Russia is holding at least 6,000 children from Ukraine – and likely many more – in locations in Crimea and Russia, and the main target appears to be political indoctrination, according to a US-sponsored report released Tuesday.

The report says Yale University researchers have identified at least 43 camps and other institutions with Ukrainian children that are part of a “large-scale systematic network” operated by Moscow since its invasion of Ukraine and beyond.

Among the children are those who have parents or guardians, those whom Russia considers orphans, others who were in the care of Ukrainian state institutions before the invasion, and those whose guardianship was unclear or uncertain due to the war, the report said.

“The main purpose of the camps we identified seems to be political re-education and indoctrination,” Nathaniel Raymond, one of the researchers, told reporters.

Some of the children were adopted by Russian families or taken in by a foster family in Russia. The youngest child listed in the Russian program was only four months old, and some camps provided military training for children as young as 14, Raymond said, adding that investigators found no evidence that these children later served in combat.

The Russian Embassy in Washington, responding to reports that Russia is forcibly detaining children, said that Russia was accepting children who had been forced to flee Ukraine.

“We are doing everything possible to take care of minors by transferring them to families, and in the event of the absence or death of parents and relatives, to transfer orphans under guardianship,” the embassy said in the Telegram messenger.

He also echoed Russia’s claims that Ukraine, using Western weapons, is targeting civilian infrastructure.

Moscow has denied that it deliberately targeted civilians in what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, and has responded to earlier allegations of forcibly transferring Ukrainians to Russian territory.

The report was the latest to be prepared by the Humanities Research Laboratory at the Yale University School of Public Health as part of a State Department-supported project investigating human rights violations and war crimes allegedly committed by Russia.

“What is documented in this report is a clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” an agreement that protects civilians in times of war, Raymond said.

According to him, this can also be evidence that Russia committed genocide during the war in Ukraine, since the transfer of children in order to change, replace or erase national identity can be an integral act of the crime of genocide.

Ukrainian prosecutors have said they are investigating allegations of forced deportation of children as part of efforts to charge Russia with genocide.

“This network stretches from one end of Russia to the other,” Raymond said, adding that investigators believe there are more than 43 institutions holding Ukrainian children.

The camp system and the adoption by Russian families of children displaced from Ukraine “appears to be sanctioned and coordinated at the highest levels of the Russian government,” the report says, from President Vladimir Putin to local officials.

According to the report, State Department spokesman Ned Price said action could be taken against 12 people who are not yet subject to US sanctions.

“We are always looking for people who can be held responsible for war crimes, for atrocities inside Ukraine,” he said.

“The fact that we have not sanctioned a person to date says nothing about any future actions we can take.”

Source: Reuters.