US State Department denies deleting data on deported Ukrainian children

US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said that the information about the deletion of data on Ukrainian children deported by Russia is not true.

According to her, funding for the Yale University research team was terminated based on an assessment of the financial costs to determine whether they were in the US interest.

Tammy Bruce called the reports about the destruction of evidence «a conspiracy theory or fear» and stressed that all the collected data is under the control of the State Department and has not disappeared.

She also noted that the main thing is to achieve the goal, not the specific structure that is involved. According to her, since the issue of child return was discussed by the Presidents of the United States and Ukraine, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, this is a clear signal that work in this direction will continue.

Earlier it was reported that the US Government Performance and Accountability Office (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, had stopped funding a group of researchers who were searching for deported Ukrainian children. After that, Reuters wrote that data on 30,000 Ukrainian children had allegedly been deleted.

The New York Times reported that the United States had decided to withdraw from a multinational group investigating Russia's crimes during its invasion of Ukraine, including the actions of President Vladimir Putin.