Exclusive: 'A Catastrophic Blow' As US Shuts Unit Investigating War Crimes In Ukraine

A Yale University unit that has played a key role in gathering evidence on Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine will close down on March 28 after the US State Department cut funding.

In an exclusive interview, the executive director of Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab, Nathaniel Raymond, told RFE/RL that the move was "a catastrophic blow" to efforts to document war crimes and bring people to justice.

Raymond said the unit was currently tracking the location of 35,000 children abducted from Ukraine by Russia. Abducting children is a war crime, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been indicted for it by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"The loss of our work is another win for those who want to obscure the truth and who want to prevent accountability," Raymond said.

Massive Cuts

In response to a request for comment from RFE/RL, the State Department confirmed funding had been stopped. For further details it referred reporters to MITRE, a nonprofit organization that works on government contracts, which did not immediately respond.

Exclusive: US Closes Unit Investigating War Crimes In Ukraine

Asked why he thought the funding was cut, Raymond said: "I wish I knew the answer to that. It's hard not to take it personally. But it also is part of a wave of cancellations across the humanitarian and human rights field."

Since taking office, the US government has imposed massive cuts on USAID, the Education Department, and overseas broadcasting organization such as RFE/RL.

The move is also a further instance of the Trump administration pulling back from international cooperation to document war crimes committed by Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

It comes after officials at Eurojust, the European Union's agency for criminal justice cooperation, told RFE/RL this week that Washington had stopped working with its unit specializing on war crimes committed in Ukraine.

The International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPA) provides logistical help, training, and other help to Ukrainian prosecutors investigating some 153,000 cases.

Russia Taking Children From Ukraine

The Yale unit's work is based on open-source investigation and has provided detailed evidence that Russia has a systematic program of taking children from Ukraine.

In its last report, in December, Yale investigators documented the fate of 314 children who were subject to a "systematic program of coerced adoption and fostering" by Russian individuals and families.

SEE ALSO: Unlawful Transfer: Inside The Russian System To Take Ukraine's Children

Raymond presented the findings to the United Nations Security Council, stating: "In at least one case, a sibling was separated by Russia from their brothers and sisters as part of a placement with citizens of Russia."

Speaking to RFE/RL on March 18, Raymond said his team's work had been "truly heroic" in documenting war crimes and crimes against humanity for three years.

It was, he said, trying to continue its work in its last days but this was hampered because its access to satellite imagery had also been cut.

"We are tracking 35,000 children potentially within Russia and the occupied territories in over 100 locations, including reeducation camps and foster and adoption settings from the Black Sea all the way to the Pacific coast in Magadan," he said.

SEE ALSO: U.S. Aware Of Reports Russia Is Listing Ukrainian Children For Adoption

Raymond also said his team had lost access to the vast archive of data it accumulated over three years. They had previously accessed the data through a State Department program.

A group of US lawmakers have written to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying they believe the archive may have been deleted.

The previous work included "documenting attacks on power generation infrastructure, which preceded four indictments by the International Criminal Court, including two against [Russian General Valery] Gerasimov and [former Defense Minister Sergei] Shoigu for alleged crimes against humanity."

SEE ALSO: How Russia Prepares Children In Occupied Ukraine For War Against Their Own Country

It also included work on damage to crop infrastructure and tracking adult detainees and prisoners of war. "That work has ended as well," said Raymond.

Some of this data is still available to the ICC, Europol, and Ukrainian prosecutors, as it was handed over for previous cases. In total, the Yale unit's evidence helped six ICC indictments.

"We are doing what we can with what we have left, but unfortunately, it's very little," Raymond said.

The issue of returning abducted children has also been made a central point of any future peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.

Asked about it on March 11, Rubio said "there will be a lot of issues to unravel -- among them, not least of which is the humanitarian concerns, the children."

The draft conclusions from the March 20-21 EU summit, seen by RFE/RL, also highlight the issue.

"A credible pathway to peace must include humanitarian relief efforts, notably the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilians and the return of all Ukrainian children and other civilians unlawfully deported and transferred to Russia and Belarus."

Raymond said his team's work had been important not only in terms of accountability but "also in catalyzing diplomatic efforts, including efforts to negotiate for the children's return."