travel. Some parents
reported that their financial situation made it difficult
or impossible to retrieve their child.111 Furthermore,commercial air travel has been suspended since
Russia‘s full-scale invasion, forcing some parents todrive thousands of miles to retrieve their child.112 Lastly,
retrieving one’s child imposes significant safety threats
by requiring parents to travel near and sometimes acrossthe war’s frontlines.

2.C.II. PARENTAL RETRIEVAL OF CHILDREN
When camps withhold children from their parents,
sometimes outright refusing to return them, parents
will sometimes physically try to retrieve them. One
mother described having to retrieve her daughter froma camp in the Krasnodar Territory of Russia after thecamp delayed the children’s return. According to themother, the camp did not inform parents of the delay;
the mother only learned of the delay when her daughter
called crying. The camp director relayed that they would
not be returning the children, but that parents could
retrieve their child themselves. The mother hoped that
relatives living in Russia could retrieve the child but was
told that only parents were permitted to do so.103
Other parents reported the same: camp administration
told them that neither grandparents, nor relatives, nor
anyone given power of attorney could retrieve the childfrom camp — only parents.104 A significant portion ofthese families are low-income and have not been able toafford to make the trip.105 Some families were forced tosell belongings and travel through four countries to bereunited with their child, relying on help from volunteers
in Russia and Belarus along the way.106 In at least one
case, once parents arrived at the camp, authorities
tried to convince them to stay in Russia and told themeverything would be provided for them.107
16

3. POLITICAL COORDINATION OF CAMP SYSTEM
AND ADOPTIONS
3.a. Senior federal leadership involvement
The system of camps and adoptions described in thisreport appears to be authorized and coordinated at thehighest levels of Russia’s federal government. Vladimir
Putin thanked Russia’s people for arranging thesecamps for children from Ukraine, directed Maria LvovaBelova to “take additional measures” regarding children
left without parental care in occupied territories, andreceived updates from regional governors on theirefforts to bring children from Ukraine to camps.113
On 30 May 2022 Putin signed a decree easing the process
for orphans and children without parental care from
Ukraine to receive Russian Federation citizenship.114 The
decree was interpreted by many as an effort to expedite
the process for adopting Ukraine’s children into families
in Russia.115 President Putin also spoke virtually to children
at Artek over the summer at a session where Ukrainianchildren were likely present, saying he would head
the “supervisory board of the new Russian movementof children and youth” which would foster “love andrespect for the Fatherland.”116 Taken together, theseactions indicate Putin is well aware of and encouraging
adoption and camp schemes for children from Ukraine.
As the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights,
Maria Lvova-Belova is one of the most highly involved
figures in Russia’s deportation and adoption of Ukraine’s
children, as well as in the use of camps for ‘integrating’Ukraine’s children into Russia’s society and culture.117
Commissioner Lvova-Belova has actively partakenin these efforts since the beginning of the full-scaleinvasion and reports directly to Putin on them.118 In the
weeks prior to 24 February 2022, hundreds of children
from Ukraine were evacuated from orphanages andboarding houses across the already-occupied areas ofDonetsk and Luhansk. Some of those children stayedat camps analyzed in this report and were later placedin foster families in Russia under Commissioner LvovaBelova’s direction.119 More recently, Commissioner
Lvova-Belova transported a group of 53 alleged orphans
aged nine months to five years from Ukraine by Russian
Aerospace Forces plane and facilitated their placement

FIG 6 | Senior leadership involved in systematic relocation, re-education, and adoption of Ukrainian children

17into foster families in Russia.120 Maria Lvova-Belova
has claimed that “Russians have already adopted 350
orphans from the [Russia-occupied] Donetsk andLuhansk regions, and more than a thousand children are
waiting for adoption.”121
Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana
Moskalkova also plays an important role in the system ofcamps. Commissioner Moskalkova, who was nominatedfor the role by President Putin and appointed by the State
Duma (the lower house of Russia’s Federal Assembly) in
2016, is involved both in specific camp programs and in
the overall effort to cloak the program in human rights
language.122 For example, in August 2022 a group of
120 children from Russia-occupied Donetsk went to acamp in Russia-occupied Crimea through an agreement
reached between Commissioner Moskalkova and her
counterpart in the so-called DPR.123

Tatyana Nikolayevna
Moskalkova
COMMISSIONER FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS
Commissioner Moskalkova, he said, had told himthat “[Russia’s authorities] have children who do
not want to be in Russia, but do not have contact
with their family, and they are ready to pass themon. But they did not agree to give us a list of thesechildren so that we could look for relatives…”- Dmytro Lubinets
Ukraine Ombudsman Human Rights

Commissioner Moskalkova works closely with
Commissioner Lvova-Belova on issues pertaining tochildren. Commissioner Lvova-Belova told the stateowned TASS news agency in December 2022 that “...
everything related to children, we work with Tatyana
Nikolayevna Moskalkova together. It is very importantand I am very grateful that she is sympathetic to the issueof children, it is important for us to work together on sucha collaboration.”124 Together, the two commissioners
legitimate the camp and adoption system for Russia’s
domestic constituencies.125 By attaching her nameand title, the Commissioner for Human Rights coats a
program characterized by allegations of human rights
violations with a false veneer of human rights legitimacy.

families in Ukraine, but also expressed frustration.
Commissioner Moskalkova, he said, had told him that“[Russia’s authorities] have children who do not want to
be in Russia, but do not have contact with their family,
and they are ready to pass them on. But they did notagree to give us a list of these children so that we could
look for relatives…”126
Another federal official with an important role in thesystem is Sergey Kravtsov, the Minister of Education of
the Russian Federation. Minister Kravtsov supervises all
primary and secondary education in Russia, including
updating curricula in the so-called DPR and LPR school
systems.127 He also helped to facilitate camps by
providing vouchers for children from Russia-occupiedparts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts to attend
camps in Russia.128 Minister Kravtsov also visited children
in at least one camp and one university exchange
program, where he lectured on the state-backed versionof history:
Children from the liberated territories of the
LNR and DNR, mostly high school students,
come to the regions of our country andvirtually rediscover Russia. Many of them
do not know that there was a time when we
lived in one country, that we had common
victories, achievements, common culture
and language. Today, when students fromthe DNR and LNR visit museums devoted
to the Great Patriotic War and history,
many are surprised that we lived in one
state. Today, returning from the ‘University
shifts’—and there are about 15 thousand
schoolchildren—they leave different, open,
and friendly, many want to return...tell theirpeers about it, this is very important.129
Russia’s weaponized narratives erasing Ukraine’s
history have a long track record of their own,130 but
without credibility among historians, linguists, or
anthropologists.

In December 2022, Commissioner Moskalkova engaged
in negotiations with Ukraine’s Ombudsman for
Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, in Ankara, Turkey.
In an interview given after the conference ended,
Commissioner Lubinets expressed appreciation for
Moskalkova’s efforts to return some children to their18

