Russia stole more than 300 kids from Ukraine, Yale report says

The Kremlin oversaw the forced adoptions of at least 314 Ukrainian children into Russian families, according to a report published Tuesday by the Yale School of Public Health. Researchers only confirmed the identities of those 314 kids but said the real number of forcibly adopted Ukrainian children could be much higher. The team who assembled the report blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for ordering the adoptions.

How did Yale researchers discover these children were stolen? Researchers assembled detailed files on each child, including his or her name, sex, age, purported number of biological siblings, and the locations he or she was taken from in Ukraine and brought to inside Russia. The researchers also gathered details about the children’s health statuses from public databases inside Russia. Yale’s team has turned all of that information over to the International Criminal Court.

Researchers found the data by combing through public databases, government communications and legislation, corporate records, Russian media reports, social media postings, and commercially available satellite imagery. Yale’s research team verified all its translations of Russian language source materials with Russian linguists. The team also made sure its information satisfied the United Nations’ standards for multi-source corroboration in digital open-source investigations.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about how Moscow is preparing its retaliation against Kyiv for using long-range U.S.-supplied missiles against targets inside Russia.