During the summer of 2024, Russian-installed authorities illegally deported 40,000 Ukrainian children from occupied territories to so-called "re-education camps" across Russia, according to the Regional Center for Human Rights.
This is nearly double the number of children taken last year under the "Useful Vacations" project, as reported by United24 Media.
The Regional Center for Human Rights has tracked the movement of these children to various locations within Russia, including major cities like Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, and Tula. Some of these camps are located as far as 8,000 kilometers (4,970 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The Center’s analysts have identified 13 re-education camps in occupied Ukrainian territories, 18 in Belarus, and 67 in Russia.
At these camps, children are subjected to military training, including shooting with automatic rifles, parachuting, drone operation, and landmine placement. Alongside this, the children endure intense propaganda sessions aimed at fostering loyalty to Russia.
Since Russia’s occupation of Crimea, as well as parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the Russian Federation has been developing an extensive network of these re-education camps.
The goal of these camps, according to the Human Rights Center, is to strip Ukrainian children of their national identity, forcibly assimilate them, and use them to further Russia's geopolitical ambitions.
