Trump Shuts Program Tracking Russia’s Abductions of Ukrainian Children

A task force based at Yale University that worked on locating Ukrainian children deported to Russia has been stripped of its funding, a Kyiv Post journalist reported after attending an event aimed at raising awareness about Russia’s criminal actions surrounding such deportations.

A task force that helped locate hundreds of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia has been disbanded by.

The Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), previously based at the university, is the latest organization to fall victim to sweeping cuts to federal funding, initiated by Elon Musk’s DOGE according to The Telegraph.

“Researchers at the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) were notified recently that government funding for their work on the war in Ukraine has been discontinued,” a Yale spokesman said.

Today, more than 1.6 million Ukrainian children remain under Moscow’s control  - both in the occupied territories and as a result of deportation to Russia. These children face systematic Russification, militarization, and ideological indoctrination, in an attempt to erase their Ukrainian identity.

In December last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Yale University researchers had identified hundreds of Ukrainian children from Donetsk and Luhansk regions, who had been abducted by Russia since February 2022.

According to him, 148 young Ukrainians are already in Russian child placement databases, 42 of them have been adopted, placed under guardianship, or assigned a Russian custodian.

Other Topics of Interest

Elon Musk Backs Down from X Fight After Belittling Polish Foreign Minister

Musk has struck a rare conciliatory note, saying he would never cut off Ukraine from crucial Starlink support, de-escalating a row with the Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski.

Additionally, the President added that another 166 children have been placed with Russian families.

According to The Washington Post, citing its own sources, this move effectively blocked the transfer of evidence to prosecutors in criminal cases, particularly regarding the illegal transfer of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine.

Anonymous US officials confirmed that these pieces of evidence can no longer be used to bring perpetrators to justice.

Additionally, the media reports that experts lost access to a vast amount of information, including satellite imagery and biometric data, which helped track the whereabouts of approximately 35,000 Ukrainian children.

Officials are most concerned that the research lab’s databases may have been deleted in the rush to comply with the administration’s directive. If the information was not deleted but relocated, it may have been compromised, and digital evidence may not be accepted in court.

The US State Department confirmed to WP that funding for the initiative was halted, but did not disclose what happened to the data.

The non-governmental organization MITRE, which manages the database, declined to comment.

Kyiv Post reached out to its own sources related to President Zelensky’s “Bring Kids Back UA” initiative, but they refused to comment on this information publicly.

With tactics that include forcibly taking children from orphanages, killing parents, splitting up families during filtration processes, creating unbearable living conditions in occupied areas, and brazenly kidnapping children from their homes and schools, it’s more than a tragedy; it’s a deliberate attack on Ukraine’s future, the “Bring Kids Back UA” initiative website says.

On Monday, March 17, Kyiv Post attended an event in Kyiv dedicated to the issue of Russia’s illegal deportation of Ukrainian children. It coincided with the second anniversary of the issuing of arrest warrants for Russian president Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, who are accused of orchestrating the forced deportation of Ukrainian children by the International Criminal Court.

As part of the event, the National Theater named after Maria Zankovetska staged a performance titled “The Bird in the Attic”, telling the harrowing story of a 13-year-old girl from occupied Mariupol. Separated from her mother during Russia’s filtration process, the girl finds herself trapped in a Russian family. Her only way to communicate with her mother is by secretly recording video messages in the attic of their home.

Daria Zarivna, adviser to the Head of the Presidential Office and COO of the “Bring Kids Back UA” initiative, emphasized that justice remains incomplete as long as Ukrainian children remain in Russian hands.

“Two years ago, the world recognized what we knew from the very beginning - these crimes cannot be ignored. But one arrest warrant is not enough. As long as our children remain in Russia, they continue to be Russified, militarized, and forced to forget who they are,” Zarivna said.