Group tracking Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children shuts down due to funding cuts by Trump administration - CNN
The Ukraine Conflict Observatory of the Yale University Humanities Research Laboratory, which has been monitoring Russian war crimes, including the abduction of Ukrainian children by Russia, is preparing to close. The reason is the reduction in funding by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
This was reported by CNN, Censor.NET informs .
The Ukraine Conflict Observatory of the Yale University Laboratory for the Humanities was funded by the US Department of State. The initiative was launched in May 2022 to "collect, analyse and make publicly available evidence of war crimes and other atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine".
It is noted that the database currently contains information and personal data of more than 30,000 Ukrainian children abducted by Russia in 100 locations in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
According to Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director of the Humanitarian Research Laboratory, the group's work has supported 6 indictments by the International Criminal Court against Russia, including 2 related to child abduction.
CNN recalls that the US State Department suspended funding for the Yale University Lab, including an initiative that investigated Russian war crimes in Ukraine, due to the work of Elon Musk's Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE).
However, the funding was briefly restored by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to ensure that the data was shared with the European Union's law enforcement agency, Europol, to be used as evidence in future war crimes cases.
It is noted that some US congressmen defended the work of the observatory and its need earlier this year, and they plan to urge the Trump administration not to cut funding.
"This data is absolutely vital to Ukraine's efforts to bring their children home," members of the US Congress wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in March.
"As of 1 July, we are laying off all of our staff across Ukraine and other teams, and our child tracking work is officially over," says Nathaniel Raymond.
Nevertheless, the lab hopes to find private funding for the initiative to investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
