Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials “intentionally and directly authorized” the plan to systematically kidnap and forcibly remove Ukrainian children over the course of the war, according to a Yale University report.
Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab identified 314 children who were forcibly taken from Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and were placed in a “systematic program of coerced adoption and fostering,” according to the report, though it noted that tally is not representative of the total number of children taken from their homes during the war.
At least 67 of the 314 children the report has confirmed were brought to Russia have been naturalized as Russian citizens since being taken, while at least 208 of them have been placed for adoption or guardianship with Russian citizens, have been temporarily placed with Russian citizens, or have had a Russian citizen appointed as their guardian.
The Ukrainian children were initially brought to midpoint locations before they were then dispersed across 21 regions in Russian territory.
“Ukraine is tirelessly working to ensure our children return home and that all those responsible for these heinous crimes are punished,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in light of the report, which was released Tuesday. “This is a challenging task, but we are doing everything in our power. We are deeply grateful to everyone who is helping us — every country, organization, leader, both political and public.”
Some of the children were flown to Russia on aircraft managed by the presidential Property Management Department within the presidential administration, according to the Yale report.
Russia has largely controlled the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in Ukraine since 2014, when Russian-backed separatists first came to power there, and Russia then declared the annexation of the provinces in 2022. Russia amended its laws and introduced new legislation to simplify the process of giving Ukrainian children Russian citizenship.
Some of the children taken were orphaned as their parents were killed in the war.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova back in March 2023 for their alleged role in the “war crime of unlawful deportation of” children and the children’s “unlawful transfer.”
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Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for children’s rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, “adopted” a Ukrainian child.
The Yale report identified several other Russian officials who have been involved in the plot, including the deputy secretary of the General Council of the United Russia Party and deputy chairwoman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Anna Kuznetsova; heads of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, and Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin; Russian Education Minister Sergey Kravtsov; and officials of United Russia, the majority political party in the State Duma.