Tracking Abducted Ukrainian Children: Yale Researchers Use Satellite Technology to Uncover Secret Camps in Russia

Researchers from a Yale University laboratory in the United States are utilizing satellite imagery to track down Ukrainian children who have been abducted by Russia, revealing 210 facilities for re-education and military purposes housing some of these children, according to the lab’s director in a statement to AFP.

The Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) was assigned by the U.S. State Department in 2022 to investigate the number of children displaced by Russian authorities and to understand the extent of this situation, explained Nathaniel Raymond, the lab’s director, during a seminar held at the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm on Monday.

Initially, Raymond found the task daunting.

“How can you locate hidden children under the protection of Russia’s security forces? In a kidnapping scenario where our only resources are the internet and satellites?” he remarked.

The breakthrough came when Russian officials made an error: they shared selfies featuring themselves alongside some of the Ukrainian children.

“Local officials, eager to win favor with the Kremlin, took selfies over their shoulders while on buses with the children,” he noted.

“The amusing part of this situation is that they neglected to turn off the geolocation features on their devices.”

“Consequently, we were able to extract the latitude and longitude of the locations where the officials took their selfies,” he explained.

“We started identifying specific devices in the photographs, including their Apple Watches. This led us to investigate further,” he added.

The gathered information was subsequently shared with Ukrainian authorities.

Since that time, by analyzing all other accessible data, including official photographs released by Russian organizations, the HRL has identified 210 re-education and military camps throughout Russia where some of the children are detained.

The lab estimates that approximately 36,000 children have been taken by Russian forces.

Russian authorities ceased publishing such details online after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin in 2023 regarding the «unlawful deportation» of numerous Ukrainian children.

“They started trying to erase the evidence of their crimes. And they are relocating the children,” he stated.

Raymond emphasized that addressing the fate of these children must be a primary focus in ongoing negotiations aimed at resolving the conflict.

Due to funding cuts announced by the Trump administration, the HRL faces a risk of ceasing operations by the year’s end, and has consequently transferred all its data to Europol.