- Data about 30,000 abducted children may be gone for good
- The cut came as the Trump administration continues to slash programs
- Lawmakers want sanctions on those responsible
- Russia says children are being moved “as protection from war”
Democratic US lawmakers will urge President Donald Trump’s administration to reinstate a program that monitors the abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children by Russia and to impose sanctions on those responsible for this human rights violation.
Lawmakers say as the Republican president’s administration cuts a broad range of US government programs and most foreign aid, it has also terminated a government-funded initiative run by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (Yale HRL), which tracked the mass deportation of children from Ukraine.
That decision meant researchers have lost access to a trove of information, including satellite imagery and other data, about some 30,000 children taken from Ukraine.
Trump’s termination of the program was first reported in The Washington Post. It became public the same day that Trump had spoken by telephone to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which Russia stopped short of agreeing to a 30-day cessation of hostilities.
A person familiar with the tracking program said the cancellation of the State Department contract with Yale HRL has resulted in the deletion of $26 million of war crimes evidence, a move which would help protect Putin.
