A funding cut halted U.S.-backed tracking of Ukrainian children taken by Russia
Yale researchers had located thousands of deported children. When the State Department ended the contract, they lost access to their own database.
Since 2022 the State Department had funded Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab to document Russia's deportation of Ukrainian children, a war crime for which the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. The lab tracked tens of thousands of children using satellite imagery and other data.
In February 2025 the administration ended the contract as part of its foreign-aid freeze, and researchers lost access to the database. Lawmakers from both parties warned the evidence may have been deleted. The lab kept working with other funding and in September 2025 reported that children had been taken to at least 210 facilities in Russia and occupied Ukraine.
The receipts
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Human Rights Watch byline on original
Trump administration shutters research lab tracking stolen Ukrainian childrenThe Kyiv Independent byline on original
State Department did not delete investigation data, spokesperson saysYale School of Public Health byline on original
Ukraine's stolen children: inside Russia's network of re-education and militarizationMSN (as shared in our notes) byline on original
US deletes evidence of Russia's kidnap of thousands of Ukrainian children