Connecticut:

A Yale University study, published on Thursday, reveals that more than 2,400 Ukrainian children between the ages of six and seventeen have been forcibly taken to 13 facilities across Belarus since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. The 39-page report shows that children had been transported from at least 17 cities in Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia regions in what Yale researchers described as an ongoing practice.

According to Yale, 392 children were sent to 12 different facilities while more than 2,000 youngsters were brought to the Dubrava children's shelter in the Minsk region of Belarus between September 2022 and May 2023. The report said Russia's systematic effort to identify, collect, transport, and re-educate Ukraine's children has been facilitated by Belarus. "Russia's federal government and Belarus' regime have been working together to coordinate and fund the movement of children from Russia-occupied Ukraine through Russia to Belarus," Yale report said.

The head of Ukraine's prosecution announced in May that he was looking into claims that Belarus was involved in the forcible relocation of over 19,000 children from Russian-occupied areas since the war began, including those who were sent to Russia.  Experts estimate the total number to be far higher. The Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health, funded by the US State Department, provided information regarding Belarus' involvement in the Russian relocation program to Reuters.

It further stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko "ultimately coordinated" the transportation of children to Belarus via Russia. Putin's arrest order was issued by The Hague-based International Criminal Court in March. It charged him with war crimes related to the unauthorized deportation of hundreds of children from Ukraine, together with Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova.

International humanitarian law forbids taking children under the age of eighteen over a border without their parent or legal guardian's permission.

Prosecutors for war crimes in Ukraine have declared that they are looking into the deportations as possible acts of genocide. According to the Yale investigation, Lukashenko sanctioned the use of official organizations to pay and transfer children from Ukraine to Belarus. Children have reportedly undergone reeducation and military training after arriving in Belarus.