A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers has pleaded the case of kidnapped Ukrainian children to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to help save their lives.
The representatives asked Rubio to maintain funding for the Conflict Observatory at Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab. They pointed to the observatory as responsible for documenting Russian war crimes after it invaded Ukraine.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said a key element of the research involves tracking the "abduction and concealment of Ukrainian children within Russia's adoption system." He said that without funding, the observatory will close.
Doggett said in a news release that the Trump administration canceled its funding, then reinstated enough for six weeks to transfer its files to Europol, the European Union's agency for law enforcement cooperation.
But he warned that Europol is not equipped to carry out the detailed research that has been conducted by the observatory, and the data will be outdated within weeks. The lawmakers have asked for an extended appropriation to keep the observatory in operation well past the expected July 1 closing.
Doggett said the stakes are high. About 20,000 children are confirmed by the observatory as having been kidnapped from Ukraine and taken to Russia. He added that the true number could be staggering, "with a Russian official stating in July 2023 that Russia had brought 700,000 children from conflict zones in Ukraine to Russia."
He said closing the observatory would be an "abhorrent example of this administration dismantling our nation's status as a global superpower."
Jim Mishler ✉
Jim Mishler, a seasoned reporter, anchor and news director, has decades of experience covering crime, politics and environmental issues.
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