As of this month, an estimated 19,500 children have been identified by Ukrainian authorities as having been forcibly relocated to Russia, Belarus, or Russian-occupied areas within Ukraine. Some have been placed with Russian families for adoption; others are in “reeducation” facilities; all are being brainwashed to become Russian citizens.

For three years, the U.S. State Department has funded Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, part of its School of Public Health, which has been the principal body tracking Russia’s alleged war crimes, including the abduction of Ukrainian children. But now, that funding has been terminated by Donald Trump’s DOGE — Department of Government Efficiency — in their mad frenzy to cut spending in areas they consider superfluous.

And apparently, the lives of those children have been deemed by the U.S. government to be expendable.

The Lab’s executive director, Nathaniel Raymond, has said that funding has all but run out:

“Right now, we are running on fumes, we have about two weeks of money left, mostly through individual donations from our website. As of July 1, we lay off all of our staff across Ukraine and other teams and our work tracking the kids officially ends. We are waiting for our Dunkirk moment, for someone to come rescue us so that we can go attempt to help rescue the kids.” [Kylie Atwood, CNN, June 11, 2025.]

And if there is no “Dunkirk moment” — no 11th-hour miracle — those children may well be lost forever in the morass of Russian bureaucracy, never to be returned to their homes and families.

The Lab’s database containing the identities and other information on the abducted children has been transferred for preservation to the Ukrainian government and the U.S. State Department. The work done thus far by Yale has provided invaluable support to the International Criminal Court, which has issued six indictments against Russia for war crimes against Ukraine — two of them related specifically to the abduction of children.

But without funding, continuation of the Lab’s work will be impossible. A bipartisan group of U.S. Representatives, including Democrat Lloyd Doggett, has written Secretary of State Marco Rubio in support of reinstating the funding, saying in part:

“Research must continue unabated to maintain the rigorous process of identifying every Ukrainian child abducted by Russia. The [Ukraine] Conflict Observatory has verified that at least 19,500 children have been forcibly deported from occupied areas of Ukraine, funneled into reeducation camps or adopted by Russian families, and their identities erased.” [Id.]

I can’t help thinking that the $40 million being spent on Donald Trump’s birthday parade today could instead have gone a long way toward helping those child victims of Putin’s war. Maybe I just have my priorities wrong . . . but somehow, I don’t believe I do.

Not this time.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/14/25