US Presidential Administration Donald Trump has decided to suspend the activities of a program that was engaged in Russian children stolen. This program, which was implemented by Yale University, is no longer funded, the head of the US State Department said.
"The program does not work, it is not funded. It was part of the abbreviations that were made," the State Department head said. This solution was the result of general changes in foreign policy and reorganization of resources that the US is providing in support of other initiatives.
Despite the stopping of the program, all the data on Ukrainian children stolen by Russian occupiers will be saved. The head of the State Department also stressed that this data is guaranteed to be safe and can be transferred to any appropriate authorities in the future.
"We have provided data safety and guarantee that we have. They can be transferred to any appropriate authorities, and we will provide a congress report," Rubio added.
This program was created to track crimes committed by the aggressor state and assistance in searching and returning the stolen children. However, after the cessation of funding, its further activity becomes impossible.
This decision raised significant issues among human rights activists and representatives of the Ukrainian community, who believe that working on the issues of stolen children should be one of the priority in the context of Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
As of today, many children's human rights organizations and international institutions are actively working to restore the links between lost children and their families. The US -funded program was one of the steps in this direction, but it leaves a lot of open questions about further steps in this area.
