Yale University has published a new study that publicly proves for the first time that Russian state companies Gazprom and Rosneft financed the transportation and “re-education” of more than 2,000 Ukrainian children from the occupied territories between 2022 and 2025.
This is stated in a new report from the Humanities Research Laboratory at the Yale School of Public Health, published on March 25.
According to the Humanities Research Laboratory at Yale University's School of Public Health, at least 2,158 children from the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhia regions of Ukraine were transported to six camps in Russia and occupied Crimea. These include the Prometheus, Signal, Kubanskaya Niva, Art Quest, Sputnik, and A.V. Kazakevich Children's Health Camps.
Three of these camps were owned by Gazprom subsidiaries at the time the children were there, and two of them still remain company property. Rosneft, through its union, facilitated the sending of 100 children to the three camps in 2023.
The companies provided vouchers that allowed children to attend camps with pro-Russian re-education programs for free or at significant discounts. Yale HRL notes that not all cases involved parental consent, and some permits may have been invalid.
This investigation came amid a temporary decision by the Donald Trump administration to allow the sale and delivery of Russian oil and petroleum products already loaded on ships, including products from Gazprom and Rosneft, in an effort to stabilize global energy markets.
At the same time, the study emphasizes that most Russian companies and structures that participated in the transportation and “re-education” of Ukrainian children have not yet been subject to US or EU sanctions.