More than 2400 Ukrainian children were taken to Belarus
More than 2,400 Ukrainian children between the ages of 6 and 17 were taken to 13 institutions in Belarus after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
This is stated in a study by Yale University, reports RBC-Ukraine with reference to Reuters.
The results of a study conducted by the Humanities Research Laboratory of the Yale School of Public Health, funded by the US State Department, and provided to Reuters, are the most extensive information to date on the alleged role of Belarus in the Russian resettlement program of Ukrainian children.
Russia has previously said it offers humanitarian aid to those who want to leave Ukraine voluntarily and rejects accusations of war crimes.
Among the main findings of the 39-page report is that children were taken from at least 17 cities in the Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, which Yale University researchers called a regular practice.
More than 2,000 children identified by Yale University were transported to the Dibrova Children's Center in the Minsk region of Belarus between September 2022 and May 2023, and 392 children were transferred to 12 other institutions.
"Russia's systematic efforts to identify, collect, transport, and re-educate Ukrainian children were carried out with the assistance of Belarus. "The Russian Federation and the Belarusian regime jointly coordinate and finance the movement of children from Russian-occupied Ukraine through the territory of Russia to Belarus," the report says.
The transportation of the children to Belarus through Russian territory was "ultimately coordinated" between Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Once in Belarus, the children underwent military training and re-education, and Lukashenko approved the use of state organizations to transport children from Ukraine to Belarus and finance their transportation, according to a Yale report.
It is unclear how many of the children identified in the Yale study remain in Belarus.
Author - Serhii Kolomiets, 17/11/2023
