Observers fear the move has compromised evidence of war crimes by Russian officials and will hinder efforts to rescue thousands of missing Ukrainian children.
The move has barred the transmission of evidence to prosecutors pursuing multiple criminal cases, including the International Criminal Court’s landmark indictment of Russian President Vladimir Putin for what it has called the “unlawful transfer” of children from occupied areas of Ukraine, U.S. officials said.
Researchers and experts involved in the initiative, spearheaded by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, were informed last month that the State Department had quietly terminated their contract — one of thousands eliminated at the behest of Trump appointee Peter Marocco and the Department of Government Efficiency, the budget slashing arm of tech billionaire Elon Musk.
At that time, the researchers lost access to a trove of information, including satellite imagery and biometric data tracking the identities and locations of as many as 35,000 children from Ukraine.
