The issue of Ukrainian children stolen by Russia was raised by Donald Trump in a call with the Ukrainian President following The i Paper's recent revelations
Donald Trump has hinted at a possible climbdown over his administration’s decision to axe funding for a US team tracking down Ukrainian children stolen by Russia.
In yesterday’s call between Trump and President Zelensky, the US leader raised the subject of the abducted children to reassure the Ukrainian’s head of state he would continue cooperating on this issue .
According to a US State Department spokesperson, Trump has now “promised to work closely… to help make sure those children were returned home”.
The commitment comes days after The i Paper revealed that US government funding for a vital programme helping to locate the children stolen by Russians was cancelled amid Elon Musk’s slashing of the federal budget .
Since the disclosure, pressure has been growing on both sides of the Atlantic to restore funding for the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) with US Christian groups joining American and British politicians condemning the decision to axe the scheme.
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR AVAAZ.ORG - Avaaz members and Ukrainian refugees install thousands of kids' teddy bears and toys at Schuman Roundabout in front of the European Commission to highlight the reported abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children by Russia on Thursday Feb,23, 2022 in Brussels. Attendants call on EU, US, UK and Canadian leaders to sanction 14 Russian officials who are among those allegedly responsible for the abductions. (Olivier Matthys/AP Images for Avaaz.org)
Campaigners protest with symbolic toys to raise awareness of the Ukranian children stolen by Russia.
At a press conference after the call between Trump and Zelensky, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked about the future of the Yale programme.
She said: “President Trump also asked President Zelenskyy about the children who [have] gone missing from Ukraine during the war, including the ones that had been abducted.
Bruce added: “You’ve got the Presidents of the nations involved in the issue talking about it personally on the phone – the president of the most powerful country in the world saying, “I’m going to do something here. I’m going, we’re going to work on this” – I think that’s a pretty good, clear indication that we can still work on issues that matter and make them happen without it being in a certain structure that has existed.”
“So it’s – I think that’s pretty clear. It was very important for President Trump’s comments to President Zelensky on that matter.”
Since Russian invaded Ukraine there have been more than 19,500 reports of “unlawful deportation and forced transfer of children”, with campaigners claiming Russia is taking the children to erase Ukrainian culture and indoctrinate the younger generation into a pro-Russia mindset.
Around 1,240 children have so far been repatriated, according to Bring Kids Back UA, an initiative launched by Zelensky to rescue all children from deportation and occupation.
The team at Yale tracked down a further 314 children according to their most recent report in December.
The State Department denied recent reports that the date collected by Yale had been destroyed which could form part of key evidence used to prosecute Putin for war crimes.
Bruce said: “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.”
The i Paper contacted the White House, US embassy in London and Yale University for comment.