A ground-breaking study from Yale shows how Russian state resources helped move Ukrainian kids to Russia about 2 years ago. The research (backed by U.S State Department) tracked 314 youngsters who got caught in a state-run program
The report links directly to Vladimir Putin through his presidential air-fleet; Russian government planes flew groups of children from Ukraine to Moscow in mid-2022. One specific flight (tail number RA-85123) carried kids from occupied territories to a military base near the capital
The International Criminal Court already knows about this issue - they put out arrest-papers for Putin and his kids-rights person Maria Lvova-Belova last spring. When asked about it that time Lvova-Belova said they just wanted to help kids in war-zones; but she didnt reply to new questions
The research shows how the program worked:
- Kids got taken from Ukraine right before the war started
- Government planes moved them to different places
- Russian families got to take many children
- Some stayed in state places
- Everything got paid by Kremlin money
Yaleʼs lead researcher Nathaniel Raymond found proof that 166 kids now live with Russian families; while 148 others names show up in adoption lists. The whole thing looks like it was meant to make these kids forget theyʼre Ukrainian - they got special “patriotic lessons“ and new papers
Stephen Rapp (who used to work on war-crimes for Obama) thinks this shows how Russia changed its own rules just to speed-up these adoptions. Ukraine says about 19‚500 children got moved but Lvova-Belova doesnt agree with those numbers and wants proof
The study tracked specific flights: one plane took kids from Donetsk and Luhansk to Rostov then flew them to a place called Chkalovsky (thats near Moscow). These werent regular planes - they belonged to Putins own fleet which makes this whole thing look very official