The State Department said Monday that data tracking tens of thousands of Ukrainian children allegedly abducted by Russian forces remains ‘secure,’ despite concerns it had been deleted or poorly protected following funding cuts to the program by the Trump administration.
The data initiative, spearheaded by the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab, was part of a larger program known as the Yale Conflict Observatory, which served to track various war crimes, including those committed by Russia during its war with Ukraine. Yale confirmed last week that the funding for the work it had been doing on the war in Ukraine was ‘discontinued.’
Pages on the Conflict Observatory were removed from the State Department’s website as well.
News about the Trump administration cutting funding to the program raised fears that the data had been lost, or was not being adequately protected from tampering, after the State Department indicated it was being held on a database controlled by the primary contractor for Yale’s Conflict Observatory – the MITRE Corporation.
‘The data exists … we know it is secure,’ State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters during a Monday briefing. ‘Just because something has changed – as this has – [doesn’t mean] that it disappears, or stops, or becomes something that we can’t use.’
Bruce refused to comment any further about the federal government’s continued role, or lack thereof, with regard to protecting the data.
‘I would just remind you that there is a variety of dynamics that are occurring when it comes to the world knowing about those missing children,’ she said to reporters.
The data in question was reportedly compiled by Yale researchers to be shared with Europol and the International Criminal Court to potentially bring war crimes charges against Russia following the end of the war, according to The New York Times.
About 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted by Russia and hidden in its adoption system, Democratic lawmakers warned in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They raised concerns that funding cuts to the Yale program could lead to permanent data loss.
The letter also noted that since the war began, more than 700,000 people from Ukraine have been relocated to Russia.
During Monday’s briefing, Bruce emphasized the president’s concern over the missing children and said their return from Russia to Ukraine has been part of ongoing U.S.-Russia discussions aimed at ending the war.
The State Department declined to provide any comment on this story, and referred all questions about the data to MITRE. In response to Fox News Digital’s questions about the data’s location, a MITRE spokesperson said that the research into Ukrainian children ‘is currently maintained by a former partner on [the Conflict Observatory] contract.’ However, the spokesperson would not indicate which specific partner it was referring to, as there are several.
The spokesperson added that, as a result of the Trump administration’s move to cut funding to the Yale program, the research being done there to track abducted Ukrainian children has been halted.
‘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,’ a Yale University spokesperson told Fox News Digital. ‘Yale remains supportive of its researchers pursuing work that sheds light on urgent global issues.’