WASHINGTON DC – September 18, 2025 – A new investigation by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab has found that thousands of Ukrainian children have been taken to a vast network of camps, schools, sanatoriums and even military bases where children are subjected to forced re-education and militarization programs, often under direct Russian government management.
Researchers say the system spans more than 3,500 miles and encompasses 59 regions, ranging from the Black Sea to Siberia and the Pacific coast. At least 156 of the facilities were identified for the first time in this investigation, making it the most comprehensive accounting to date of Russia’s program. The report concludes that the effort amounts to a campaign to erase Ukrainian identity and indoctrinate children into Russian culture and, in some cases, military service.
According to the findings, re-education activities took place at nearly two-thirds of the documented sites, where children were exposed to pro-Russia historical and patriotic narratives. At least 39 facilities, nearly one in five, involved militarization programs that included weapons training, paratrooper exercises, and the assembly of drones and other equipment for the Russian armed forces. Some children were eventually placed in Russia’s fostering and adoption system, becoming naturalized Russian citizens.
The report also documents a significant expansion of facilities since the war began. Nearly a quarter of the sites were newly built or expanded after 2022, including two cadet schools. More than half of the facilities are directly managed by the Russian federal or local government, and state entities such as the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Defense and the Presidential Property Management Department were found to be directly involved in transporting children and running the programs.
Investigators detailed several case studies, including the All-Russian Children’s Center “Change” in Krasnodar Krai, where more than 300 children from occupied regions developed equipment for use by Russia’s military. At the Snegiri Young Patriot Center outside Moscow, children were organized into platoons, handling firearms and training in tactical medicine. In Tyumen, at the Olympic Children camp, children of Ukrainian service members were enrolled in programs funded by the Presidential Grants Fund; one child later died of medical negligence during the trip.
The report argues that Russia’s actions may violate international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The findings bolster previous claims that Moscow’s transfer of children constitutes war crimes and crimes against humanity. The authors warn that the impact of the program will leave “generational scars” and call for urgent international efforts to return children to their families and hold those responsible to account.
