The United States is providing short-term funding for an initiative to document stolen Ukrainian children. This is reported by Reuters, reports UNN.
Details
The US State Department on Thursday confirmed the allocation of short-term funding to support an initiative aimed at documenting the abduction of Ukrainian children, following a decision by President Donald Trump's administration to suspend the program on January 25.
The project, which is being implemented under the leadership of the Yale University Humanitarian Research Laboratory with funding from the US government, has made it possible to track thousands of Ukrainian children illegally taken to the aggressor. The program was suspended after Trump initiated a broad review of state funding to avoid, he said, the inefficient use of American taxpayers' money on initiatives that do not meet US national interests.
According to Ukrainian authorities, more than 19,500 children have been forcibly deported to the Russian Federation or to the occupied territories without the consent of their parents or guardians. Ukraine calls these actions a war crime that meets the definition of genocide under international law. In response, the Russian Federation states that it acted in the interests of children, evacuating them from the combat zone.
The cancellation of the program caused concern among Democratic lawmakers, who called on the Trump administration to restore it. The loss of access to satellite imagery and other critical data relating to approximately 30,000 Ukrainian children has become a key topic of discussion in Congress.
Recall
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in March 2023 for President Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova in connection with the deportation of Ukrainian children. The terrorist country condemned these decisions, calling them "unacceptable."