Mr. Chair, honourable members of the committee and, of course, my esteemed colleague from Ukraine, thank you so much for the opportunity to appear today.
My name is Caitlin Howarth, and I'm the director of conflict analytics at the Yale humanitarian research lab, a dedicated team that has become a pioneer in using open-source investigations and satellite imagery to monitor and document war crimes and grave violations of human rights.
We are proud to have supported domestic and international accountability efforts in both Ukraine and Sudan. Findings from our investigations are preserved to evidentiary standards and are produced with rigorous data-responsibility protocols.
I'm here to attest that, over the last three years, the Yale HRL has uncovered a large-scale, state-organized program of forced transfer, coerced adoption, militarization and ideological re-education of Ukraine's children. These programs are funded, facilitated and publicly endorsed by the Russian government, including at the highest level by President Vladimir Putin.
In our investigation published in December 2024, we identified 314 Ukrainian children taken to Russia and illegally listed for adoption on Russian government websites, where they were presented as though they were Russian orphans. At least 67 of those children have been naturalized as Russian citizens. At least 208 of them have been placed for adoption or guardianship.
The children were taken to at least 21 regions in Russia. In five of them, they were listed on adoption databases. We further assess—which I can tell you for the first time here—that Ukraine's children have been listed for adoption in at least 10 other regions in Russia that were not in our previous reporting. Unfortunately, the interruptions to our funding have constrained our ability to follow these critical leads.
In our investigation published in September 2025, we documented 210 facilities involved in the re-education and militarization of Ukraine's children. These facilities span 56 regions of Russia and occupied Ukraine, along with 13 facilities in Belarus. They include cadet schools, military bases, medical facilities, religious institutions, universities, hotels, family centres, and camps or sanatoria. Half of these facilities are directly run by the Russian government, and children are subjected to pro-Russia re-education in 61.9% of these facilities. Military training took place in at least 39 of them, and we believe that number is quite low.
Russia's alleged plans will not end with the children already within its grasp. Satellite imagery indicates that the continued construction of new facilities designed to receive additional groups of Ukraine's children is ongoing. If Russia is not stopped, more Ukrainian children are at risk of being taken and forced into this pipeline of indoctrination all the way to the front line in Russia's war to eradicate Ukraine's identity and sovereignty.
This program is not ad hoc. These actions are not incidental. What the Yale HRL finds is a systematic program of identity erasure and illegal transfer, acts that fall squarely within the definitions of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ukraine's efforts to rescue its children have been extraordinary. Ukraine has managed to bring back over 1,600 children to their families through complex diplomatic, intelligence, judicial and humanitarian operations. Through the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, which is a consortium of Ukrainian government and civil society partners, including Save Ukraine, the Yale humanitarian research lab and the continued support of many members in the room here today, it is indisputable that there can be no sustainable peace before all Ukraine's children are brought home.
Essential to this effort are the data needed for negotiations—the incontrovertible evidence of who these children are, where they have been taken from and who is responsible for their abduction. Russia is rapidly restricting access to this information. It's removing adoption notices and erasing digital traces that are critical for identifying where these children are. Ukraine needs investigative partners who can expertly navigate the shrinking information space without exposing sources or compromising sensitive, ongoing operations. Funds for these initiatives that support child identification and return efforts are essential.
The HRL has been able to provide the most comprehensive and verifiable child profiles to Ukrainian authorities, including names, birthdates, places of origin, where they were taken from and who is responsible. This is critical during negotiations to return children, as Russia frequently obfuscates and attempts to construct a veneer of plausible deniability. Our work removes that option.
We are now undertaking a major study to identify the total number of Ukrainian children abducted since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, a figure that Russia has sought to deliberately manipulate and obscure. This work is essential for accountability, for sanctions enforcement and for peace negotiations in which the status of these children is the core condition.
Like many, we were hit by the global funding crisis for human rights and humanitarian organizations, and without support, we will cease these Ukraine operations within a matter of weeks. We fear what will happen when our lights go out, and we will no longer be able to provide the support, to the highest evidentiary standard, to the Government of Ukraine as one of its most effective and trusted non-governmental partners. We seek the support of our friends in Canada to call for our continued funding so that we can continue this essential mission.
Mr. Chair and honourable members, Russia is using Ukraine's children as part of its full-scale assault on Ukraine's territorial integrity, identity and freedom. These children are not just the future of Ukraine; they are at the forefront of Ukraine's path to victory and its enduring peace. There can be no just or sustainable peace in Ukraine until every child taken by Russia is identified, located and returned home.
Thank you so much.