Yale report shows Russia used over 100 state-run sites to hold and “re-educate” deported Ukrainian children, some involved in drone assembly

A resort outside Moscow run by the Russian Presidential Administration is among more than 200 facilities that have been used to hold children taken from Ukraine, a report by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) reveals. At no fewer than 39 of these sites, children as young as eight years old have undergone what the authors describe as “military training”:

“Activities consistent with military training include, but are not limited to, the simulation of military scenarios, combat training, ceremonial parades and drills, assembly of drones and other materiel, and education in military history.”

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian children have been placed at least 210 sites across Russia and in territories occupied by Russian forces. More than half of these facilities were controlled by the Russian state, the report said.

The actual number of locations could be higher, and it is unclear whether Ukrainian children are still present at all of them. Earlier reporting had identified only 54 such facilities.

HRL listed a range of location types: “religious sites, secondary schools and universities, hotels, family support centers and orphanages, and most frequently, camps and sanatoriums.”

More than half are run by federal or local government bodies, with 86 under direct federal control. HRL also documented the placement of children at the Snegiri resort outside Moscow, which belongs to the Presidential Administration. Ukrainian children were housed at the “Young Patriot” center on the resort grounds. That facility opened in July 2023 specifically to work with Ukrainian children and “re-educate” them, according to the report.

In at least two cases, children were flown in on aircraft owned by the Presidential Administration. In July 2023, for instance, children were transported from Ukraine to Russia’s Pskov Region, where they underwent paratrooper training. Military training programs were documented at no fewer than 39 of the 210 sites, involving children aged 8 to 17. They were taught how to shoot and throw grenades and received “tactical medicine, and drone control and tactics training.”

“Re-education” activities consisting of cultural and patriotic lessons promoting pro-Russian views were conducted at at least 130 of the 210 sites. The true number may be higher, according to the researchers.

The report also mentioned that since February 2022, over 300 children from occupied regions of Ukraine have been taken to the All-Russian Children’s Center “Change” (“Smena”) in Krasnodar Krai, a government-run facility overseen by Russia’s Ministry of Education. There, the children have undergone re-education and military training, including programs run by the pro-Kremlin youth movement Yunarmiya. At least four groups from a boarding school in Luhansk were sent annually between 2022 and 2025 to a program called the “Yunarmiya Camp of Innovation and Technology,” where participants in April 2024 reportedly developed drones, mine detectors, robots and rapid loaders for assault rifles for use by Russia’s military.

Ukraine considers the forcible transfer of children to Russia or Russian-occupied territories without family consent a war crime and an act of genocide. Russia has described the relocations as a “humanitarian evacuation” carried out for “safety reasons.”

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Russia's Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, over their role in the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia during the war.