American researchers have identified at least 210 facilities in Russia and temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine where Russians are “re-educating” and militarising Ukrainian children, though the actual number may be higher.

Source: report by the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab

Details: The Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) report concludes that Ukrainian children have been subjected to “re-education” at cadet and secondary schools, medical institutions, universities, family support centres, orphanages, a military base and a hotel, but most often in summer camps and sanatoriums, and in one case a monastery.

HRL has documented cases where children were prevented from returning to Ukraine and others where they were placed in Russian foster care.

Of the 210 facilities, 21 are located in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine – in Mariupol, Sevastopol and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

At least 130 locations run “re-education” programmes using cultural, historical and patriotic activities aligned with pro-Russian narratives.

Children are forced to attend lectures on history and geopolitics, visit museums and historical sites, sing the Russian national anthem, and take part in events centred on Russian patriotic themes.

Children aged 8 to 17, depending on the programme, undergo militarisation at 39 of the facilities. They learn to assemble and operate drones, receive tactical medical training, develop fire and naval training skills, and participate in shooting and grenade-throwing competitions.

HRL has documented cases of children from Donetsk Oblast receiving airborne training at a military base. The children were brought to the base on an aircraft managed by the Presidential Property Management Department within the Russian Presidential Administration. HRL has previously documented the use of an aircraft with the same tail number to transport Ukrainian children as part of Russia’s programme of coerced adoption and fostering.

Background:

Since the beginning of 2025, Russia has forcibly deported nearly 11,000 Ukrainian children to 164 camps in Russia and occupied Crimea.Sonia (name changed), a 17-year-old Ukrainian girl from the occupied part of Kherson Oblast, was taken to Volgograd and placed in the Avangard military camp, which has branches across Russia. She spent a month receiving military training, learning to dig trenches, set booby traps and load machine guns.In 2024, the Russians took children from the occupied settlement of Bilovodsk in Luhansk Oblast to a military camp in Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia. Children aged 11 to 17 were coerced into military training in the tent city, which the Russians call the Young Army Camp.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!

From Ukrainska Pravda via this RSS feed