Putin’s planes took Ukrainian kids into ‘coerced’ Russian adoption, a Yale report says

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia’s president and senior Kremlin officials have financed and facilitated the transport of at least 314 Ukrainian children in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine into coerced foster care and adoptions since the 2022 invasion, according to a new investigation released Tuesday by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab.

The Yale researchers say the children have been listed in Russia’s child placement databases or placed directly with Russian families.

Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the humanitarian lab, said Russian foster parents or guardians can apply for Russian citizenship on behalf of Ukrainian children in their custody.

“This is extremely important because now it basically creates a method by which their Ukrainian identity can be erased,” he told reporters at an online press briefing on Tuesday.

The report says at least 67 of the 314 children identified have been naturalized as Russian citizens, though the researchers say the actual number is likely higher.

The Humanitarian Research Lab, which is part of the Conflict Observatory, a program supported by the U.S. State Department, said its researchers based their findings on verified leaked documents that show Putin’s involvement in the program. The report said Russian government planes, including from Putin’s presidential air fleet, transferred children from occupied parts of Ukraine to be placed with Russian families. It said researchers mapped the flights using satellite images and open-source information.

The researchers say the findings may provide new evidence for the International Criminal Court, which last year issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his commissioner for children, Maria Lvova-Belova, on alleged war crimes for their roles in directing the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Russia, which is not a signatory to the ICC and does not recognize the warrants, acknowledges adoptions of Ukrainian children but insists they are part of a humanitarian program and denies war crimes.

Yale law professor Oona Hathaway, who attended the briefing to provide a legal perspective, said that the evidence in this report could “provide supportive evidence for a broader case of genocide” under the ICC’s Rome Statute.

Raymond said he will present the findings to the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday. He said that unless Russia is confronted, the special protected status of children in war could be “eroded grievously.”

“What Russia has done here, if it is left unconfronted, is to make children a bargaining chip, and we cannot allow that to happen,” he said.

Ukraine’s government is now pressing Russia to provide a register of all Ukrainian children held in Russian custody.

“This data is very important because every destiny of every child which has been subjected to the Russian aggression through this horrific war crime is to be brought back to Ukraine,” Ukrainian Justice Minister Olha Stefanishyna told reporters.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said bringing these children home can’t happen without the help of Ukraine’s allies.

“Only together can we restore the justice Russia has violated on such a massive scale,” he wrote in a statement on social media.