Fact check: US ‘deletes evidence’ of Russia’s kidnap of thousands of Ukrainian children

1. Summary of the results

The original statement's claim about "deleting evidence" appears to be misleading. While funding for Yale University's tracking database was terminated ^[1], both the State Department and MITRE explicitly state that the data has NOT been deleted ^[2]. Researchers have lost access to critical resources like satellite imaging and the database itself, but the information appears to still exist ^[2].

The scale of child deportations varies significantly by source:

• Russia claims 700,000 children entered voluntarily with families ^[3]
• Yale researchers tracked 8,400 systematic relocations ^[4]
• Ukraine estimates 19,500 deportations with only 388-1,250 returns ^{[5] [4]}
• Yale's database tracked up to 35,000 cases ^[6]

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The situation is more complex than the headline suggests:

• Legal Status: The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova regarding these deportations ^[5]
• UN Investigation: UN investigators have concluded these transfers constitute war crimes, finding evidence of:
• Illegal transfers
• Children unable to contact families
• Poor treatment in Russian-controlled areas
• Risk of permanent displacement ^[7]
• Russian Perspective: Russia maintains these movements were voluntary evacuations for safety reasons ^[3]

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original statement contains several problematic elements:

• It presents the deletion of evidence as fact, when multiple sources indicate the data still exists but is inaccessible ^[2]
• It doesn't acknowledge the ongoing congressional investigation into the matter ^[1]
• It fails to mention the significant discrepancy in reported numbers between different sources

Potential beneficiaries of various narratives:

• Russia benefits from portraying deportations as voluntary evacuations
• Ukrainian authorities benefit from higher numbers to maintain international attention
• The US State Department benefits from downplaying the impact of defunding the tracking program
• Human rights organizations benefit from maintaining focus on the issue for continued investigation and child recovery efforts