Elon Musk's budget scraps organisation that helped find Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia
Learn about the crucial role HRL played in collaboration with Ukraine's Bring Kids Back UA campaign, working tirelessly to reunite displaced children with their families.
Elon Musk, US President Donald Trump's DOGE chief, has scrapped a task force which helped find hundreds of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
As per reports, the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) is the latest organisation to fall prey to Musk and DOGE's (Department of Government Efficiency) cost-cutting measures.
What is HRL?
The HRL is a Yale University-based organisation that estimated that more than 20,000 Ukrainian children were kidnapped by the Russians since the 2022 invasion.
Also read | ‘Horrible, bloody war can finally end’: Trump pleads with Putin to spare Ukrainian lives
"Researchers at the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) were notified recently that government funding for their work on the war in Ukraine has been discontinued," said a Yale spokesperson.
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"HRL investigates and addresses humanitarian crises worldwide, using data and analysis from open-source and remote sensing."
Working with Bring Kids Back UA, a campaign launched by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, the HRL has located hundreds of children who were unlawfully brought to Russia.
As per the Ukrainian government, nearly 20,000 children have been abducted by Putin's forces since the invasion in 2022.
Campaigners, as per The Telegraph, have been indoctrinated to Russian customs and have been brainwashed into turning against their home country, Ukraine. Upon arriving in Russia, these children were allegedly put into a network of camps and foster homes, where they were subjected to "re-education" programmes specifically designed to strip them of Ukrainian identity. Many of them were subsequently placed into Russian families.
The Bring Kids Back UA aka The Save Children UA initiative was set up by Zelensky in 2023 to help reunite "abducted" Ukrainian children with their families. As per a Mirror UK report, 1,243 children have been repatriated. Campaigners have pointed out that there are thousands of Ukrainian children still separated from their families and have urged the US to include repatriation of children in future peace deals.
(With inputs from agencies)
