The US State Department on Thursday said that short-term funding was being given to an initiative documenting kidnapped Ukrainian children.
President Donald Trump’s administration decided to pause the program on January 25.
The US government-funded initiative led by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab reportedly helped track thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
It was gathered that the decision to terminate the program, called the Ukraine Conflict Observatory, came after Trump ordered a broad review to prevent what he says is wasteful spending of US taxpayer dollars with causes that do not align with American interests.
According to Ukraine, over 19,500 children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory during the war in without the consent of family or guardians, calling the abductions a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.
Meanwhile, Russia has said it has been evacuating people voluntarily and to protect vulnerable children from the war zone.
“Funding is being provided for a short period while the Conflict Observatory implementers ensure the proper transfer of the critical data on the children to the appropriate authorities.
“It is part of the standard close-out procedures for terminated programs,” a State Department spokesperson said.
Democratic lawmakers, earlier this month called on the Trump administration to restore the program.
The program’s end raised concerns about the potential loss of access to a trove of information, including satellite imagery and other data, about some 30,000 children taken from Ukraine.
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