Three years after revealing Moscow's atrocity, The i Paper reports on how Elon Musk has cut the team rescuing the children
Three years ago, The i Paper revealed that Moscow had created “filtration camps” for Ukrainians to be forcibly deported hundreds of miles inside Russian borders.
Our reporter used satellite imagery to reveal their location. Then he used testimony from inside the camps to show the grim conditions and interrogations faced by Ukrainian civilians.
This tactic appeared to be used to terrify inhabitants of besieged cities like Mariupol, if they dared to stay behind and support Ukrainian forces. The children who were taken away were exposed to ideological indoctrination once in Russia or Russian-controlled territory.
The i Paper’s investigation was referenced by the White House, the US State Department and the United Nations. At an early stage of the war, the stories changed public understanding about Vladimir Putin’s treatment of the Ukrainian people – and how far he was willing to go.
With 19,500 reports of disappeared kids, UN investigators said Russia’s forced deportation of children amounted to a war crime. Some of them have been pictured on Russian adoption and fostering websites, while others are already living with Russian families.
Today we reveal what happened next.
A team of investigators has been quietly rescuing children who were seized from Ukraine – locating them and helping to repatriate them. The operation has been ingenuous and heroic. About 1,240 have been brought home so far.
Now, however, this team’s funding has been cut, as Elon Musk chainsaws US government spending.
The decision may be a cock-up rather than intentional. We will find out soon enough.
Will the US Government reinstate the negligible budget needed to resume this hunt for Ukraine’s stolen children? Or will it shrug its shoulders and expect European nations like Britain to step in instead?