Overview

• Using open-source evidence and satellite imagery, Yale identified 210 locations across more than 50 Russian regions and occupied Ukrainian territory spanning roughly 3,500 miles.
• Re-education was documented at about 130 sites, while at least 39 locations provided combat-related instruction such as drone tactics, shooting and grenade-throwing; researchers have not verified any conscription.
• About half of the facilities are run by the Russian government, roughly a quarter show post-2022 expansion, and the sites range from camps and sanatoriums to cadet schools, a military base, medical and religious institutions, and orphanages.
• Ukraine’s Bring Kids Back program has registered nearly 20,000 unlawful transfers, Yale researchers estimate totals could exceed 35,000, and officials say more than 1,600 children have been returned, including 16 reported this week.
• The work has been constrained by U.S. funding cuts and new legal limits on ICC cooperation, with the data repository moved to Europol and a bipartisan Senate push seeking terrorism designations tied to the children’s return.