More than 2,400 children from Ukraine have been illegally deported to Belarus, Reuters reports, citing research data from the Yale University.
“The findings by the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health, which receives U.S. State Dept. funding, shared with Reuters are the most extensive to date about the alleged role of Belarus in the Russian relocation program for Ukrainian children,” according to a Reuters report posted on the official website on Thursday.
According to the study, “more than 2,400 children from Ukraine aged between six and 17 years old have been taken to 13 facilities across Belarus since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, research published by Yale University said on Thursday.”
As the message says, “among the key findings detailed in the 39-page report were that children had been transported from at least 17 cities in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia regions in what Yale researchers described as an ongoing practice.”
“More than 2,000 children Yale identified were transported to the Dubrava children’s centre in Belarus’ Minsk region between September 2022 and May 2023, it said, while 392 children were taken to 12 other facilities,” the message reads.
According to Reuters, “once in Belarus, children have been subjected to military training and re-education and Lukashenko approved the use of state organizations to transport children from Ukraine to Belarus and finance their transportation, the Yale report said.”
“Russia’s federal government and Belarus’ regime have been working together to coordinate and fund the movement of children from Russia-occupied Ukraine through Russia to Belarus,” the message reads.