On December 3, Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (Yale HRL) published its third report, "Russia’s Systematic Program of Coerced Adoption and Fostering of Ukraine’s Children".

We are grateful to Yale HRL for this critical and comprehensive analytical document for Ukraine, which documents evidence of Russia's systematic disregard for the rights of Ukrainian children. This constitutes a blatant violation of international law, human rights, international humanitarian law, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Geneva Conventions.

The document sheds light on the scale and organized systematic nature of the Russian Federation's actions against the Ukrainian people, their identity, and their future. These actions include forced language learning, education under propagandistic programs, cultural indoctrination, forced adoption, guardianship, granting Russian citizenship through falsification of personal data, and altering children's legal status.

HRL's findings strengthen our resolve in our efforts to restore justice for the victims, hold the perpetrators accountable, and take every possible step to return our children to their families and homeland.

Among the key elements of the report is verified information about 314 Ukrainian children, including:

• 148 children added to Russian federal child placement databases, 42 of whom have already been adopted, placed under guardianship, or fostered by Russian citizens;
• 166 children transferred to Russian families;
• At least 67 children were granted Russian citizenship, enabling their guardians to strip them of their Ukrainian citizenship without their consent.

Under its international obligations, Russia must urgently provide a complete list and detailed information on all Ukrainian children who have been forcibly deported, adopted, or placed under guardianship.

We demand that Russia grant international humanitarian and human rights organizations access to facilities in Russia and temporarily occupied territories where Ukrainian children are being held.

We call on the international community to join Ukraine's efforts to return deported and forcibly displaced Ukrainian children to their homes and to hold those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russia against the national identity of the Ukrainian people accountable.