Trump administration withdraws from Russian war crime investigations

The US government has defunded one programme and left another that both document alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

The Trump administration cut funding for Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), which had detailed the mass deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

It has also withdrawn from a multinational group meant to investigate the leaders responsible for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including President Vladimir Putin.

These moves come after Trump spoke with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine, breaking with the previous US administration's approach to try and hold Putin responsible for the Russian invasion.

The Humanitarian Research Lab said in a statement that they had been notified "that government funding for their work on the war in Ukraine has been discontinued".

A bipartisan group of 17 members of Congress pushed back on the funding cut for the HRL, saying their work is a "vital resource" in preserving evidence of children abducted from Ukraine.

In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the lawmakers said the HRL has compiled data on 30,000 children abducted from Ukraine and is "absolutely crucial" to ensuring that they are returned home.

It said these abductions were taking place amid a "concerning reduction in American leadership in countering these crimes".

It added that the HRL's work can be credited with being the basis for the International Criminal Court's indictment of Putin over the abduction of Ukrainian children.

The US State Department responded to the letter saying it has not deleted any of the data collected by the HRL.

On Wednesday, Trump's Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to claims that the US government had cut funding to the HRL, saying the White House had nothing to do with them.

She added that Trump spoke to Volodymyr Zelensky about the abducted children, and promised to "work closely" with both the Russian and Ukrainian sides to ensure those children are returned home.

But the US has also withdrawn from the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA).

In a statement, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation - the ICPA's parent organisation - confirmed to the BBC that it had been informed by US authorities that they were leaving the programme.

The ICPA was created to hold Russian leaders accountable for the "crime of aggression" in Ukraine, according to their website, and to preserve evidence and prepare cases for their trials in the future.

In addition to these, Reuters reported that several US national security agencies have stopped work on a coordinated effort to counter Russian cyberattacks and disinformation.