At least 285 children taken from Donbas ended up in the All-Russian data bank of orphans - investigation by “Layout” and “Important Stories”
Hundreds of children who were taken from Donbas to Russia are stuck in the orphan system of Russia. Their fate is no longer reported by the Russian authorities. And Ukraine has not had full information about them since 2014. Journalists from Layout and Important Stories found 285 questionnaires of deported children in the federal orphan database of Russia, confirmed the identity of each child and talked to them.
On February 20, 2022, an announcement appeared on the website of the self-proclaimed Ministry of Education of the "DPR": 626 orphans are now in Russia. The Kursk and Rostov regions have become the largest hubs for orphanages and boarding schools removed from the territory of the Donetsk region. (Groups of children from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions also arrived in Voronezh and Nizhny Novgorod in the first weeks after the start of the war, but we do not know the details of their evacuation.)
"Thank you to the Russian Federation for saving children's lives! We believe that the long-awaited peace will soon come to our Republic, and everyone will return home!", ends the announcement.
Four days later, Russian troops launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and orphans who believed they were leaving for a few days also became refugees.
The authorities did not assign these children to Russian foster families during the first six months of the war and sent them to orphanages, boarding schools and colleges in different parts of Russia.
The main points from the investigation:
The first profiles of children from Donbas appeared in the All-Russian data bank of orphans in October 2022 - just a week after Russia annexed the territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine
At least 15 regions of Russia offered to adopt or take custody of deported orphans. However, the profiles of such children do not indicate that they came from Donbas.
In 20 cases, the status of the biological parents of Donetsk children changed in absentia through court: for example, from restriction of rights to deprivation.
Probably 76 children from those who managed to get into the data bank of orphans later ended up in Russian foster families. Four returned to relatives in the occupied territories. At least 187 children remain in the orphanage system of Russia.
“Layout” and “Important Stories” spoke with the children whose profiles were included in the data bank, with their relatives and guardians.
Read about what happened to them over the past two years in the joint investigation “I Want It-Yes mine ” (Russian) or (English translated)
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