Yale lab tracking Ukrainian children faces closure as US reshapes $25M program

September 9, 2026 at 04:29 PM2 min

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Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab warns its Ukraine team could be terminated by December unless new funding is secured. The US State Department is restructuring a $25 million program the lab was competing for. The lab is preparing a high-confidence verification of its estimate of approximately 35,000 Ukrainian children taken from their homes.

Key Facts

Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab Ukraine team is scheduled to be terminated around Christmas unless new funding is found.
The lab estimates approximately 35,000 Ukrainian children have been taken from their homes.
The lab has documented at least 210 facilities in Russia and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory where Ukrainian children have been taken.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children's rights commissioner in 2023.
The US State Department announced the $25 million program in March during a Washington visit by Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska.

Funding Crisis

Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Yale lab, said researchers on its Ukraine team are scheduled to be terminated around Christmas unless new funding is found. The lab is running out of the last of the donations it has received, Raymond told RFE/RL. The lab is preparing a high-confidence verification of its estimate of approximately 35,000 Ukrainian children taken from their homes, with the report expected in October. The report could be the lab's last if funding is not secured.

Documented Abductions and Reeducation

The Yale lab has documented a network of at least 210 facilities in Russia and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory where Ukrainian children have been taken. Researchers have found evidence of reeducation at many of those facilities and militarization at others. The lab's March research found with high confidence that Russian state oil and gas giants Rosneft and Gazprom, their subsidiaries, and affiliated trade unions helped facilitate the transportation and/or reeducation of more than 2,100 Ukrainian children from occupied parts of Ukraine between 2022 and 2025. The research is intended not only to locate children but to preserve evidence that can connect individual children to facilities, organizations, officials, and transportation networks.

US Program Restructuring

The State Department announced the $25 million program in March during a Washington visit by Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska. At the time, the department described it as a comprehensive effort covering the process from identifying children through their return and reintegration. The funding is intended to support the identification, return, rehabilitation, and reintegration of Ukrainian children forcibly transferred or otherwise held away from their families and communities.