Russia's most unprecedented war tactic? How Moscow is 'brainwashing' Ukrainian children in 200+ facilities | Explained

Children play near a public football field in the village in the Dnipropetrovsk region on June 25, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Tetiana DZHAFAROVA / AFP)

Russia is operating a vast programme of “re-education” and militarisation of Ukrainian children, according to a new report by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL). The study has uncovered more than 200 facilities across Russia and the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine where thousands of Ukrainian children have been taken since Moscow’s invasion in February 2022.

These facilities include summer camps, schools, military bases, medical centres, religious sites and universities. Thousands of children have been forcefully deported, with some sent temporarily while others have remained indefinitely.

Re-education and military training

The report, titled Ukraine’s Stolen Children: Inside Russia’s Network of Re-Education and Militarization, documented at least 210 sites holding Ukrainian children. According to The Guardian, there are at least 130 camps in Russia involved in “re-education” efforts to indoctrinate children with pro-Russian narratives. These programmes include lectures on Russian history and singing the national anthem.

The study found that 39 of the facilities run militarisation programmes where even children as young as eight are given weapons training. Older children have participated in grenade-throwing competitions, tactical medicine courses, paratrooper training, combat drills and even drone assembly for Russian forces.

Researchers said they could not verify whether any of the children who underwent military training were later conscripted into the Russian army or deployed in the war. However, the report concluded that Russia is “operating a potentially unprecedented system of large-scale reeducation, military training, and dormitory facilities capable of holding tens of thousands of children from Ukraine for long periods of time.”

How the study was conducted

To map the network of facilities, researchers used open-source intelligence, satellite imagery, Russian government documents and news reports. They corroborated the presence of children with at least five independent sources. At least half of the locations identified were directly run by the Russian government.

“We can see trench works, firing ranges, parade grounds. The only thing we don’t know is whether (Ukrainian children have) already been deployed in battle,” said Nathaniel Raymond, the executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab, in an interview with The Guardian.

Raymond told NBC News that the study was commissioned by Ukraine to “better understand the full size of the network of facilities where children are held, to help them eventually return to their homeland.” He added, “It’s really important that all the people involved in different ways to bring the kids back have the most accurate geospatial information possible, and this is it.”

How many children have been taken

Ukraine has officially identified more than 19,500 children as unlawfully deported or forcefully taken by Russia since its full-scale invasion, but officials believe the true number is much higher. Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab estimates that as of March 19, 2025, the number could be closer to 35,000.

Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova claimed that Russia has “accepted” 700,000 Ukrainian children between February 2022 and July 2023. Ukraine has so far been able to bring back 1,605 children with the help of mediators such as Qatar, South Africa and the Vatican.

International condemnation

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of war crimes and unlawful deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.

The Yale report said Russia’s systematic deportation and militarisation of children violates the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. “This report demands action. Children are always the most vulnerable victims of armed conflict,” Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak said, as reported by Euronews.

“Not only have these children undergone trauma and displacement, they have also suffered systemic deportation, illegal adoption, and forced assimilation,” he added.

The study also revealed that Russia is expanding several sites to accommodate more children, with at least two new camps under construction.

“What we have here is an unprecedented network of facilities, expressly built and expanded since 2014, to turn Ukrainian children into Russians,” Raymond told The Guardian. “It is a pipeline for Ukraine’s children to be re-educated – brainwashed – and turned into soldiers.”