Feb. 15 (UPI) — Russia is operating a large-scale system of re-education and adoption facilities, where thousands of forcibly relocated Ukrainian children have been held amid its war in the neighboring country, according to a new report.
Ukrainian, American and other officials, along with human rights advocates, have been condemning Russia since early in its war for committing human rights violations, including the forced relocation of Ukrainian children.
The report published Tuesday by the U.S. State Department-funded Conflict Observatory reveals the extent of the program, stating it is a large-scale, systematic network spanning at least 43 camps and facilities in Russia that have been identified and their locations confirmed.
The non-governmental organization, which is run by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab, said the primary purpose of the camps appears to be political re-education. At least 32 of the facilities it has identified exposes Ukrainian children to pro-Russian education in the forms of school curriculum, field trips to cultural or patriotic sites and lectures from Russian veterans and historians.
According to the report, Russia refers to some of these camps as “integration programs” aimed at re-educating Ukrainians by Russia’s education standards, immersing them in Russian culture and encouraging them to “become their own” in Russia.
At some of the camps, children undergo military training, including being instructed on handling military equipment and firearms, with the purpose of fostering patriotism for Russia, it states.
According to the researchers, Russia began to relocate children from Ukraine‘s Russia-backed separatist-held eastern region in early February prior to its full-on invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Children ushered through the system range from 4 months to 17 years of age and fall under four categories: those with parents or guardians, those deemed orphans by Russia, those in state-run institutions due to severe physical or mental disabilities and those whose custody is unclear due to war.
The report states children with clear guardianship are the primary targets of the re-education camps, as many are sent with their parents’ consent, while those purported to be orphans and from state institutions are deported to Russia for adoption or placement in foster care.
“The separation of children from their parents for indefinite periods documented in this report, even if initial consent for their temporary relocation during an armed conflict was originally obtained, can constitute a violation of the Convention of the Rights of Children,” the report said, referring to the international treaty that details the rights of minors, including those they have concerning their separation from family by a state party.
The report states that the system for adoption is overseen by the highest levels of Russian government with the encouragement of Russian President Vladimir Putin as he signed a degree May 30 that the researchers interpret to be an effort to expedite the process of adopting Ukrainian children into Russian homes.
“Some of the alleged actions of Russia’s federal government and its proxies detailed in this report, such as unnecessarily expediting the adoption and fostering of children from Ukraine during the current emergency, could constitute a potential war crime and crime against humanity in some cases,” it said.
Though the report said the system has held at least 6,000 Ukrainian children in camps as far as 3,900 miles from their home country, the actual number is likely to be “significantly higher,” it said.
“Putin seeks to rob Ukraine of its future by taking its children,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Tuesday during a regular press conference. “Russia’s system of forced relocation, re-education and adoption of Ukraine’s children is a key element of the Kremlin’s systematic efforts to deny and suppress Ukraine’s identity, its history and its culture.”
Price said this is one of the reasons Russia war will be felt for generations.
Ukrainian officials have reported that millions of their citizens, including hundreds of thousands of children, have been forcibly relocated to Russia through so-called filtration camps and facilities.
In September, Ilze Brands Kehris, the United Nations assistant secretary-general for human rights, told the Security Council of credible reports of forced transfers of unaccompanied children to Russia.
“We are concerned that the Russian authorities have adopted a simpler procedure to grant Russian citizenship to children without parental care, and that these children would be eligible for adoption by Russian families,” Kehris said.
“Moreover, we are particularly concerned that the announced plans of the Russian authorities to allow the movement of children from Ukraine to families in the Russian Federation do not appear to include steps for family reunification or in other ways ensure respect for the principle of the best interests of the child.”
About a week after that meeting, the United States announced a fresh round of sanctions against a slew of people, including Maria Alexeyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for Children’s Rights, over efforts to forcibly deport thousands of Ukrainian children into Russia families and subject them to “patriotic education.”
The report on Tuesday names her as the “apparent leader of this multifaceted operation.”
