Members of Congress this week are trying to pick up the pieces of a project that had been tracking Ukrainian children abducted by Russia — research that was derailed in January when the Trump administration abruptly froze its funding.
Lawmakers funded the effort to track forced removals of Ukrainian children soon after Russia launched its full assault on the nation in 2022. Now, it’s not clear if three years of work — and data about tens of thousands of children — was thrown out the window due to the administration’s funding freeze.
Members of Congress want the U.S. government to continue to support the research, which has helped Ukrainian organizations seeking to rescue Ukrainian kids from Russia.
“We have reason to believe that the data from the repository has been permanently deleted. If true, this would have devastating consequences,” a group of 17 lawmakers wrote about the research in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday. “Can you please update us as to the status of the data from the evidence repository?”
The State Department isn’t offering much information. In a statement, a department spokesperson told NOTUS that “any questions regarding the Conflict Observatory and its sub-implementers” should be referred to MITRE, the organization that maintained the database.
MITRE has redirected questions about whether it preserved the researchers’ information to the State Department.
The State Department spokesperson confirmed to NOTUS that the administration halted the funding under a broader freeze on foreign assistance in January. “Then, following a review, the U.S. Department of State decided to terminate the foreign assistance award supporting the Ukraine Conflict Observatory,” the spokesperson said.
Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, told NOTUS in an interview on Wednesday that he feels the administration is encroaching on Congress’ power of the purse.
“If money is appropriated, signed into law by the President — whether it’s President Biden or President Trump — they, by law, are supposed to spend that appropriated money,” he said.
“This is where the courts need to step in, and that also takes a while, which is a shame,” he continued. “But in the meanwhile, damage is done.”
The researchers, affiliated with Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, have identified Ukrainian children who have been taken to Russia during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. European officials consider this information essential for holding Russian officials accountable for potential war crimes. Cutting off the funding has prevented the researchers from transmitting critical data to European officials who are seeking to reunite the children with their families, and it has made the future of their work uncertain.
“Surrender on this front will result in the total abandonment of at least 30,000 innocent children from Ukraine,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter. “Our government is providing an essential service — one that does not require the transfer of weapons or cash to Ukraine — in pursuit of the noble goal of rescuing these children. We must, immediately, resume the work to help Ukraine bring these children home.”
Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman led the letter, and most of the lawmakers who signed on are Democrats. Bacon and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick are the two Republican lawmakers who signed it.
Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the children during a call on Wednesday, according to a readout from the State Department.
“President Trump promised to work closely with both parties to help make sure those children were returned home,” Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz said in a statement.
Bacon told NOTUS that he wants “to make sure we’re on the right side of this.”
“All I know is what Russia has done in Ukraine by kidnapping thousands upon thousands of children and dispersing them throughout Russia, it’s a war crime,” he said.
“It looks like we’re playing into the hands of Putin again, and it’s not good,” Bacon said of the administration’s decision to halt the funding. “I see this as a moral, right-versus-wrong, evil-versus-good kind of issue right here. And Russia is on the wrong, evil side of this.”
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Haley Byrd Wilt is a reporter at NOTUS.