More than 2,400 children from Ukraine have been taken to 13 facilities across Belarus since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, according to a study published by Yale University.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 2,400 Ukrainian children in the age group between 6 and 17-years-old have been transferred to 13 locations across Belarus, according to a new study published by Yale University on Thursday.
Some experts estimate the number of such transfers to be much higher.
In May, Ukraine's prosecutor general had said that he was probing Belarus' alleged role in the forced transfer of more than 19,000 identified children from Russian-occupied territories.
The research by the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health is by far the most extensive one conducted on relocations of Ukrainian children.
The US State Department said, "These revelations of Belarusian involvement are part of a broader campaign directed by Russia."
Russia has not commented on the findings of the research so far.
The 39-page report states that children had been transported from at least 17 cities in Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions. Last year, Russia illegally annexed parts in and around the four eastern and southern Ukrainian regions.
"Russia's systematic effort to identify, collect, transport, and re-educate Ukraine's children has been facilitated by Belarus," the report said.
Source: Dw
Comments