The President Donald Trump-led US government has defunded one initiative while leaving another to document alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
The Trump administration cut funds to Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), which documented the widespread deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
It has also withdrawn from an international group tasked with investigating the officials responsible for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including President Vladimir Putin.
These actions came after Trump spoke with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about negotiating a ceasefire in Ukraine, deviating from the previous US administration’s strategy of holding Putin accountable for the Russian invasion.
In a statement, the Humanitarian Research Lab stated that they had been informed “that government funding for their work on the war in Ukraine has been discontinued”.
A bipartisan group of 17 members of Congress opposed the HRL’s funding elimination, citing its work as a “vital resource” in preserving evidence of children abducted from Ukraine.
In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the congressmen stated that the HRL has accumulated data on 30,000 children taken from Ukraine and is “absolutely critical” to facilitating their return home.
It stated that these abductions were taking place in the midst of a “concerning reduction in American leadership in countering these crimes”.
It also stated that the HRL’s work served as the foundation for the International Criminal Court’s prosecution of Putin for the abduction of Ukrainian children.
The US State Department responded to the letter by stating that none of the HRL’s acquired data had been removed.
On Wednesday, Trump’s Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, denied that the US government had halted funding to the HRL and stated that the White House had nothing to do with it.
She also stated that Trump spoke with Volodymyr Zelensky about the stolen children and promised to “work closely” with both the Russian and Ukrainian sides to ensure their return home.
However, the United States has also withdrawn from the International Centre for the Prosecution of Crimes of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA).
The European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, the ICPA’s parent body, acknowledged to the BBC that it had been informed by US officials that they were abandoning the programme.
According to their website, the ICPA was established to hold Russian leaders accountable for the “crime of aggression” committed in Ukraine, as well as to preserve evidence and prepare cases for future trials.
In addition, Reuters claimed that various US national security agencies had halted work on a coordinated response to Russian hacking and disinformation.
