Evidence of war crimes valued at US$26 million may have been deleted due to the US suspension of a programme to track Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.

Source : Reuters, as reported by European Pravda

Details : US Democratic lawmakers will call on President Donald Trump's administration to restore a programme that helps track thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.

They state that the Trump administration has terminated a government-funded initiative led by the Yale Humanities Research Laboratory (Yale HRL) which tracked the mass deportation of children from Ukraine amid cuts to a wide range of US government programmes and most foreign aid.

The Department of State and Yale HRL preserved evidence of the abduction of children from Ukraine that they had identified to share with Europol and the government of Ukraine to ensure the children’s return.

This decision by the Trump administration means that researchers have lost access to a huge amount of information, including satellite images and other data, on about 30,000 children taken from Ukraine.

"We have reason to believe that the data from the repository has been permanently deleted. If true, this would have devastating consequences," the Democratic lawmakers, led by Ohio Representative Greg Landsman, said in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seen by Reuters on Tuesday and due to be sent on Wednesday.

The programme's cancellation was first reported by the Washington Post. The news came on the same day that Trump and Russian ruler Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation in which Russia did not agree to a 30-day cessation of hostilities.

A person familiar with the tracking programme said that US$26 million worth of evidence of war crimes was removed after the Department of State terminated its contract with Yale HRL.

"They took US$26 million of US taxpayers money used for war crimes data and threw it into the woodchipper, including the dossiers on all the children," the person said.

"If you wanted to protect President Putin [Ukrainska Pravda does not refer to Vladimir Putin as president – ed.] from prosecution, you nuke that thing. And they did it. It’s the final court-admissible version with all the metadata," the source said.

Background :

• In March 2023, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian ruler Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, who is the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights and who is also accused of war crimes related to the illegal deportation and abduction of Ukrainian children.
• In December 2024, during Joe Biden's presidency, the US Department of State announced visa restrictions against five individuals linked to the forced deportation, relocation and detention of Ukrainian children.

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