Funding for the tracking of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia has been ended by the State Department, and there are concerns that a database with information on them may have been deleted by American officials or contractors, according to a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio by U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday.
The work on the abducted children by the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab was halted when President Trump signed an executive order in late January suspending almost all foreign aid spending. Since then, Mr. Rubio and an official under him, Pete Marocco, have terminated the majority of foreign aid contracts, including the contract with the Yale lab.
The bipartisan congressional letter, signed by 17 lawmakers and organized by Representative Greg Landsman, Democrat of Ohio, expressed concerns that the foreign aid freeze could jeopardize the informational support of Ukraine in this matter.
The State Department and the Yale center had been keeping records of abducted children from Ukraine to share with Europol and the Ukrainian government for their safe return, the letter stated.
Concerns were raised in the letter about the potential permanent deletion of data from the repository where the information on abducted children was stored. The Yale center’s work was confirmed as accurate by a source familiar with their operations.
The Yale lab was part of an initiative funded by the State Department to track war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine under the Conflict Observatory program. The State Department has cut ties with the lab and referred questions about the data to a contractor, the MITRE Corporation.
Yale researchers were compiling a database named Caesar to aid in sharing information on abducted children with Europol and the International Criminal Court. The database contains detailed information on thousands of abducted children, including their locations and circumstances.
The Yale researchers have been unable to access the database since the funding freeze began, which has hindered their ability to continue their important work. The database contains crucial information on abducted children from Ukraine, which could potentially lead to more war crimes charges against Russian officials.
Despite the challenges, the researchers have tracked thousands of abducted children to various locations outside of Ukraine and have provided information to the Ukrainian government. The fate of these children is a pressing issue as the conflict in Ukraine continues.
The Yale lab’s work in documenting and preserving evidence of abducted children serves as a vital resource for international efforts to address the crisis in Ukraine. It is imperative that the data on these children is not lost or deleted, as it could have devastating consequences for their safety and well-being.