Research on Russian war crimes due to financial cuts endangered
Research on Russian war crimes due to financial cuts endangered
Districts have lost access to an important database with evidence of alleged Russian war crimes, which contained information about the locations of more than 30,000 kidnapped Ukrainian children. The funding for your work was discontinued. This emerges from a letter from MPs from the House of Representatives and a corresponding source.termination of financial support
The Trump administration has hired the financial support for Ukraine Conflict Observatory, an initiative of the Foreign Ministry that was launched in May 2022. This was initiated in order to collect, analyze and provide evidence of war crimes committed by Russia and other atrocities in Ukraine. The financing was initially frozen at the end of a comprehensive abroad at the end of January.
important evidence of war crimes
The collected evidence of Ukraine Conflict Observatory was used in procedures against Russian civil servants, including the arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court against Russian President Vladimir Putin. When the financing was temporarily discontinued, the Yale University research team loses access to the database and to all important resources, such as satellite images that are required for the evidence of war crimes.
content of the database
The database contained information about the kidnapping of Ukrainian children and other Russian war crimes: attacks on energy and civil infrastructure as well as the destruction of cultural sites. The database was specially structured to compile relevant elements for the criminal prosecution of war crimes. It is unclear who has access to this database, what is done with the critical evidence and whether it can be shared with institutions such as the Europol.
meaning of the return of the children
According to the letter from the MPs, the Humanitrian Research Lab (HRL) from Yale, which has researched Ukraine Conflict Observatory, has put together “three reports that are based on satellite images and biometric data and pursue the identities and locations of over 30,000 children from Ukraine at dozens of places.” The MPs emphasize the decisive importance of this data for the efforts of Ukraine to bring their children home.
political reactions
The return of the "violent Ukrainian children" was a central topic in a meeting between high-ranking US and Ukrainian officials in Jeddah at the beginning of this month. In a phone call with Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj, President Donald Trump asked for the children who disappeared from Ukraine during the war, including the kidnapped children. He promised to work closely with both parties to ensure that these children return home.
future of evidence
in the letter, which is led by the democratic MP Greg Landsman from Ohio, it is pointed out that the evidence is “kept in order to share it with Europol and the Ukrainian government to secure their return.” However, it is feared that the data from the repository may have been "permanently deleted". "If this applies, this would have been catastrophic," write the 17 MPs.
statement by the Foreign Ministry
The spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, Tammy Bruce, and another spokeswoman said that the data had not been deleted. "The Foreign Ministry does not consider the data to be the conflict observatory. The data is located on a platform that is operated by Mitre as part of the program," said a spokeswoman not mentioned by name and referred to the non -profit organization Mitre. According to Mitre, the research data collected "has not been deleted and are currently managed by a former partner in this contract". The Foreign Ministry was informed about the status of the data.