Science1 publisher2 min readPublished
Document trail ties at least 47 Russian and Belarusian figures to Ukrainian child deportations
Researchers with the Where Are Our People? project have identified at least 47 Russian and Belarusian figures in the deportation of Ukrainian children. Only some of them face Western sanctions, while Ukraine counts 2,644 children returned against 20,651 verified deportations.
The Scientist · Science desk
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What happened
- Some estimates of how many children were taken, including figures shared by Russian officials themselves, run as high as 744,000.
- The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in March 2023 for Vladimir Putin and his children's commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, over the deportations.
- Children are removed under labels such as "rehabilitation" or "health vacations" and placed thousands of miles away in Siberia, the Arctic or the Far East.
- Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab has mapped 210 facilities inside Russia where deported Ukrainian children are held for reeducation or militarization.
- Roughly 1.6 million Ukrainian children live under occupation, at least 582,000 of them of school age.
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Why it matters
- exposure Only some of the named governors and executives are sanctioned, so the project's list gives governments documented candidates for new designations beyond the two people the ICC has charged.
- contradiction The highest estimate is about 36 times Ukraine's verified count, so any return rate quoted for this campaign depends on which denominator the speaker chose.
- constraint Parents in occupied Melitopol or Mariupol must comply with Russian authorities to keep a chance of getting their children back, so each deportation also binds the adults left behind.
- cost Returned children face a "dual adaptation" without a unified Ukrainian state support program, so the burden of each case continues after the child comes home.
The project works from paperwork and posts. The article's author, who works alongside Where Are Our People? with colleagues at King's College London, tracks deported children through regional government documents and the social media posts of Russian officials [7]. Some of that record was made in public. About a year after the full-scale invasion, the Arctic city of Murmansk marked its regional day with a celebration for children. Children taken from the occupied Prymorskyi district of Zaporizhzhia stood alongside the sons and daughters of Russian soldiers [9].
A trail like this finds the people who appear in it. The project gives its count as "at least 47" individuals directly involved [1]. In my view that is best treated as a floor, set by what officials recorded or posted. The 47 run from regional governors to business executives [1]. Only some are under Western sanctions [2], and the article does not say how many.
The return figure depends on its denominator. Against Ukraine's 20,651 verified cases [3], the 2,644 children returned as of September 2026 [5] come to 12.8 per cent [20]. Against the highest estimate [4], they come to about 0.36 per cent [21]. The first ratio rests on cases Ukraine's authorities have verified. The second rests on an estimate that draws partly on figures shared by Russian officials [4].
"Our findings suggest that child deportation is not a byproduct of war but a systematic instrument of occupation," the author wrote [8]. The evidence offered is a repeated sequence. Children are moved thousands of miles away, their personal data is concealed, and some are placed with Russian families [10][11]. I think the documents support the author's reading. A repeated pattern establishes coordination more firmly than it establishes intent, though, and intent is the part the author infers from the record [8].
Children who stayed in occupied territory are taught to Russian standards [19]. Mandatory weekly lessons called "Conversations about important things" began in 2022 in schools throughout the occupied territories, with content specified by Russia's education ministry [15]. In occupied Zaporizhzhia the lessons cast Russia's invasion as a second liberation [18]. Elementary pupils are enrolled in Orlyata Rossii, a junior movement whose training includes assembling weapons and operating drones [16]. The program is thought to have more than 10,000 participants in occupied Zaporizhzhia alone [16].
What to watch
- Whether Western governments add more of the 47 identified officials and executives to sanctions lists.
- Whether Where Are Our People? publishes its full list and source documents so the count can be checked independently.
- Whether the returned figure of 2,644 grows, and whether Ukraine's verified count moves toward the higher estimates.