Reykfjord Gylfadóttir said she’s now seeing evidence of that coming to pass, as the funding disruptions are adding uncertainty to these organizations’ efforts.
Some groups have managed to keep some tracking going. The Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health was preparing to lay off its Ukrainian staff on July 1, but last-minute private donations have granted the organization a lifeline until October. It’s unclear if private donations will continue to trickle in.
Reykfjord Gylfadóttir said Europe now needs to find ways to make up for lapsed funding, because understanding where children have been sent will be critical for repatriating them after the conflict ends.
“European countries will have to fund it,” said Reykfjord Gylfadóttir. “We cannot stop tracking them and then just re-track them in the months ahead. So that has to continue.” She did not specify if there were any imminent plans for Europeans to foot the bill for the programs, but said she’s working to find a way to marshal the funding to support these initiatives since they represent a hefty cost to Ukraine’s allies.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Russian military has forcibly transported roughly 20,000 Ukrainian children into Russian territory. Human rights advocates have argued that Russia’s actions constitute a war crime and that Moscow is looking to indoctrinate and brainwash the children. Russia has defended the transfers as humanitarian evacuations.
U.S. sanctions against the International Criminal Court are also making the task of holding Russia to account for the abductions more difficult, Reykfjord Gylfadóttir added.
