Trump U-turns on team hunting for 20,000 Ukrainian children stolen by Russia ...Middle East

Donald Trump has reversed the decision to axe funding for a US team that tracks down Ukrainian children stolen by Russia, in a rare u-turn by the President’s administration.

The dramatic reversal comes after the The i Paper first revealed that US government funding for a vital programme run by Yale University that helps locate children abducted by Russians was cancelled amid Elon Musk’s slashing of the federal budget.

Since the disclosure, pressure has been growing on both sides of the Atlantic to restore funding for the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) with US Christian groups joining American and British politicians condemning the decision to axe the scheme.

According to The Washington Post, the Yale team will now have its funding temporarily reinstated for six weeks to ensure it can complete the process of transferring evidence of potential Russian war crimes to Europe’s law enforcement agency Europol.

Vladimir Putin and Russian children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, have been accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of war crimes related to the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.

It is not clear what will happen to the Yale programme once this temporary funding expires in May and whether its investigative work will be able to continue.

Labour MP Blair McDougall, who is a member of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “This is welcome news, though not cause for celebration. The i Paper deserves huge credit for breaking this story and keeping the pressure up. I’ve raised how important the Yale teams work is, and it is good that they have a temporary reprieve but what about the long term future of the team? The world needs to come together to ensure this investigation is funded until all the children are returned.”

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Musk cuts the team finding Ukrainian children stolen by Russia

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed the UK will “do everything” it can to help end the “sickening” and “grotesque” abduction of Ukrainian children by Russia.

There have been more than 19,500 reports of “unlawful deportation and forced transfer of children”, with campaigners claiming Russia is taking the children to erase Ukrainian culture and indoctrinate the younger generation into a pro-Russia mindset.

Around 1,240 children have so far been repatriated, according to Bring Kids Back UA, an initiative launched by Zelensky to rescue all children from deportation and occupation.

The team at Yale tracked down a further 314 children according to their most recent report in December and the decision to cut funding sparked fears it could harm Ukraine’s capabilities to reunite more children with their families.

The Kremlin denies wrongdoing, claiming the adoptions by Russians are to help “abandoned” children.The US State Department, Yale University and the Ukrainian Embassy in London have been approached for comment.

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