3.b. Patronage System, Regional & Local Official Involvement
Officials in the DPR and LPR often encourage parents tosend their kids to the camps. The trips are often fundedby Russia’s regional and republican governments. The
concept of patronage (шефство) is central to how
the camps are bankrolled and politically supported.
Patronage occurs when one of Russia’s oblasts or
republics ‘adopts’ a town or oblast in Ukraine and funds
vouchers for children to visit camps in their region.131
Governors and other officials visit occupied territories
to offer vouchers to Ukraine’s children for visiting camps,
and often visit the children in the camps themselves.132
Regions have undertaken these patronage efforts atthe direction of Russia’s federal government.133 In May
2022, the First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential
Administration of Russia Sergey Kiriyenko announced
that President Putin had decided that regions andrepublics in the Russian Federation should take patronageof occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts: “Nowthe president has decided that the Russian regions willtake patronage over the districts and municipalitiesof the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.”134 The
effort included, Kiriyenko said, integrating children from
Ukraine into federal children’s programs, including thosethat have since brought children to camps in Russia.135
Fourteen regions initially took patronage of districts or
towns in eastern Ukraine (some had allegedly alreadydeclared patronage before Kiriyenko’s announcement).136
In a call to President Putin—the transcript of which was
published by the Kremlin—governor Sergey Nosovof Magadan reported that the sending of Ukraine’s
children to camps in Magadan in Russia’s Far Eastand Russia-occupied Crimea was a key success of his
patronage relationship: “As for patronage assistance tothose territories of Donbass, which, among other things,
are assigned to our region, we, in particular, are talking
about Donbass: we have the settlement of Zhdanovka...
Most importantly, 190 children from Zhdanovka, oursponsored community, had a vacation in the Crimea,
and, Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], we had 20 people
come to Kolyma.”137 By July 2022 more than 40 regions
and cities in Russia had declared patronage over parts ofoccupied Ukraine.138
According to the independent Russian news website
Meduza, anonymous Kremlin sources said that the effort
was centrally imposed; Moscow and Saint Petersburg,
as well as several nearby regions, were allowed tochoose areas of Ukraine to sponsor, while the sponsoredregion for other regions was “determined from above,”by Presidential offices in the regions across Russia.139
Participation was initially voluntary—according to the
Kremlin source, “[Governors] understood that in this way
they could attract the attention of the president, who
is interested in this agenda. Once again, demonstratezeal and loyalty.”140 When, by the middle of June, only 18
regions had volunteered, pressure was put on governors

to “volunteer.”141
In at least one case, the patronage relationships directedfrom the Kremlin were allegedly supplemented by avolunteering governor. Russia’s federal subjects thatare heavily subsidized by the central government
were excluded from the patronage system because of
the drain that participation would put on budgets.142
Yet Vladimir Solodov, the governor of the heavily
subsidized Kamchatka Krai in Russia’s Far East, saysthat he proactively petitioned the federal government
for an area of Ukraine to sponsor (the region took
patronage over Svetlodarsk district and the village ofMironovsky).143 Solodov “asked to take special control
over providing places in suburban children’s camps forchildren from Donbass.”144 Yale HRL has documented
the substantive involvement of several of these regional
leaders, including five not currently under U.S. sanctions.
While governors often take credit for the patronage
relationship and the children brought to camps as aresult, the execution of these programs falls to lowerlevel regional officials. In the Republic of Tatarstan,camps for children from Ukraine were overseen more
directly by the Republic’s Deputy Prime Minister Leyla
Fazleeva and Minister of Youth Affairs Rinat Sadykov.
Both are involved in planning, budgeting, and oversightof camps in the Republic, and paid particular attention
to groups of children from the so-called DPR and LPR,
visiting them with media.145 Deputy Minister Fazleeva’s
involvement is of particular note, as she also chairs
the Republic’s Commission on Juvenile Affairs and theProtection of their Rights, a role which gives her further
oversight responsibilities and lends legitimacy to thesystem of camps.146

193.C. Russia-aligned occupation authorities involvement incamps and facilities
All levels of occupation authorities, referring to those
appointed to official roles in the Russia- and proxyoccupied territories of Ukraine, are essential to the campsystem as well. They play essential roles in identifying
children for movement into foster homes, adoption
and evacuation (including ‘medical’) into Russia. These
actors include head occupation authorities of various
oblasts who assist in the logistics of transportingchildren, local occupation village authorities who recruitand encourage local families to send their children to
camps, and teachers and sometimes even parents who
recruit and accompany children to the camps.

and placing them with foster families.148 She worked
closely with Commissioner Lvova-Belova in both efforts.

