The Trump administration has halted funding for a program tracking thousands of Ukrainian children allegedly abducted by Russia, raising concerns that crucial data on the children may have been deleted.
A Democratic lawmaker is now seeking answers from Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding the fate of this information.
The tracking initiative was led by the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab, which had been collecting evidence of the forced relocation of Ukrainian children to Russia. This effort was part of a broader U.S.-funded project to document war crimes committed during the ongoing war. However, the program came to a sudden stop after President Trump signed an executive order in January, cutting most foreign aid spending.
With funding frozen, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team, including Pete Marocco, ended multiple foreign aid contracts, including the one supporting Yale’s research. This decision has alarmed lawmakers, who fear that vital records have been erased, potentially making it harder to reunite children with their families or hold perpetrators accountable.
A congressional letter, led by Representative Greg Landsman of Ohio, is set to be sent to Rubio, urging clarification on whether the database containing evidence of abducted children still exists. The letter, citing concerns from sources familiar with the program, warns that the data’s loss would have “devastating consequences” for efforts to return the children and prosecute those responsible.
The Yale project had been operating under the Conflict Observatory, a U.S.-funded initiative with a $26 million budget aimed at tracking Russian war crimes. The research was being shared with Europol and Ukrainian authorities, forming a critical part of international efforts to document Russia’s actions.
With the program now shut down and its data possibly lost, the fate of thousands of children remains uncertain. The congressional inquiry may force the administration to clarify its position on the issue, but for now, the sudden halt in tracking efforts has raised fears that justice and accountability could be severely undermined.