Secretary of State Rubio denied that the US continued to investigate the abduction of Ukrainian children by Russia

The United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the program to find children illegally taken from Ukraine by Russia has not been renewed. It is not working.

This was discussed at the officialʼs press conference on March 28.

In mid-March, The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration had terminated the Conflict Observatory initiative, which was funded by the US government and led by the Yale University Humanities Research Laboratory, which had been tracking the mass deportation of Ukrainian children.

The media also wrote about the risk of deleting all data on missing children. WP sources told that the company responsible for this, Quiet Professionals, decided not to delete the observatory database.

The Washington Post recently reported that the US has temporarily reversed its decision to suspend the Conflict Observatory initiative. According to the newspaper, it may operate for another six weeks before completing the transfer of its data to Europol.

Marco Rubio denied this information. He claims that the decision to suspend the initiative has not been canceled.

"The program is not restored and is not funded. It was part of the cuts that we implemented. But we have ensured the security of the data and ensured that we have it and can share it with any relevant authorities. We will be able to announce this [decision] next week," he told reporters.

• The US began investigating Russian war crimes in May 2022. Experts have prepared 13 public reports on Russiaʼs aggression in Ukraine, as well as six ICC indictments against Russian officials, including Putin.
• The International Criminal Court is the only court in the world with the right and jurisdiction to prosecute heads of state for the most serious crimes. The ICC is investigating the forced deportation of Ukrainian children and Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure. On March 17, 2023, it issued arrest warrants for Putin and the Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. They are accused of overseeing the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, a war crime.
• Zelensky said that Ukraine will work to return all Ukrainian deported children. Currently, there is no exact number — different information has been received at different times. The most difficult situation may arise with orphans.

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