Joint Investigation Exposes Russian Adoption Listings for Ukrainian Children Taken From Occupied Kherson Orphanage

A joint investigation finds four children from a Kherson orphanage listed on a Russian adoption site. Learn about the ties to Gazprom and Rosneft in the report.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 8, 2026, 6:40 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from UNITED24 Media

Active Listings on State Adoption Portals

A deep dive into Russian state administrative databases has uncovered fresh evidence of the systematic placement of Ukrainian minors into the Russian domestic adoption system. According to the joint investigation by Current Time and The Reckoning Project, the profiles of four children taken from a Kherson orphanage remained active on the usynovite.rf portal as of March 2026. The digital listings for these minors notably omit any mention of their Ukrainian citizenship or their geographic origin in Kherson, effectively presenting them as Russian orphans available for permanent placement with local families.

Two Stages of Mass Removal from Kherson

The removal of children from the Kherson facility was not an isolated incident but a coordinated effort conducted by occupation authorities in late 2022. Investigators found that the process occurred in two distinct phases: an initial removal of two children in September, followed by a much larger operation on 21 October, 2022, which saw 46 more children transported away from the orphanage. While approximately 10 of these children have been successfully returned to Ukraine through diplomatic and humanitarian channels, the majority remain scattered across various foster families within the Russian Federation.

Energy Giants Linked to Deportation Logistics

A parallel study by the Yale University Humanitarian Research Lab has added a new layer of corporate accountability to the ongoing crisis. The report alleges that major Russian state owned energy companies, including Gazprom and Rosneft, played an instrumental role in financing the logistics of these operations. Between 2022 and 2025, these corporations reportedly funded the transportation and re education of more than 2,000 Ukrainian children from the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions. The research identifies at least six specific facilities, such as the Prometey and Sputnik camps, where children were allegedly subjected to political indoctrination.