The US is cutting funding for investigations into Russian crimes in Ukraine: the search for kidnapped children and the recording of torture are at risk

The administration of US President Donald Trump has cut funding for programs related to documenting Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Organizations that document torture, killings of civilians, sexual violence, and the deportation of Ukrainian children have been hit. This is according to a large-scale investigation by Reuters.

According to the publication, after Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, US foreign aid was frozen for 90 days to review the programs. Some of the projects have not received funding since then.

Reuters reports that of the more than $283 million that the US has allocated since 2022 to investigate war crimes in Ukraine, programs worth at least 40% of this amount have either already been closed or have not been extended.

Among the organizations that have suffered from the cuts is the Ukrainian human rights initiative Truth Hounds. It has been documenting Russian war crimes since 2014. Due to the loss of American funding, the organization was forced to lay off staff, put the archive project on hold, and stop training for judges and prosecutors.

“Some important areas of work will not be opened at all,” Truth Hounds co-director Dmitry Koval told Reuters.

Of particular concern is the situation around the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health. It is this team that is engaged in the search and tracking of deported Ukrainian children in Russia and occupied regions.

According to Reuters, the US State Department has blocked about $ 8 million in funding for the lab. Current resources will last only until August 2026.

Yale researchers are using satellite imagery, open sources, and digital analytics to track children in more than 200 institutions in Russia and occupied regions of Ukraine. According to their estimates, the total number of children taken away could reach 35,000. The Ukrainian authorities have officially confirmed more than 20,500 cases of deportation or forced displacement of children, of which only a little over two thousand have been returned.

“Without this, we will be talking about years of setbacks,” emphasized the co-founder of the Dutch Emil Mariam Lambert Foundation.

The Reuters article also contains testimonies from victims of Russian torture. Truth Hounds investigator Roksolana Makar told the story of 55-year-old resident of Izyum Alla, who was held by Russian soldiers on the territory of a battery factory during the occupation of the city.

According to the woman, she was beaten, tortured with electric shocks, suffocated with a gas mask, and raped.

“I asked them to kill me because I couldn’t take it anymore,” she told the investigator.

Human rights activists emphasize that the reduction in funding jeopardizes not only future investigations, but also the preservation of evidence already collected, which can be used in international courts.

In parallel, the Trump administration also liquidated a number of structures related to the investigation of Russian crimes. In particular, the coordinator of the investigation of Russian war crimes was dismissed, an interagency working group was dissolved, the State Department’s department for responding to mass crimes was closed, and the work of a special group of prosecutors of the US Department of Justice, created in 2022, was terminated.

In addition, the United States withdrew from the multinational group that was preparing cases against the Russian leadership for the crime of aggression.

At the same time, the European Union and the United Kingdom announced continued support for Ukraine in the field of international justice. The EU announced the allocation of 50 million euros to protect Ukrainian children and another 10 million euros to create a special tribunal on the crime of aggression of the Russian Federation. The United Kingdom has additionally allocated more than 6 million pounds sterling to assist victims and search for deported children.

Against the background of these decisions, the level of support for Donald Trump among Americans continues to decline. At the same time, Trump himself has repeatedly made harsh statements regarding international politics and conflicts in the Middle East in recent weeks.