Russia forces kidnapped Ukrainian children to build drones

Stolen Ukrainian children were put to work in factories to produce drones and other military hardware for Russia’s armed forces, according to a report.

The study by Yale University’s humanitarian research lab presents details of 210 facilities used by Russia in the kidnapping, deportation, re-education and forced adoption of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children.

The remains of a downed Russian drone in Ukraine.Credit: The New York Times

It outlines eight different types of facilities, including a military base, where the children have been held as part of Russia’s program of coerced adoption and fostering.

Yale’s latest findings continue to highlight the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russia at the behest of Vladimir Putin.

The Russian president is already facing an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for lesser charges.

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In one case, researchers found that children who had passed through the All-Russian Children’s Centre “Change” in Russia’s southern Krasnodar Krai region had been made to help construct drones, mine detectors, robots and rapid loaders for assault rifles.

“More than 300 children from Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts were taken to this facility between 2022 and the present day,” the report adds.

The camp hosts at least six different camp programs for children from across Russia and occupied Ukraine.

Some of them are hosted by Yunarmiya, a militarised youth group funded by Russia’s Ministry of Defence. In April 2024, the “camp of innovation and technology” hosted by the group was said to have put children to work on manufacturing equipment for use on the battlefield in Ukraine.

“At least one group of children from Luhansk oblast reportedly attended the camp during which children developed equipment for Russia’s military,” Yale’s report says.

Other camps hosted at Change by Yunarmiya have seen children receive formation, firearms and tactical medicine training. Satellite imagery from April 16, 2025, shows dark speckles characteristic of individuals being lined up into formation at the centre.

Schools have been repeatedly shelled in eastern Ukraine.Credit: UNICEF

Ukrainian children have also undergone “re-education and military training” at the “Young Patriot” centre outside Moscow, which opened in July 2023.

It is one of three of the 210 sites identified, which are owned by the Kremlin’s presidential property management department.

In a previous report, Yale highlighted evidence that aircraft belonging to the Putin-controlled department had been used to transport stolen Ukrainian children.

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“Young Patriot opened for the explicit purpose of re-educating children from Ukraine and exposing them to military training,” its latest report says.

In its first year of operation, the camp received at least three groups of children taken from Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk region.

“While at the centre, they underwent lessons that present a Russian state-aligned view of history, prepared for the national standard fitness test, assembled and disassembled weapons and underwent military-technical, drill and medical trainings,” the report says.

The last known group of children from Ukraine are believed to have arrived as recently as July 2025.

They were divided into “platoons” and pictured wearing tactical gear, protective equipment and handling weapons.

Around 40 have facilities used by Russia to indoctrinate stolen Ukrainian children to serve a military purpose.

‘The most vulnerable victims’

A majority of the sites uncovered by Yale are owned by Russia’s government. However, it also found private hotels and one religious site owned by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ukrainian officials say they have evidence of almost 20,000 deported children. But they fear the number could be much higher because of the lack of oversight in parts of Donetsk and Luhansk, which were controlled by Russian proxies before 2022’s full-scale invasion.

‘The suffering of children is one of the most unbearable tragedies of this war. For the sake of global peace, Russia must return Ukrainian children home’.

Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, said:“This report demands action. Children are always the most vulnerable victims of armed conflict. Not only have these children undergone trauma and displacement, they have also suffered systemic deportation, illegal adoption and forced assimilation.

“It’s now clear Russia plans to use Ukraine’s own children as a ‘weapon’ against us and Europe more broadly. This report provides irrefutable evidence contradicting Russian denials and misinformation about their handling of Ukraine’s children.”

Mariana Betsa, a Ukrainian deputy foreign minister, added: “There can no longer be any doubt – these innocent and vulnerable victims of Russia’s full-scale invasion have not just been taken from their families and home but forced into re-education and militarisation.

“The suffering of children is one of the most unbearable tragedies of this war. For the sake of global peace, Russia must return Ukrainian children home, then we can speak about a credible path forward.”

The Telegraph, London

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