According to the Yale University study, Russia has sent these thousands of Ukrainian minors to these camps or other facilities since the invasion of Ukrainian territory began on February 24, 2022.
At a press conference, specialist Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Yale Humanitarian Research Laboratory, said he had “evidence” that Russia had violated the Geneva Convention and “other elements” of international law on the rights of minors and their protection in a armed conflict.
According to the investigation, Moscow holds Ukrainian minors in 43 centers, 41 of which were used for summer camps for children in the past.
Raymond also specified that “78% of facilities are conducting some form of re-education of Ukrainian minors, mainly from areas such as Donetsk and Lugansk” in eastern Ukraine.
The expert added that there are other minors who have confirmed that they have been placed in Russian foster homes and orphanages.
Nathaniel Raymond also drew attention to the “huge” geographic scope of these Russian activities, because the centers to which Ukrainian minors are sent exist in different locations, such as the Crimean peninsula – occupied by Russia in 2014 -, Moscow, the Black Sea and Siberia. .
And there’s even such a facility in Magadan, on Russia’s Pacific coast, “closer to the American mainland than Moscow,” Raymond noted.
The expert explained that there are two groups of minors involved in this process, one of which consists of children from Donetsk and Lugansk, who make up the majority of the 6,000 children whose numbers were calculated based on reports of transfers to re-education camps. .
The second integrates what Russia calls “evacuees” from Kherson, Kharkov and Zaporijia, who are placed in Russia’s foster care system, according to Nathaniel Raymond.
The American expert noted that it was possible to identify about 32 centers where “systematic re-education efforts” are being conducted to “expose” Ukrainian minors to military training, in addition to Russian academic education and cultural patriotism.
Another person responsible for the North American study, Caitlin Howarth, explained that when we talk about military training, it’s not about minors sitting in a classroom listening to what their instructors say, but about “handling firearms”.
“We have video footage and pictures (of the minors) going over roads with obstacles, in physical training, driving vehicles and weapons,” he said.
Raymond concluded that with these actions, Russia is taking a comprehensive approach at the government level to re-educate, relocate and force-adopt Ukrainian minors.
“This is exactly in line with what some of the early trials of elements of the Nazi regime before the Nuremberg Tribunal assumed. There is certainly no confusion in international law: Russia’s actions are illegal and could constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity.” , he claimed.
Source: DN
