Yale Humanitarian Research Lab resumes work after federal funding halt
The Yale School of Public Health’s lab investigating deportations of Ukrainian children has received a six-week extension from the State Department to preserve evidence.
Tim Tai
Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab has resumed operations after federal funding was temporarily suspended in late February.
The Humanitarian Research Lab, or HRL, based at the School of Public Health, investigates the alleged mass deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia using open-source intelligence and satellite imagery. Launched in 2022 with $6 million in federal funding, the lab is part of a broader international effort to document potential war crimes and ensure the preservation of critical evidence.
On Feb. 27, the U.S. Department of State paused funding, halting the lab’s work. The State Department has since granted the lab a six-week extension to finalize its evidence preservation efforts, according to the University spokesperson. HRL’s data repository is expected to be transferred to Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, in the coming weeks.
The current six-week extension will allow the lab to complete ongoing analysis and prepare its dataset for transfer to Europol. The long-term future of federal support for the lab remains unclear.
The February pause in funding was not accompanied by a public explanation from the State Department. A spokesperson from Yale confirmed the suspension in early March.
The lab had previously uncovered Russia’s systematic deportation and coerced adoption of Ukrainian children, which HRL researchers described as one of the largest missing persons cases since World War II. In a December 2024 report, the team documented at least 314 children, primarily from the Eastern Donbas region, who were forcibly moved into Russia’s adoption system.
The lab had previously partnered with the U.S. government to document the forced transfer of Ukrainian children following Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Myron Melnyk, a Yale alumnus and translator involved with HRL, expressed concern over the funding uncertainty, stating that the lab’s documentation efforts could play a role in future international negotiations.
The State Department has not publicly commented on the funding pause or the reinstatement.