3.C.I. OCCUPATION AUTHORITIES

Some involved at the local level were appointed
to positions of authority in education or childcare
capacities by occupation authorities. Vitaliy Suk wasappointed Director of the Oleshky Children’s Boarding
House by occupation authorities. At their direction, heallegedly sent one group of children with disabilities to
Russia-occupied Crimea and sent another group further
into Russia-occupied Kherson oblast. The former group
was allegedly first sent to a psychiatric hospital, fromwhich they would be sent onwards to homes for children
with disabilities throughout Russia.150

Local occupation officials have been integral in
facilitating both the camp system and placing children
from Ukraine among families in Russia. Eleanor
Fedorenko, the Advisor to the Head of the so-called
Donetsk People’s Republic on the Rights of the Child,accompanied 27 orphans, including 20 who had been
relocated from Donetsk and placed in camps, to a train
station near Moscow. These children were then placed
under temporary guardianship with families in the
Moscow area.147 Fedorenko also assisted in transporting
24 orphans from Donetsk to Nizhny Novgorod in Russia

Daria Morozova, the Commissioner of Human Rights ofthe so-called DPR, serves a similar role at a local level tothat played by Commissioner Moskalkova at the federal
level. In addition to collaborating with Commissioner
Moskalkova on the transport of at least 120 children
from Ukraine to a camp in Russia-occupied Crimea,
Commissioner Morozova also lends a similar façade ofhuman rights legitimacy to a program marked by abuse
allegations.149

FIG 7 | Russia’s leadership roles in the systematic transfer of children from Ukraine to occupied Crimea & Russia

20

4. LEGAL ANALYSISOther local appointees aided occupation authorities
with the recruitment of children for camps, the collectionof documents and consent forms from parents,
chaperoned groups of children traveling to camps, andled lessons in “patriotic education.”151
The individuals identified as key facilitators of thissystem of camps and adoptions represent a diverse
set of actors implementing and interpreting clear
instruction from the highest levels of government. Many
have professional relationships while the relationships
between others are unclear or non-existent. Rather
than a single, hierarchical arm of Russia’s government
orchestrating this system, what emerges is a networkof actors—some apparently acting on orders, others
seemingly capitalizing on an apparent opportunity—
coordinating these camps at the national, regional/
republican, and local levels.

Children are recognized as protected persons underthe 1949 Geneva Conventions and are considered an“object of special respect” under Article 77 of Additional
Protocol I of 1977.152 The Fourth Geneva Conventions
provide specific legal guidelines for the treatment ofchildren who have been separated from their families
during war, including those who have been evacuatedfrom their homes due to fighting. Family members must
be able to communicate with one another, systems
must be established to identify and register separated
children, and temporary evacuation of children shouldbe always to a neutral state with parental consent.153
The abduction of children is considered one of the “Sixgrave violations against children during armed conflict”
and is an act prohibited by international humanitarianlaw, international human rights law, internationalcustomary law, and multiple international judicial
precedents.154 The forcible transfer of children fromone group to another may constitute a violation of
Article 2(e) of the Convention on the Prevention andPunishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948.155 The
Rome Statute also recognizes the forcible transfer ofchildren as one of the component acts of the crime of
genocide, which is a crime against humanity.156 Russia’s
alleged deportation, reeducation, and, in some cases,
forcible adoption of children manifestly violates multiple
articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child(CRC), an instrument to which Russia is party. Dr. Alison
Bisset summarizes Russia’s potential violations of the
CRC since its invasion of Ukraine as follows:
States Parties undertake to respect theright of the child to preserve their identity,
including name, nationality, and family
relations, without unlawful interference(Article 8(1)). States must ensure thatchildren are not separated from theirparents against their will, other than inaccordance with due process and where
this would serve their best interests(Article 9(1))...If accurate, allegations that
Russia has arbitrarily separated children
from parents and caregivers, deported
them and imposed Russian citizenshipupon them suggest manifest contraventionof CRC standards, and failure to adhere tointernational legal obligations.157

21

APPENDIX I. INVESTIGATIVE METHODOLOGY
The investigative methodology for this report relies
on extensive open source research, with support fromvery high resolution (VHR) satellite imagery analysis. It
consists of the aggregation and verification of multiple
sources of data to understand the system of relocations,camps, re-education, and placement of children fromoccupied areas of Ukraine, and the tracing of groupsof children and implicated officials from Ukraine tosometimes distant parts of Russia. The units analyzed
were a) groups of children b) officials involved in
the camps and adoptions and c) facilities that housechildren, ranging from camps to hospitals to reception
centers. Verification of all claims made in this report
was conducted according to protocols developed byAmnesty International and the Berkeley Protocol on
Digital Open Source Investigations.

