Durbin, Klobuchar, Grassley, Colleagues Press Administration On U.S. Support For Recovering Abducted Ukrainian Children
Senators request any support that has been halted resume immediately and all evidence and data preserved.
CHICAGO – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Co-Chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, along with U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led a bipartisan group of their colleagues in calling for the State Department to continue supporting efforts to investigate Russia’s abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children.
In a letter to Secretary Marco Rubio, the Senators wrote, “to convey serious concerns over reports that the State Department has terminated a contract with a university-based research team that is working to find Ukrainian children abducted by the Russian government.” The Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health has stated that it was recently notified that government funding for the Lab’s work on the war in Ukraine has been “discontinued.” That work reportedly includes the Conflict Observatory program’s open source research tracing Russia’s forcible deportation of Ukrainian children.
The Senators continued, “If, in fact, State Department funding for this program has been terminated, we request that you provide information regarding the decision-making procedure and justification, and immediately resume U.S. support for this critical work. In addition, we ask that you identify officials who can provide Congress with a briefing on U.S. support for Ukrainian war crimes investigations more generally.” The State Department has supported U.S. participation in the U.S.-EU-UK Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine, which helps to advance the Ukrainian government’s investigations and prosecutions. Ukraine has opened more than 140,000 war crimes cases in total since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
The Senators concluded by underscoring that “it must remain the policy of the United States to pursue accountability for the Russian Federation’s atrocities in Ukraine.”
In addition to Durbin, Klobuchar, and Grassley, the letter was signed by Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Chris Coons (D-DE).
Earlier this month, Durbin asked for unanimous consent (UC) to pass a simple resolution he introduced condemning Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children and called on Russia to work with the international community to return all abducted Ukrainian children to their families. Since Russia’s full-scale war of aggression started in 2022, the Russian government has abducted, forcibly transferred, or facilitated the illegal deportation of at least 20,000 Ukrainian children. Senate Republicans rejected the resolution.
The full text of the letter is available here and below:
March 20, 2025
Dear Secretary Rubio:
We write to convey serious concerns over reports that the State Department has terminated a contract with a university-based research team that is working to find Ukrainian children abducted by the Russian government.
The Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health stated that it was recently notified that government funding for the Lab’s work on the war in Ukraine has been “discontinued.” That work reportedly includes the Conflict Observatory program’s open source research tracing Russia’s forcible deportation of Ukrainian children.
Such cases of Russian child abduction now number more than 19,500, according to the Ukrainian initiative Bring Kids Back UA, and the total may be higher. In December 2024, the Yale research team published the most comprehensive public report to date on the subject. The report concluded that the Russian government “has engaged in the systematic, intentional, and widespread coerced adoption and fostering of children from Ukraine.” It detailed an operation initiated by President Putin and subordinate officials to “Russify” those children, and documented 314 individual cases. The Lab has transferred dossiers on each of these cases to Ukrainian authorities, but reportedly has been unable to transfer the evidence to European Union law enforcement officials due to the cancellation of its funding.
The State Department has had an important role in holding Russian officials accountable and supporting Ukrainian efforts to recover abducted children. In August 2024, for example, the Department imposed sanctions on two entities and 11 individuals involved in deporting Ukrainian children “to camps promoting indoctrination in Russia and Russia-occupied Crimea.” The Department has also supported U.S. participation in the U.S.-EU-UK Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine (ACA), which helps to advance the Ukrainian government’s investigations and prosecutions. Ukraine has opened more than 140,000 war crimes cases in total since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, but there are reports that U.S. programs supporting Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office have been suspended.
We request that you provide immediate clarification regarding the status and future of the State Department’s partnership with Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, including with respect to maintenance of the Lab’s data. If, in fact, State Department funding for this program has been terminated, we request that you provide information regarding the decision-making procedure and justification, and immediately resume U.S. support for this critical work. In addition, we ask that you identify officials who can provide Congress with a briefing on U.S. support for Ukrainian war crimes investigations more generally, including U.S. participation in the ACA and assistance to Ukrainian prosecutors.
We underscore that it must remain the policy of the United States to pursue accountability for the Russian Federation’s atrocities in Ukraine.
Thank you for your attention to this issue, and we look forward to your reply.
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