US State Department denies deleting data on abduction of Ukrainian children by Russia

Data collected under the auspices of a Yale University project on the abduction of children from occupied Ukrainian territory by Russia has not been deleted despite the termination of funding.

Source: Tammy Bruce, US Department of State Spokesperson, during a briefing on 19 March, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Bruce confirmed that the Trump administration had terminated a government-funded initiative led by the Yale Humanities Research Laboratory (Yale HRL) which tracked the mass deportation of children from Ukraine. 

"Well, the funding has been cut based on the assessments that we’ve been making regarding a whole host of funding, if it worked within our framework of what was in America’s interests," verified Bruce. 

"What I can tell you, though, is also that the conspiracy theory or the fear or whatever it was about data being deleted is untrue. So that is false. The data exists. It was not in the State Department’s control. It was the people running that framework, but we know who is running the data and the website, and we know fully that the data exists, and it’s not been deleted and it’s not missing," stated Bruce. 

Background: Earlier, a group of US Democratic lawmakers stated that they had reasons to believe that the evidence that more than 30,000 children were abducted from Ukraine by Russia was lost after the US cut off funding.

In March of 2023, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Affairs, who is suspected of committing war crimes of illegal deportation and illegal transfer of Ukrainian children. 

In December of 2024, when Joe Biden was still president, the US Department of State announced the implantation of visa sanctions on five people who are connected to the forced deportation, transfer and imprisonment of Ukrainian children.    

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