A. FACILITY IDENTIFICATION
Facilities that allegedly hosted children from Ukraine wereidentified through open source research in social media
posts, government announcements and publications,and news reports. New facilities were found through amix of keyword searches and, more commonly, snowballtechniques; many sources describing an identified campmention others, which could then be assessed. Many
actors involved in facilitation of these camps celebrated
their involvement and made no effort to hide it, andoccupation authorities sometimes published lists ofupcoming camp sessions.

B. GEOLOCATION
Once named, initial camp locations were established. In
most cases the name of a camp and the region it wasin were sufficient to establish a single probable location
using public mapping sites like Google Maps, Yandex
Maps and OpenStreetMap. In a small number of cases,
multiple camps of the same name existed in the same
region. In both cases open source geolocation methods
were used to either confirm or establish a camp’s location.
Information from reports of the presence of children
from Ukraine—whether descriptive, photographic orvideo—was compared against reference material fromfacilities’ websites, social media pages and user-uploaded
photographs on mapping sites. Of particular value werereference materials posted before 24 February 2022 on
major sites where tampering is unlikely. Once located,photographs and videos were checked for authenticity
by examining their metadata, passing them through animage verification software, and identifying elementsthat confirmed that the image or video was captured
when claimed. Once the authenticity of images andvideos was established, unique identifiers pictured in
the photographs or videos were matched to identical
identifiers in the reference material. For the locationof a site to be considered confirmed, at least two open
source analysts had to reach concurrence.

C. ACTIVITY
Once a facility’s location was confirmed, information
about the activities at these sites and the experiencesof children and parents was also collected, analyzed,
and verified by open source analysts. Information about
what occurred at a camp during a particular session
was collected from social media posts (especially
Telegram, VK, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram),
Russian and Ukrainian media, the reports of humanrights organizations and official communications ofgovernments. All available information related to each—the demographics (usually age, place of origin, custodial
status), kinds of activities or education children engaged
in, and the experiences of parents—were collected andanalyzed. Where any information was contradictory,
further investigations were needed to clarify and,
where impossible, contradictory information was
excluded. Particular attention was paid to allegations of
mistreatment, impediments to communication, delays
and indefinite impediments to return, and specificissues of consent. Very High-Resolution (VHR) satellite
imagery was used to verify and corroborate those claims
with relevant visible components, such as whether
there was activity at a location during a certain period.
In no case was the absence of information related to aphenomenon taken to indicate that that phenomenon
did not occur.

D. INDIVIDUAL INVOLVEMENT
Russia’s and occupation officials involved in both thecamp and adoptions systems in many cases madeno secret of their involvement. Many appear to haveconsidered their activity the apogee of humanitarianism,
or else wanted their superiors to see their work. In
either case, the information connecting officials, campadministrators, and civil society and private sector
actors to camps represents prima facie assertions ofinvolvement made by those very actors. Most celebrated
their involvement in social media posts, gave interviews
to Russian media outlets, or posed in photographs withchildren from Ukraine at camps.
Where such prima facie information was unavailable,
multiple sources were required to verify an individual’s
involvement. The individuals specifically mentioned inthis report represent only those for whom:
1.

Their precise role could be confidently establishedthrough open source methodology and,

2.

Their actions were considered to be marked
by substantial intentionality, culpability, andapparent illegality. Their role or rank was also
evaluated for authority.

