Council of Europe envoy says Trump administration's actions are harming assistance to children abducted from Ukraine

18.07.2025, 14:27 eurointegration.com.ua

Cuts to foreign assistance from the US and sanctions by President Donald Trump's administration against the International Criminal Court are hindering efforts by groups tracking thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian forces during the war against Ukraine.

Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir, an Icelandic politician and Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe overseeing efforts to ensure the return of abducted Ukrainian children, said in an interview with Politico on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum that the end of US financial support for child-tracking programmes is complicating efforts to secure their release.

In March, Trump's administration cut funding for monitoring programmes at Yale University and other institutions as part of a broader freeze on US foreign assistance spending. Although later that month the State Department announced that short-term funding for the programme would resume, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rescinded that statement. At the time, human rights groups warned that this could severely disrupt the work of teams tracking the whereabouts and well-being of the children.

Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir said she is now seeing evidence of this happening, as funding disruptions bring further uncertainty to these organisations' operations.

Some groups have managed to continue their work. The Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health had planned to lay off its Ukrainian staff on 1 July, but last-minute private donations allowed the organisation to continue operating until October. It remains unclear whether such private funding will continue.

Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir said that Europe must now find ways to compensate for the lost funding, as knowing where the children have been taken is critical for their repatriation after the war ends.

"European countries will have to fund it," she said.

She did not specify whether European countries are planning to cover the costs of these programmes in the near future but said she is working to find ways to mobilise funding to support these initiatives, as they represent a significant financial burden for Ukraine's allies.

Russian forces have forcibly deported around 20,000 Ukrainian children to Russian territory since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Human rights advocates say Russia's actions constitute a war crime and claim Moscow aims to indoctrinate and brainwash the children. Russia justifies the deportations as humanitarian evacuations.

Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir added that US sanctions against the International Criminal Court had also made it difficult to hold Russia accountable for the abductions.

"People are afraid to work with fundamental independent courts to uphold the rules-based order and international law because they're afraid of consequences with the US administration," she said.

Despite the fact that the United States is not a party to the Rome Statute treaty that established the International Criminal Court, officials from Biden's administration had provided information to the court, which is investigating the abductions and other Russian war crimes.

Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir said that the release of the children is a crucial part of the process aimed at securing a lasting end to the war in Ukraine.

"That is a non-negotiable fundamental piece of a just peace – that is to bring those children back," she said.

Earlier, Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, spoke on behalf of the US administration about the expectations for Ukraine's post-war recovery.

Among other things, the US will demand the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.

US Congressmen Gregory Meeks and Michael McCaul have introduced a bipartisan resolution in the House of Representatives condemning Russia's abduction and forced displacement of Ukrainian children and calling for their immediate return.

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