United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the program to search for children illegally removed from Ukraine by Russia has not been resumed.
Points of attention
- The US has halted funding for the program to search for Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, raising concerns about the data on missing children.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio denies reports of the Conflict Observatory initiative's temporary resumption, stating that the program remains inactive.
- The US has launched an investigation into Russian war crimes, including the forced deportation of Ukrainian children and attacks on civilian infrastructure.
US suspends investigation into mass abductions of Ukrainian children by Russia
This was discussed at the official's press conference on March 28.
In mid-March, The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration had terminated the Conflict Observatory initiative, which was funded by the US government and led by the Yale University Humanities Research Laboratory, which had been tracking the mass deportation of Ukrainian children.
The media also wrote about the risk of deleting all data on missing children. The company responsible for this, Quiet Professionals, decided not to delete the observatory database, WP sources told WP.
The Washington Post recently reported that the US has temporarily reversed its decision to suspend the Conflict Observatory initiative. According to the newspaper, it may operate for another six weeks before completing the transfer of its data to Europol.
Marco Rubio denied this information. He claims that the decision to suspend the initiative has not been canceled.
The program is not renewed and is not funded. It was part of the cuts that we made. But we have ensured the security of the data and ensured that it is available to us and can be shared with any relevant authorities. We will be able to announce this [decision] next week.
Marco Rubio
US Secretary of State
The US began investigating Russian war crimes in May 2022. Experts have prepared 13 public reports on Russia's aggression in Ukraine, as well as six ICC indictments against Russian officials, including Putin.
The International Criminal Court is the only court in the world with the right and jurisdiction to prosecute heads of state for the most serious crimes. The ICC is investigating the forced deportation of Ukrainian children and Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure.
On March 17, 2023, he issued arrest warrants for Putin and the Russian children's rights ombudsman, Maria Lvova-Belova. They are accused of overseeing the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, a war crime.