22

For all sources, the identity of the poster or publisher waschecked to identify potential bias. Verification by large,
independent organizations with strong reputations
for careful work and ground access, such as the The
New York Times and Human Rights Watch provided
additional corroborating information. Primary sourceswere also checked for expertise, clear proximity toevents, political, economic or other ulterior motivations,and reputation for posting authenticated content. The
presence of multiple types of sources attesting to thesame fact or image lent credibility to assertions made.
All open source materials in Ukrainian or Russian were
initially translated by Google or DeepL and then verified
by a language expert. Throughout the report, Yale HRL
uses the Ukrainian name of cities, towns, and villages
according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine.158
The spelling of place names can differ across Ukrainianand Russian, and a note is included where something
may be unclear or require an explanation.

gender-based violence (SGBV), which victims may notreport due to shame or fear of social censure.
Satellite imagery analysis played a secondary role inthis report. Much of the activity of interest was unlikely
to be registered in remote images. All of the campsthat housed children were pre-existing camps andappear the same regardless of whether the children inthem came from Ukraine or Russia. Other facilities likeschools, hospitals, group homes and reception centerswould likewise register little visual difference regardlessof who occupied them. Where satellite imagery could be
used was in confirming that facilities were active when
they were alleged to be.

LIMITATIONS
The open source methodology used in this report has
the distinct advantage of collecting data not initiallycomposed or disseminated for researchers, prosecutors,
or other critical observers. The officials advertising
their involvement in Telegram posts do so to advancetheir careers or celebrate their achievements, yet
implicated themselves nonetheless. This methodology
does, however, pose some limitations. Yale HRL does notconduct interviews with witnesses or victims; only the
specific information available in open source is collected.
When analysts are unable to identify public information
about whether a child has returned home, it can bedifficult to ascertain the current status of the child.
Similarly, Yale HRL does not conduct ground-level
investigations and therefore did not request access tothe camps. International organizations like UNHCR havealso claimed that “access has been rather rare, sporadic
and not unfettered...”159 Limited access to facilities
that may be holding children means that little specificinformation about conditions and activities in camps
comes from sources other than the officials overseeing
the system. Thus, potentially negative information
about the conditions there is unlikely to be shared.
Those returned children and their families who do share
information about their experience represent a very
specific subgroup; many families on the Ukrainian side of
the frontline claim reticence to share due to threatened
accusations of collaboration with occupying forces.160
Those living under Russia’s occupation are likewise
limited in the criticisms or allegations of mistreatment
they may feel safe asserting publicly. Other information
is inaccessible because it has been removed fromsocial media sites. Given the public nature of these
data, certain socially sensitive subjects are likely to beroutinely underreported, resulting in a reporting bias.
Underreporting is particularly common for sexual and23

ENDNOTES
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5. Source CC0006 has been withheld due to protection concerns.
Андрющенко, Петр, “Андрющенко Рассказал, Где Оккупанты Удерживают 267 Детей-Сирот Из Мариуполяи Волновахи,” 24 Канал, accessed January 25, 2023, https://archive.ph/zcEFk, https://24tv.ua/ru/andrjushhenkorasskazal-gde-okkupanty-soderzhat-267-detej-sirot_n1992410.
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🔥

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2416. Source CC0026 has been withheld due to protection concerns.
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34. Source CC0049 has been withheld due to protection concerns.
35. Ibid.

25

36. Source CC0051 has been withheld due to protection concerns.
37. This report also does not specify through which circumstances children were taken into Russia and whether or not they
were accompanied by parents or guardians.
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Українських Дітей, Розлучених з Родинами,” BBC News Україна, October 17, 2022, https://archive.ph/a4lVU, https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/features-63268564.
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2022, https://archive.ph/VzWlg, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/27/children-become-stuck-at-camps-incrimea-ukraine-russia.
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Українських Дітей, Розлучених з Родинами,” BBC News Україна (BBC), accessed January 26, 2023, https://archive.ph/
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47. Source CC0067 has been withheld due to protection concerns.
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27

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