Musk’s DOGE Cuts Funding for Taskforce Rescuing Abducted Ukrainian Children – Media

The White House Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an organisation led by billionaire Elon Musk, has stopped funding a critical research programme at Yale University that was helping locate Ukrainian children abducted by Russia. The decision has raised concerns over the impact on efforts to reunite families and hold Russia accountable for its war crimes.

According to The Telegraph, researchers at the Yale Humanitarian Research Laboratory (HRL) were recently informed that funding for their work in Ukraine had been cut. The HRL specialises in tracking humanitarian crises using data analysis and satellite imaging. Its work was crucial in identifying the locations of abducted Ukrainian children as part of the Bring Kids Back UA campaign, launched by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The programme has helped locate and recover nearly 1,240 children. However, Ukrainian officials estimate that Russia has forcibly relocated or deported at least 19,546 Ukrainian children since its full scale invasion in 2022. Many of these children have been subjected to forced Russification, intimidation, and psychological pressure.

The issue of child abductions has been repeatedly raised in the United States Congress. Senior Democrat Dick Durbin condemned Russia’s actions, stating that Vladimir Putin’s regime had committed “some of the worst wartime atrocities that a mind can imagine.” The forced deportation of Ukrainian children is considered a serious war crime under international law.

Ukraine continues to work to return its stolen children. The Bring Kids Back UA initiative, coordinated by Ukrainian authorities, has successfully recovered 1,037 children as of January 2024. On 14 March, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Daria Zarivna, confirmed that four more Ukrainian children had been rescued from Russian occupied territories. These children had faced severe pressure to assimilate into Russian society.

President Zelensky previously stated that Yale researchers had identified hundreds of Ukrainian children taken from Donetsk and Luhansk regions since February 2022. The programme’s funding cut now places future efforts at risk. Without international support, Russia’s systematic abduction of Ukrainian children may continue unchecked, further worsening the humanitarian crisis.