Musk’s DOGE shuts funding for taskforce searching for Russia-abducted Ukrainian children – media

This was reported by The Telegraph, citing a Yale University official, Ukrinform reports.

“Researchers at the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) were notified recently that government funding for their work on the war in Ukraine has been discontinued,” the Yale spokesman said.

According to the spokesperson, HRL investigates humanitarian crises around the world using data analysis from open-source and remote sensing.

It is noted that the Yale University team helped identify the abducted children, working together with the Bring Kids Back UA campaign launched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In total, the effort managed to bring back nearly 1,240 children.

It is noted that the issue of the abduction of Ukrainian children has been raised multiple times on Capitol Hill, including by senior Democrat Dick Durbin.

“War brings out the worst in humans. And Russia, under the bloody leadership of Vladimir Putin, has committed some of the worst wartime atrocities that a mind can imagine,” he said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets stated that since the full-scale invasion, the Russian Federation deported or forcibly relocated 19,546 Ukrainian children. As of January 28, the Bring Kids Back UA initiative had brought back home from Russia 1,037 illegally removed Ukrainian children.

On March 14, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Daria Zarivna said that as part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative of the President of Ukraine, four more Ukrainian children were brought back from the territories temporarily occupied by the Russians where they had been subjected to pressure, intimidation, and forcible Russification.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously stated that researchers from Yale University had located hundreds of Ukrainian children from Donetsk and Luhansk regions who had been abducted by Russia since February 2022.