More than 2,400 children from Ukraineaged from 6 to 17 years, have been transferred to Belarus after the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory, in February 2022, according to Yale University research. Ukraine’s attorney general said in May he was investigating Belarus’ role in the forced transfer of 19,000 children from Russian-held territory after the war began. Some experts and organizations estimate that the total number of children taken to Russia is much higher.
The findings by the State Department-funded Yale School of Public Health Laboratory of Humanitarian Research are the most extensive to date on the role Belarus played in the Russian resettlement program for these children. Moscow insists it is providing humanitarian aid to those who wanted to leave Ukraine voluntarily and rejects accusations of war crimes.
The 39-page report states that children from at least 17 cities were transported in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions. The Yale researchers note that this practice continues. More than 2,000 children were transferred to the Dubrava juvenile center in the Minsk region of Belarus between September 2022 and May 2023. Another 392 children were sent to 12 other facilities.
“Russia’s systematic effort to round up, transport and re-educate Ukraine’s children was facilitated by Belarus. The federal government of Russia and the Belarusian regime cooperated to coordinate and finance the movement of children from occupied Ukraine, through Russia, to Belarus,” the report states.
Children sent to Belarus they received military training and “re-educated”. According to the Yale report, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko himself gave his approval for government agencies to transport children from Ukraine to Belarus. It is unclear how many of the children recorded by the Yale researchers remain in Belarus today.
Source: News Beast
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