Trump admin. halts funds for tracking abducted Ukrainian children

Funding for a U.S.-based program that tracks thousands of Ukrainian children allegedly abducted and taken to Russia has been cut and U.S. lawmakers are worried that a database with crucial information has been permanently deleted, according to a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed by more than 15 lawmakers.

“This data is absolutely crucial to Ukraine’s efforts to return their children home …The foreign aid freeze has jeopardized, and may ultimately eliminate, our informational support of Ukraine on this front,” the letter states.

“While we are not in a position to comment on the State Department’s decision, we do recognize the importance of HRL’s work and its contributions to international efforts to protect vulnerable populations, including Ukrainian children,” the statement said.

“The data is really important because in order to get the kids back, folks at the negotiating table have to be able to say, ‘We know where these children are,'” Landsman said. “So without this data, there’s real concern that we might not be able to get all of these children back.”

On Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the allegation of missing data is false. “We know who is running the data and we know fully that the data exists and it’s not been deleted and it’s not missing.”

In a statement regarding President Trump’s Wednesday morning phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Rubio said the two leaders discussed “the children who had gone missing from Ukraine during the war, including the ones that had been abducted. President Trump promised to work closely with both parties to help make sure those children were returned home.”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

As noted earlier, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the data exists and “it’s not been deleted and it’s not missing.”