Sahaidak was jubilant when the ICC, to whose investigator he recounted his story, issued arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova. That turned to dismay when Trump's administration sanctioned the ICC prosecutor pursuing the case, Karim Khan, over a separate decision involving Israel's prime minister.
“It's wrong, and I'm worried that if this continues (Putin) will walk away scot-free,” he said.
A US statement issued after talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday said Washington would seek to return abducted children to Ukraine, but did not give details.
“Trump and Putin's friendship should not influence decisions about the illegal actions of Russia,” Sahaidak said.
For Inna Kholodnyak, chief doctor at Kherson's main children's hospital, the withdrawal of funding for the Yale programme was a bitter pill to swallow.
“To stop financing such an important project will lead to everyone understanding that whatever crime they commit, nothing will happen to them, and this will cause a chain reaction around the world.”
The White House did not respond to questions about ending support for the Yale initiative and whether this could damage efforts to hold people accountable.
After the Russians seized Kherson, Kholodnyak said she refused to take orders from them and was replaced as head doctor, but helped to run the hospital remotely, moving homes as she feared detention by occupying forces.
She recalled how children, many of them preschoolers, were brought to the hospital from the Kherson children's home — separate from Sahaidak's centre — and how all but two stayed there.
"(Doctors would) exaggerate the severity of illnesses on paperwork so children could not be taken away,” she said.
One of the two who were taken away was Illia Vashchenko, who was two at the time, Reuters previously found. He was issued a new Russian birth certificate in 2023 by a Russian state registry office.
The registry documents, which a previous Reuters investigation reviewed, do not reveal his precise location or whether he has been adopted.
“I feel hatred and disrespect towards the Russians,” Kholodnyak said.
Asked if they believed abducted children would one day have justice, Kholodnyak and Sahaidak agreed Trump's interventions had made this less likely.
“I have always believed and continue to believe in the victory of good, justice and common sense,” Kholodnyak said.
Sahaidak was less sure.
“I think until Ukraine becomes a powerful country, there will not be any justice done.”
**Reuters**