Russia's Gazprom and Rosneft funded deportation and "re-education" of over 2,000 Ukrainian children – report
The Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health (Yale HRL) has found that Russian state-owned companies Gazprom and Rosneft financed the transfer and ideological "re-education" of at least 2,158 children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
Source: Yale HRL report dated 25 March 2026
Details: Researchers found that Gazprom subsidiaries and Rosneft trade unions had facilitated the removal of children from Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts between 2022 and 2025. They were sent to at least six camps in Russia and temporarily occupied Crimea: Prometey, Signal, Kuban Niva, Art-Kvest, Sputnik and the A.V. Kazakevich children's camp.
Three of these camps are directly owned by Gazprom subsidiaries. The report states that the children were subjected to pro-Russian indoctrination and, in some cases, militarisation. At the Prometey camp, for example, the children took part in military-style training, hand-to-hand combat and shooting exercises.
Russian corporations fully or partially financed these trips by providing vouchers. Oil and gas company structures issued 1,072 vouchers for visits to such camps in 2022-2023 alone.
Analysts at Yale University identified 44 legal entities and individuals involved in the programme. Around 80% of them, including subsidiaries, the camps and their managers, are not currently subject to US or EU sanctions.
The report emphasises that "the Trump Administration's March 2026 temporary waiver of previously imposed US sanctions on Russia's oil and gas sector – a market dominated by Gazprom and Rosneft – serves to financially reward companies that have actively supported Putin's systematic campaign to Russify Ukraine's children".
Quote: "Gazprom and Rosneft, based on their own public statements, social media posts, and corporate documents, are willing accomplices in activities that have resulted in International Criminal Court-issued arrest warrants for Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Russia's Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova." [N.B. Ukrainska Pravda does not recognise Putin as president – ed.]
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