US Doesn’t Fund Program to Track Ukrainian Children Abducted by Russia
The US government has stopped funding a program that tracks children abducted by Russia. This was announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 28.
The program, run by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, uses special data and satellite images to find out where Russian forces have taken Ukrainian children. Since the start of Russia’s invasion, at least 19,500 Ukrainian kids have been confirmed as abducted, with only around 1,200 returned to Ukraine.
Yale researchers were able to track thousands of these cases using US government funding. However, after officials ended their contract last month, researchers lost access to the data that is critical for investigating war crimes.
According to Rubio, the US has kept a copy of this data and will transfer it to any relevant authorities if needed. But this decision has caused problems for international efforts to hold Russia accountable for its actions in Ukraine.