The State Department said Monday that data tracking data tracking tens of thousands of Ukrainian children allegedly accused of being accused of Russian troops remains “safe” despite being removed or unprotected after the Trump administration's funding cuts to the program.
The data initiative led by Yale University Public Health and Humanitarian Research Lab is part of a larger program known as the Yale Conflict Observatory, which helped track various war crimes, including those committed by Russia during the war with Ukraine. Yale confirmed last week that funding for the work he had been doing in the war in Ukraine had been “suspended.”
The Conflict Observatory page has also been removed from the State Department's website.
News about the Trump administration cutting funds to the program raised fears that data was lost or not properly protected from tampering after the State Department showed it was kept in a database managed by the major contractors of Yale's conflict stations – the main contractor of Miter Corporation.
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The State Department quelled concerns about what happened to data collected by the initiative that acquiring Ukrainian children on Monday, informing reporters during an agency briefing that the data was “safe.” (Getty Images/Fox)
“The data exists… we know it's safe,” State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce told reporters during a briefing Monday. “Just because something has changed – just like this [doesn’t mean] It may disappear, stop, or become unusable. ”
Bruce declined to comment further on the continued role of the federal government in protecting data, or its lack.
“Remind me about the world where we know missing children, there are a lot of dynamics happening,” she told reporters.
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A demonstration that includes thousands of teddy bears and toys representing thousands of children accused after the war in Ukraine. (Photo: via Nicolas Maeterlinck/Belga Mag/AFP Getty Images)
According to the New York Times, the data in question reportedly was compiled by researchers at Yale University.
Around 20,000 Ukrainian children have been accused of Russia and hidden in the adoption system, Democrats warned in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. They raised concerns that funding could lead to permanent data loss due to cuts in the Yale program.
The letter also said that more than 700,000 people have been moved from Ukraine to Russia since the war began.
During a briefing on Monday, Bruce highlighted the president's concerns about missing children, saying that the return from Russia to Ukraine is part of an ongoing US-Russia debate aimed at ending the war.
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People who flew banners and Ukrainian flags gather in front of the UN office in Brussels to show the extradition of Ukrainian children who have been accused of Russia. (Photo by Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agent via Getty Images)
The State Department declined to provide comments on the story and introduced Miter all questions about the data. In response to Fox News Digital's question about the location of the data, a MITRE spokesperson said that research in children in Ukraine is currently being maintained by previous partners. [the Conflict Observatory] contract. “However, the spokesman does not indicate which particular partner was referring to, as there are several.
The spokesman added that research being conducted there to track adducted Ukrainian children has ceased as a result of the Trump administration's move to cut funding for the Yale program.
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“We are not in a position to comment on the State Department's decision, but we recognize the importance of HRL's work and its contribution to international efforts to protect vulnerable people, including children in Ukraine,” a Yale University spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “Yale continues to support researchers who pursue work that sheds light on urgent global issues.”
