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Ukrainian Children Forced to Build Drones in Russian Military Camps, Yale Report Finds
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Stolen Ukrainian children have been forced to work in Russian factories producing drones and other military hardware for Moscow’s armed forces, according to a new investigation by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab on September 16.
The report, identifies 210 facilities linked to Russia’s system of kidnapping, deportation, indoctrination, and coerced adoption of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. It categorizes eight types of facilities, including a military base, where children have been held as part of the Kremlin’s program of forced assimilation.
At the “All-Russian Children’s Centre Change” in Krasnodar Krai, researchers documented how Ukrainian children were made to build drones, mine detectors, robots, and rapid loaders for assault rifles.
“More than 300 children from Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts were taken to this facility between 2022 and the present day,” the report states.
According to The Telegraph, the camp runs at least six different programs for children from across Russia and occupied Ukraine. Some are organized by Yunarmiya, a militarized youth movement funded by Russia’s defense ministry. In April 2024, Yunarmiya’s “camp of innovation and technology” forced children to manufacture battlefield equipment.
“At least one group of children from Luhansk oblast reportedly attended the camp during which children developed equipment for Russia’s military,” Yale notes.
Other Yunarmiya-run programs at Change have included military formation, firearms drills, and tactical medicine training. Satellite imagery from April 16, 2025 shows lines of children assembled in formation at the facility.
Yale also uncovered evidence of Ukrainian children undergoing “re-education and military training” at the “Young Patriot” center outside Moscow, opened in July 2023. The site is one of three owned by the Kremlin’s presidential property management department.
In earlier research, Yale reported that aircraft from the same department were used to transport deported children. “Young Patriot opened for the explicit purpose of re-educating children from Ukraine and exposing them to military training,” the study says.
Earlier, UK Defense Intelligence reported that Russia is forcibly deporting Ukrainian children from occupied territories and drafting them into its armed forces once they reach the age of 18.
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