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Russian officials are preparing to transfer a child from the Oleshky Boarding School to Russia for a medical operation, potentially in violation of international humanitarian law. Russia has already transferred or deported over eighty residents from the boarding school, which specifically treats children and adults with complex neurological or physical disorders. Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda’s occupied Kherson Oblast branch reported on May 13 that the Russian Ministry of Health dispatched Russian medical professionals, including pediatric surgeons, to occupied Skadovsk to examine children from the Oleshky Boarding School, which Russian officials previously evacuated to Skadovsk in late 2022. Komsomolskaya Pravda Kherson reported that the medical specialists decided that one child from the Oleshky Boarding School requires a specialized operation and are arranging for their transport to Rostov-on-Don for surgery. Russia took over the Oleshky Boarding School in 2022 and has forcibly removed or deported at least 84 disabled children and adults from the facility in the years since. Many of the children and adults have legal guardians in Ukrainian-held areas, further disproving Russia’s “guardianship” claims to these individuals. Kremlin-appointed Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova and her sister have notably both been personally implicated in the deportation of special needs adults from the Oleshky Boarding School to Penza Oblast.
Russia’s “Time of Young Heroes” program is facilitating the temporary deportation of Ukrainian teenagers to Russia for the explicit purpose of military training. Director of the occupied Zaporizhia Oblast branch of the Voin military-patriotic training camp program Alexey Lukin reported on May 17 that Voin is organizing trips for teenagers aged 14 to 17 from occupied Zaporizhia Oblast to attend military sports sessions as part of Time of Young Heroes at the Avangard sports camp in Volgograd Oblast. Lukin noted that teenagers will learn tactical medicine and drone operation and will interact with Russian veterans and active servicemembers of the war in Ukraine. Avangard will host multiple Time of Young Heroes sessions over the course of Summer 2026. ISW reported on Time of Young Heroes in Summer 2025 and assessed that the program was meant to ideologically indoctrinate Ukrainian youth by exposing them to Russian military-patriotic ideals while also materially preparing them for future service in the Russian military. The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab notably identified the Avangard camp in Volgograd Oblast as a location where Russian officials have taken Ukrainian children for participation in militarization and re-education programs.
The Mariupol occupation administration continues to send vulnerable and traumatized teenagers to Vladimir Oblast for “psycho-emotional” rehabilitation. Mariupol occupation head Anton Koltsov reported on May 15 that the Vladimir Oblast and Donetsk Oblast occupation governments sent 47 teenagers from occupied Mariupol to the Sheredar health and rehabilitation center in Sosnovyi Bor, Vladimir Oblast. Koltsov noted that these teenagers are “facing difficult life situations” and have been affected by “the fighting,” apparently suggesting that these teenagers are experiencing particular traumas as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Mariupol occupation administration previously sent a group of families from Mariupol to Sheredar in March 2026 for “psychological and social rehabilitation.” Russia has routinely weaponized psychiatric treatment as a pretext to transfer Ukrainians, particularly children and youth, to Russia and expose them to re-education and indoctrination programs.
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