Thousands of Ukrainian children abducted to Belarus – Yale research

After a full-scale war unraveled in early 2022, more than 2,400 Ukrainian children aged 6 to 17 were taken to 13 institutions in Belarus, says the research published by Yale University.

The findings by the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health, which receives U.S. State Dept. funding, shared with Reuters are the most extensive to date about the alleged role of Belarus in the Russian relocation program for Ukrainian children.

Today, they are the widest information about the alleged role of Belarus in the Russian program of resettlement of Ukrainian children.

Russia has previously stated that it offers humanitarian assistance to those who want to voluntarily leave Ukraine and rejects allegations of war crimes.

Citing the 39-page report, children were taken from at least 17 cities of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

More than 2,000 children Yale identified were transported to the Dubrava children's center in Belarus' Minsk region between September 2022 and May 2023, it said, while 392 children were taken to 12 other facilities.

"Russia's systematic effort to identify, collect, transport, and re-educate Ukraine's children has been facilitated by Belarus.

Russia's federal government and Belarus' regime have been working together to coordinate and fund the movement of children from Russia-occupied Ukraine through Russia to Belarus." the report says.

Transports to Belarus through Russia were "ultimately coordinated" between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, it added.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russia's Putin in March. It accused him and Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.

Taking children under the age of 18 across a border without the consent of a parent or guardian is prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Once in Belarus, children have been subjected to military training and re-education and Lukashenko approved the use of state organizations to transport children from Ukraine to Belarus and finance their transportation, the Yale report said.

It is unclear how many of the children identified by Yale's research remain in Belarus.