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Trump Administration Ends Tracking of Kidnapped Ukrainian Children in Russia
The State Department has ended funding for the tracking of thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, and American officials or contractors might have deleted a database with information on them, according to a letter that U.S. lawmakers plan to send to Secretary of State Rubio on Wednesday.
The work on the abducted children by the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab was frozen when President Trump signed an executive order in late January halting almost all foreign aid spending. Since then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and an official under him, Pete Marocco, have ended the vast majority of foreign aid contracts, including the one to the Yale lab.
The congressional letter, organized by Representative Greg Landsman, Democrat of Ohio, said “the foreign aid freeze has jeopardized, and may ultimately eliminate, our informational support of Ukraine on this front.”
The State Department and the Yale center “had been preserving evidence of abducted children from Ukraine it had identified, to be shared with Europol and the government of Ukraine to secure their return,” the letter said, according to a copy obtained by The New York Times. Europol is the main law enforcement agency of the European Union.
“We have reason to believe that the data from the repository has been permanently deleted,” it said. “If true, this would have devastating consequences. Can you please update us as to the status of the data from the evidence repository?”
A person familiar with the work of the Yale Center said the details in the letter were accurate.
The Yale lab was one of several recipients of $26 million in congressional funding over three years through the State Department to track war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine. That work began in 2022 under a program called the Conflict Observatory.
The lab did research into abducted children and the “filtration sites” they and others were taken to in Russian-occupied Ukraine, where Ukrainians were interrogated and prepared for deportation to Russia. The researchers used open-source information and commercial satellite imagery.
Yale researchers were compiling the database, called Caesar, so the State Department could share information on abducted children with Europol and the International Criminal Court, which could eventually bring charges against Russian officials. In 2022, after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. accused the Russians of committing “genocide.”
Ukrainian officials say Russia has abducted 20,000 children from Ukraine. Yale researchers said in earlier reports they have tracked 30,000 children to sites outside of Ukraine. They have put information into the database on 6,000 children taken to Russia and more than 2,400 to Belarus. The database has detailed information on 314 kidnapped children in Russia: their names and photographs, and dossiers of 20 to 30 pages on each child.
Some of the findings were previously disclosed in public reports from Yale. The center also gave information on the children to the Ukrainian government.
The main contractor for the State Department project is the MITRE Corporation, a nonprofit that mainly does work for the U.S. government, including for intelligence agencies. The Yale lab had a contract under it.
The State Department did not reply to a request for comment about the project and the status of the database. The MITRE Corporation also did not reply.
In July 2023, a Russian official said Russia had brought 700,000 children from conflict zones in Ukraine to Russia.
The Yale researchers have not been able to work on the project since the funding freeze began in late January. When the U.S. government halted weapons aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after President Trump berated Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Feb. 28, the president of Ukraine, the Yale researchers lost access to satellite imagery.
The Trump administration restarted the intelligence sharing and weapons aid after a meeting in Saudi Arabia this month between U.S. and Ukrainian officials. But the Yale researchers still do not have access to satellite images.
Mr. Trump is trying to align with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and the two spoke on the phone on Tuesday. Mr. Trump said he wants to arrange a 30-day cease-fire in Ukraine, which the Ukrainians have agreed to, but Mr. Putin said he would only halt strikes temporarily on energy infrastructure.
Details of the State Department’s termination of its contracts for the research into potential Russian war crimes in Ukraine were earlier reported by The i Paper, a British news site and The New Republic.The Washington Post first reported details of the congressional draft letter on Tuesday.
Case: 1:25-cv-13323 Document #: 49 Filed: 11/05/25 Page 1 of 4 PageID #:838
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION
)
PABLO MORENO GONZALEZ, FELIPE AGUSTIN ZAMACONA, and a class of similarly ) situated people,
V.
Plaintiffs,
Case No. 25 C 13323
KRISTI NOEM, Secretary of the U.S. Department ) of Homeland Security, in her official capacity; ) TODD LYONS, Acting Director, U.S. Immigration ) and Customs Enforcement, in his official capacity; ) MARCOS CHARLES, Acting Executive Associate ) Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Removal Operations, in his official capacity; SAMUEL OLSON, Interim Chicago Field Office Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in his official capacity; ) GREGORY BOVINO, Commander-at-Large, U.S. ) Customs and Border Protection, in his official capacity; U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ) ENFORCEMENT; U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION; and the DEPARTMENT) OF HOMELAND SECURITY,
)
)
)
Judge Robert W. Gettleman
Defendants.
TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
This matter came before the court on plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order. On November 4, 2025, the court heard argument and considered the written filings by both sides, along with testimony presented by plaintiffs. Based on the record currently before it, the court finds that plaintiffs and members of the putative class have suffered, and are likely to suffer, irreparable harm absent the temporary relief granted herein, that they are likely to prevail on the merits of their claims, that the balance of the equities tips in their favor, and that the public
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The 34-year-old democratic socialist’s team includes familiar faces for New Yorkers. He must now navigate New York’s notoriously provincial politics.
Zohran Mamdani wins NYC mayor’s race
Mamdani, 34, will be NYC’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor.
NEW YORK − In his first hours as New York City’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani has signaled his intention to reassure a nervous political establishment that he is bringing experienced operators into his administration.
On the morning of Nov. 5, the 34-year-old democratic socialist announced a progressive-but-mainstream transition team to execute his affordability-focused agenda.
“The poetry of campaigning may have come to a close last night at 9, but the beautiful prose of governing has only just begun,” Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, told reporters in front of the Unisphere, a towering steel globe built for the 1964 World’s Fair.
That line itself could be interpreted as an olive branch: it was a reference to former Gov. Mario Cuomo’s famous observation that politicians “campaign in poetry” but they “govern in prose.” Mamdani just defeated Cuomo’s son Andrew, another former governor, in the mayoral race.
“The hard work of improving New Yorkers’ lives starts now,” Mamdani added.
An experienced team
Mamdani, who won the mayor’s race less than 24 hours earlier, takes over City Hall on New Year’s Day. His transition team includes familiar faces for New Yorkers.
Elana Leopold, a political strategist who served under former Mayor Bill de Blasio in several senior positions, will lead the team as executive director.
The four transition co-chairs include Lina Khan, the head of the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission; Maria Torres-Springer, former first deputy mayor under current Mayor Eric Adams; Grace Bonilla, president and CEO of United Way of New York City and a former de Blasio administration appointee; and Melanie Hartzog, de Blasio’s deputy mayor for health and human services and, before that, his management and budget office director.
De Blasio endorsed Mamdani, but Adams endorsed Cuomo.
Before Mamdani even won the race for mayor, he faced threats by the Trump administration to strip the city of even more federal funding. On election night, Mamdani called President Donald Trump out directly, saying he would protect New Yorkers as their mayor. Mamdani has said he would work with Trump to ease cost of living.
“Despite the headwinds the city we face as a city and as a country, the mayor-elect has truly rekindled something very powerful: Our shared faith in New York’s capacity to do big things and to dream boldly,” Torres-Springer said.
Earlier this year, Torres-Springer and other top city officials resigned from the current Adams administration. President Trump’s Justice Department dropped federal corruption charges in exchange for helping in the administration’s immigration crackdown, in an alleged quid pro quo Adams has denied. The scandal rocked Adams’ City Hall and contributed to his downfall as a one-term mayor.
During the campaign, Mamdani sought to reassure voters that, despite his young age and little experience in the state Legislature, he could manage the city’s $116 billion budget serving 8.5 million New Yorkers. He will also oversee a police department larger than many countries’ entire militaries.
Notably, he said he would keep current Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch in charge of the NYPD. Tisch’s super-wealthy father James donated heavily to previous Republican mayoral candidate such as Rudy Giuliani. Her cousin Laurie Tisch donated $150,000 to an effort to defeat Mamdani.
Mamdani has also been advised by Patrick Gaspard, a former aide to Barack Obama who previously led the liberal Center for American Progress think tank.
During the Democratic primary in June, Mamdani cross-endorsed with city Comptroller Brad Lander, a Brooklyn Democrat seen as a seasoned city politician. Lander’s support proved key in Mamdani’s primary win to defeat Andrew Cuomo, the former three-term governor saddled by a record of scandals.
On Nov. 4, Mamdani defeated Cuomo, running as an independent, a second time. Billionaires spent heavily against Mamdani’s candidacy.
“What we saw last night was New Yorkers not just electing a new mayor, but clearly rejecting a politics where outsized corporate power and money too often end up dictating our politics,” said Khan, an antitrust legal scholar who resigned from the FTC when Trump took office.
On Nov. 6, Mamdani continues his path to City Hall by flying to Puerto Rico, his spokesperson Dora Pekec said. While this sounds like vacation after a grueling campaign, he is Somos, New York Democrats’ unofficial annual power-brokering summit.
Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@usatoday.com or on Signal at emcuevas.01.
Democratic candidate for governor Abigail Spanberger gives remarks during a rally on Saturday in Norfolk, Virginia.
Shaban Athuman/VPM News
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Democrat Abigail Spanberger will be Virginia’s next governor, according to a race call by the Associated Press.
Spanberger, who previously served three terms in the U.S. House, defeated her Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. She’ll be Virginia’s first woman governor.
The contest received national attention as one of the first major tests of voter sentiment in response to the Trump administration’s policies.
Virginia is home to around 320,000 federal workers and hundreds of thousands of federal contractors. On the campaign trail, Spanberger argued that federal layoffs, cutbacks by President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tariffs, and the federal shutdown were an attack on the Virginia economy — and pitched herself as a way for voters to push back.
“We need a governor who will recognize the hardship of this moment, advocate for Virginians, and make clear that not only are we watching people be challenged in their livelihoods and in their businesses and in communities, but Virginia’s economy is under attack,” Spanberger said at a stop on a campaign bus tour late last month.
That message resonated with Haley Morgan Wright, a voter whose husband is a federal employee currently working without pay during the federal shutdown. She wants Spanberger to use her platform as governor to uplift the stories of civil servants like him.
“He cares about his country, he wants to serve his country and has opted to do it in this way,” she said after casting a ballot in the Northern Virginia exurbs. “He’s not superfluous.”
Spanberger was backed by national Democrats
National Democrats had looked to Spanberger and Virginia Democrats for a boost heading into the 2026 midterms. Former President Barack Obama had campaigned for her and the party backed her in what was one of just two governor’s races this year.
Voters cast their ballots at Huguenot High School on Tuesday in Richmond, Virginia.
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“The DNC has been spending a lot of money and a lot of time in Virginia,” said DNC Vice Chair Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta at a meeting for party volunteers in Northern Virginia. “Because we know that what you all do and the momentum that is going to come out of your victories is going lead to us flipping the House of Representatives in 2026.”
In 2021, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe with 50.6% of the vote to 48.7%. Virginia governors are limited to one four-year term.
Spanberger, who served in the CIA before running for Congress in 2018, has cultivated a reputation as a pragmatic centrist. The theme of her run for governor was “affordability” — speaking to Virginians’ concerns about rising costs of housing, utility bills, pharmaceutical drugs, and the economic uncertainty she blamed on Trump’s tariffs and federal layoffs.
Earle-Sears, meanwhile, portrayed herself as an example of the American dream — a Jamaican immigrant who became a U.S. Marine and small business owner.
She accused Spanberger of backing policies on transgender rights that she said are a threat to girls’ safety in school bathrooms and locker rooms.
“Love is not having my daughter having to be forced to undress in a locker room with a man. That’s not love,” Earle-Sears said at a rally in late October. “Love is making sure that our girl children have opportunities in sports and are not forced to play against biological males.”
Earle-Sears’ stance on transgender students in girls’ bathrooms sounded good to Elizabeth Drake, a voter who said she works with youth at a church in Loudoun County.
“I feel like we’re actually going back and setting ourselves back a lot by endangering women,” she said. “I’m not saying that that doesn’t mean we can have alternative spaces for people, but the women’s locker rooms, women’s bathrooms, women’s safe homes are not it.”
Winsome Earle-Sears, currently Virginia’s lieutenant governor, in the Virginia General Assembly last month.
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The race was jolted by late-breaking events
She also attacked Spanberger for supporting Biden administration policies. She vowed to continue business-friendly polices of outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. While she backed Trump’s policies, Trump did not endorse her.
Several developments impacted the final weeks of the race. The federal shutdown shadowed the final month of early voting, with both campaigns blaming the other party for the stalemate.
Virginia lawmakers began considering a plan to redistrict the state’s congressional districts to favor Democratic candidates in the 2026 midterm elections, as President Trump pushes Republicans in other states to move to favor their candidates. That could be an issue facing the next Virginia governor.
Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Spanberger over the weekend.
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Steve Helber/AP
And Republicans seized on revelations of text messages by Democratic candidate for attorney general, Jay Jones, in which he described the hypothetical shooting of a Republican lawmaker. Spanberger denounced the messages though Earle-Sears faulted her for not calling on Jones to drop out of the race.
Jones was in a tight race Tuesday against Republican incumbent Jason Miyares for the attorney general’s office.
Margaret Barthel covers Virginia politics for WAMU.
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