Russian companies Gazprom and Rosneft financed the transportation and “re-education” of over 2,000 Ukrainian children

A Yale University study found that subsidiaries and unions of Russian corporations Gazprom and Rosneft organized, financed, and coordinated the removal of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to camps and other institutions in Russia and occupied regions between 2022 and 2025.

The Yale HRL study shows that over 2,158 children were involved in this system. The corporations’ subsidiaries paid for transportation, accommodation, and camp passes, provided families with free or discounted passes, and coordinated the ideological indoctrination of children in the facilities. In many cases, parental consent was absent or may have been invalid.

Three of the six camps where children were sent belonged to Gazprom subsidiaries. As of March 2026, two of them remain in the ownership of the company’s structures, and the third is put up for sale.

The camps conducted educational and educational activities with elements of pro-Russian ideology, cultural assimilation and military training, aimed at re-educating children in accordance with Russian state policy. Teachers and mentors carried out ideological processing and training, which included coercive and manipulative methods.

The authors of the report emphasize that these findings acquire particular importance against the background of the decision of the US administration to temporarily allow the sale, delivery or unloading of crude oil and petroleum products of Russian origin that have already been loaded onto ships. As a result, Gazprom and Rosneft may simultaneously remain involved in a scheme that may contain signs of war crimes and profit from international energy transactions.

The Russian authorities have previously rejected allegations of deportation of children, arguing that the transfer was voluntary and humanitarian. International investigations, including the Yale HRL report, document systemic displacement, assimilation, and ideological influence on Ukrainian children.