Zelensky: “The Russians have taken thousands of Ukrainian children from our land, and now we see something even worseịỊi
According to the Ukrainian president, Russia has already started sending some of these children into the Russian army.
These are children who were taken from Ukraine and have grown up over the years of this war.
“This is horrible. And it must stop.”
Putin sends Ukraine’s stolen children to military training at special camps
The abducted children are sent to indoctrination centres linked to Russia’s biggest oil companies, Gazprom and Rosneft
March 27, 2026 12:39 pm (Updated 3:40 pm)
3 min read
An image shared by Yale researchers in their report showing a military event hosted at a Russian camp. A child, thought to be Ukrainian, can be seen in military fatigues shooting a pistol. (Photo: via Yale HRL)
Thousands of children abducted from their homes in Ukraine and forcibly taken to Russia during the conflict have ended up at military training camps linked to two of the country’s leading oil companies, Gazprom and Rosneft.
Now, the scale of the Russian mechanism behind the child abductions has been laid bare, with the country’s leading oil companies found to be facilitating the transportation and re-education of more than 2,000 children between 2022-2025.
The UK has sanctioned both firms as part of efforts to choke off revenues that go into funding Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Rosneft has denied all of the allegations included in Yale’s report and described the findings as “misinformation”.
In these camps, the abducted Ukrainian children are indoctrinated into a pro-Russian mindset, with some turning their backs on their families. These camps often serve as accommodation, and some provide the children with military training.
In their report, the researchers at Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab said that one Gazprom subsidiary, Gazprom Transgaz Ekaterinburg, posted images and videos of children being given army training in August 2022.
“At the event, children reportedly performed military drills, hand-to-hand combat, grenade throwing, and rifle shooting,” the report stated.
At least 2,158 children from Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia were taken to at least six camps that were owned by Gazprom subsidiaries, sponsored by Gazprom and Rosneft subsidiaries, or their trade union organizations since 2022, the researchers found.
“This study can conclude that Gazprom and Rosneft, under the leadership of executives financially and politically tied to Putin, willingly aids the Kremlin’s agenda to engage in widescale Russification of Ukraine’s children,” they found.
Children rescued and brought back to Ukraine have been found to carry physical and mental signs of trauma, with specialist therapy required to help them recover. Some have recounted alarming experiences, including being stripped naked by their captors and physically searched.
“This study is the first public demonstration that these companies’ have integral involvement in Russia’s systematic campaign of child deportation and indoctrination,” said Nathaniel Raymond, executive director at the Lab.
The revelation comes after US sanctions on Russian fuel were temporarily lifted by Donald Trump to ease the energy supply crunch sparked by the US-Israel war with Iran. But the effect has been that Gazprom and Rosneft are the first known Russian Federation-affiliated companies linked to Putin’s alleged war crimes, which are now profiting from another conflict.
However on Thursday, the US said it would provide $25 million (around £18m) in new funding to identify, return, and rehabilitate Ukrainian children.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
