US State Department to allocate short-term funding for programme documenting abduction of Ukrainian children – Reuters

The US Department of State has announced that it will provide short-term funding for an initiative documenting the abduction of Ukrainian children in order to facilitate the transfer of data about the children to the appropriate authorities.

Source: Reuters

Details: A spokesperson for the US Department of State stated that the funding is being provided for a short period while the programme implementers ensure the proper transfer of critically important data about the children to the relevant authorities, "It is part of the standard close-out procedures for terminated programmes".

Democratic lawmakers called on US President Donald Trump's administration to reinstate the programme earlier this month.

The US government-funded initiative, led by the Yale University Humanitarian Research Laboratory, has helped track thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.

Background:

• The closure of the programme raised concerns about the potential loss of access to a vast amount of information, including satellite images and other data, on approximately 30,000 children taken from Ukraine.
• The decision to end the programme was made after Trump ordered a wide review to prevent what he described as wasteful spending of American taxpayers' dollars on goals that did not align with US interests.
• Ukraine reported that over 19,500 children had been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territories during the war in Ukraine without the consent of their families or guardians.

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