Yale researchers say more than 2,400 children were deported from Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

According to research by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), Belarus has collaborated with Moscow in the forced relocation of thousands of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied Ukraine under a program “directly overseen by the country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko ” becomes.

The report (PDF), released on Thursday, said at least 2,442 children between the ages of six and 17 had been taken to 13 facilities across Belarus since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022 until the end of October this year.

“Russia and Belarus target children from Ukraine, coordinate their transport from occupied Ukraine through Russia to Belarus, and subject children to re-education, sometimes including military training,” the Yale HRL researchers said.

They said Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “jointly directed and financed with Putin” the deportations under the deal. Union state Initiative that was first passed in 1996.

“Belarus’ direct involvement in Russia’s forced deportation of children represents collaboration between Belarus’ authoritarian leader [Alexander] Lukashenka and Russian President Vladimir Putin, with various pro-Russian and pro-regime organizations facilitating the deportation,” they said.

Putin is already the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant about the alleged forced relocation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories by Moscow, together with the country’s children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova.

Crossing a border with children under 18 without the consent of a parent or guardian is illegal under international humanitarian law.

Kyiv, some people think so 19,000 children have already stated that they are investigating Belarus’ alleged involvement in this policy.

In September, Belarusian state media published photos of dozens of Ukrainian children entering the country from the Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions.three week vacation“. The children were shown getting off a train with backpacks and suitcases, mostly with a serious expression on their faces.

Alexei Talai, the head of the charity that runs the program, said Lukashenko called it an “important humanitarian project” that must continue. Talai was also mentioned as an intermediary in Thursday’s report.

The Yale HRL is part of the Conflict Observatory, funded by the United States.

“These revelations about Belarus’ involvement are part of a broader campaign by Russia,” the US State Department said in a statement.

“Russian military and government personnel have deported hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians to Russia, including children who were forcibly separated from their families. “The United States will continue to work to hold accountable those involved in abuses related to Russia’s war against Ukraine.”

Moscow has denied allegations that it is involved in forced relocations or the separation of children from their families.

The Yale HRL report said the children were abducted from at least 17 cities in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, parts of which are occupied by Russia.

They were loaded onto trains to Rostov-on-Don in Russia before being transported to Belarus.

More than 2,050 of the children were taken to the “Dubrava children’s camp” in the Belarusian capital Minsk, it said.

The researchers said it was not clear how many of the documented children remained in Belarus.