President Trump vowed to help Ukraine get back thousands of children allegedly abducted by Russia after his phone call with President Zelensky, even after his administration cut off funding to a university database documenting their whereabouts.
Activists say Russian troops have taken many of the children from orphanages or centres for disabled youth, while others are from poor families whose parents have been duped by invading forces.
Trump asked Zelensky “about the children who had gone missing from Ukraine during the war, including the ones that had been abducted”, the secretary of state Marco Rubio and Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said in a joint statement. “President Trump promised to work closely with both parties to help make sure those children were returned home.”