US university investigators: Putin and other Russian officials directly involved in deportation of Ukrainian children

(Patria) - Russian authorities, including President Vladimir Putin, were directly involved in issuing orders for the forced transfer, foster care and subsequent adoption of Ukrainian children who were displaced from war zones and occupied regions of Ukraine, US researchers have stated.

In a report published on December 3, investigators from Yale University highlight that at least 314 children from Ukraine were subjected to a "systematic program of forced adoption and foster care" in families in Russia, reported the English-language editorial team of Radio Free Europe.

"The Russian Federation has carried out systematic, deliberate and widespread forced adoptions and transfers of children from Ukraine. The operation was initiated by Putin and his subordinates with the intention of 'Russifying' children from Ukraine," the report states.

The findings of the report build on evidence pointing to the possible responsibility of Putin and other top officials for war crimes.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023 for the "war crime of unlawful deportation" and "unlawful transfer" of children from Ukrainian territory to Russia. Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova was also charged.

Researchers from the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University, whose work is supported by the State Department, stated that since 2022 they have documented that aircraft registered to the Russian air force and the presidential office were used to transfer children to Russia.

They also found documents on the enrollment of Ukrainian children in Russian schools, as well as databases on the placement of children. Some of the Ukrainian children appear in Russian databases as if they were born in Russia, not in Ukraine.

Russian citizens who assumed legal guardianship over Ukrainian minors received "authorization" to apply for Russian citizenship for the children under their care. Ukrainian children were also subjected to "pro-Russian re-education" in Russian state institutions.

Most of the children from Ukraine listed in Russian databases, the report states, were taken from Donetsk, an eastern Ukrainian region that has been partially under occupation by Russian and pro-Russian separatist forces since 2014.

The Kremlin declared the annexation of the Donetsk region and three other Ukrainian regions - Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, as well as the Crimean peninsula. Only Syria and North Korea have recognized that move.

Russian officials often portray activities with children from Ukraine as a humanitarian gesture of sheltering, feeding or protecting children from war in the occupied regions. However, in many cases, Russian authorities have done little to identify the parents or relatives or legal guardians of Ukrainian children.

Ukrainian officials, journalists and civil society activists have also gathered significant evidence of the role of the Russian state in the transfer and deportation of children from Ukraine.

The transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia has put additional pressure on an already overburdened Russian social welfare infrastructure.

Hundreds of Ukrainian children were transferred from occupied Ukrainian regions and sent to a network of summer camps in Belarus, where they were exposed to pro-Russian education and propaganda, RFE determined.

According to official Ukrainian data, as of July 24, 2024, 19,546 children had been deported from Ukraine to Russia since the start of the invasion in February 2022. The Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights said last month that by then, 1,012 children had been returned from Russia.