State Department did not delete investigation data into abducted Ukrainian children, spokesperson says

The U.S. did not delete data collected from investigations Ukrainian children abducted by of Russians amid the full-scale war, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on March 19.

The Trump administration cut funding to an initiative led by Yale University that tracked Russian war crimes, including the forced deportation of Ukrainian children. The database included thousands of Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia and there were concerns the data may have been deleted.

Bruce clarified the data was not controlled by the State Department and remains intact at a press briefing at the State Department on March 19.

"The data exists, it was not in the State Department’s control. It was the people running that framework, we know who was running the data and the website we know fully that the data exists and (it has) not been deleted and (is) not missing," Bruce said.

The comments come amid the Trump administration's efforts to cut various agencies and initiatives, including foreign aid. The multiple cuts to foreign funding has begun to affect international efforts to hold Russia accountable, including for war crimes committed in Ukraine

Bruce said it was "good news" that the data was not deleted in response to journalists.

"What I can tell you, though, is also that the conspiracy theory or the fear or whatever it was about data being deleted is untrue. So that is false," she said.

Following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 18, U.S. President Donald Trump followed up with President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 19, the spokesperson said.

"President Trump also asked President Zelensky about the children who (have) gone missing from Ukraine during the war, including the ones that had been abducted. President Trump promised to work closely with both parties to help make sure those children were returned home," Bruce said.

Even though funding has been cut to pre-existing frameworks, that does not mean the administration has abandoned its end goals, she said.

Researchers lost access to the database in February when officials terminated a contract with  Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab.