World News

TEL AVIV, June 1 (Reuters) – Israel’s Defence Ministry on Monday said France had banned Israeli government representatives from attending the Eurosatory defence exhibition in Paris this month.

France has also banned Israeli weapons makers from exhibiting offensive systems and will only permit them to display “air defence products”.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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BRUSSELS, June 1 (Reuters) – The outcomes of most of the United Nations’ recent COP climate summits have fallen short of the more ambitious action scientists say is needed to address climate change, said EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra on Monday.

“If you look at what the problem actually needs and where the bar should then be, and what most of the COPs of the last five, six, seven, eight years have delivered, then you just have to admit that that was underwhelming,” Hoekstra told an event hosted by Politico in Brussels.

He added that there was a need to continue work at COP summits, where nearly 200 countries take decisions by consensus, but also in smaller groups of countries who are willing to move faster to tackle global warming.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

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By Nelson Bocanegra, Julia Symmes Cobb and Luis Jaime Acosta

BOGOTA, June 1 (Reuters) – Right-wing Colombian lawyer Abelardo De La Espriella and leftist senator Ivan Cepeda will head to a June presidential runoff after Sunday’s tight vote, in a contest so far dominated by voter concerns over security and the economy, to which each candidate has offered populist solutions.

The two men were close in vote tallies in the first round of the contest, with De La Espriella, who has never held elected office, notching nearly 44% support and Cepeda, a long-time senator and activist, just under 41%. The 670,000 vote difference suggests a tough second round for Cepeda, particularly after the third-place finisher endorsed De La Espriella.

De La Espriella’s personal style and policy proposals – including tough rhetoric against illegal armed groups and the promise to build 10 megaprisons – have drawn comparisons to El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.

“I am ready to fight the final battle. I am ready for a second round in which this miraculous homeland and its supporters will prevail,” he said Sunday evening from a stage set up on a large boat on the Magdalena River in Barranquilla, where he maintains a residence. 

Markets reacted positively to De La Espriella’s performance, with the Colombian peso rising 3.75% to 3,551 to the U.S. dollar on Monday, while the country’s stock market gained 6.3% and 2042 international bonds rose 3 cents.

“This is going to end up being positive for the market. One could expect some appreciation in public debt, an exchange rate that might appreciate, and of course, there could also be some value in the stock market,” said David Cubides, chief economist at Banco de Occidente.

The 47-year-old De La Espriella, his wife and four young children also have homes in Miami and Italy.

He has warned that Cepeda would ensure the continuation of President Gustavo Petro’s economic policies, including a ban on new oil projects, much criticized by establishment politicians and investors. The lawyer has pledged poverty reduction through better education, healthcare and housing for the poorest.

Though a De La Espriella presidency would lead to more pro-business policymaking, tighter fiscal policy and improved relations with the U.S., the scale of Colombia’s fiscal problems and the highly fragmented congress – where only five lawmakers belong directly to De La Espriella’s movement – will make it difficult to enact the scale of austerity needed to stop public debt-to-GDP from rising, Capital Economics said in a note.

De La Espriella says he is free from political baggage and has financed his own campaign, without receiving donations from parties or large companies. Reuters could not independently verify that claim.     

LEFTIST FACES UPHILL BATTLE 

Cepeda, a 63-year-old lawmaker and son of a murdered communist leader, led some opinion polls ahead of the first round, but surveys have suggested he will face a much tougher contest now that right-leaning voters no longer have multiple options. 

Paloma Valencia, a senator backed by former President Alvaro Uribe, had until recently been the leading right-wing candidate in the race, but she notched under 7% of votes. She has thrown her support behind De La Espriella, as has Uribe. 

Centrist candidates notched single-digit support. Both Cepeda and Petro said there were possible irregularities and that they would wait for all votes to be confirmed by judges. By early Monday morning, some 94% of ballot box tallies had been formally reviewed.

The two candidates inveighed against one another in comments on Sunday night, with De La Espriella referring to Cepeda as Petro’s puppet, while Cepeda called his rival a “mafia fascist” and critiqued his history as a lawyer. De La Espriella has legally represented controversial figures, including former Venezuelan minister Alex Saab, who is currently facing U.S. charges for money laundering.  

Cepeda, who participated in talks that produced a 2016 peace deal between the government and former FARC guerrillas, has promised to pursue peace with other armed groups to end the country’s six-decade internal conflict, an effort that has led to little progress under Petro. He also plans to deepen reforms meant to reduce inequality and poverty, including by raising taxes on high earners, gifting 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) to conflict victims and expanding income support for the elderly, poor families and young people.

“We will step up all our efforts starting tonight to gather and unite the forces needed to defeat Abelardo De La Espriella with a clear electoral verification,” Cepeda told supporters. Low turnout at Sunday’s vote may give the candidates room to maneuver if they can convince more supporters to vote in the runoff on June 21. Some 58% of 41 million eligible voters cast ballots, figures from the registry office showed.

(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra, Julia Symmes Cobb and Luis Jaime Acosta; Editing by Lincoln Feast.and David Gaffen)

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NAIROBI, June 1 (Reuters) – Hundreds of people took to the streets in the central Kenyan town of Nanyuki on Monday to protest moves by the United States to set up an Ebola quarantine facility at a military base there, residents told Reuters, days after the High Court ordered the government to suspend the plan temporarily.

The court ordered the temporary suspension on Friday after a lawsuit was brought arguing that the site could endanger public health.

Senior U.S. officials said the 50-bed unit at an air force base in Laikipia county would serve Americans who have been exposed to the virus but are still asymptomatic. Kenya’s government has also confirmed plans to set up the facility, with Health Minister Aden Duale saying in a statement on Saturday that it was part of a wider push to strengthen emergency response systems.

The U.S. officials said the site was expected to have become operational last Friday. A number of military aircraft flew in and out of Nanyuki late last week and over the weekend, in what diplomats and experts said appeared to be part of ongoing U.S. preparations for the quarantine unit despite the court order.

A Reuters witness on Saturday said police and military had increased their presence on roads leading to the air base.

Footage obtained by Reuters on Monday showed a crowd of about 100 people standing about 4 km from the site of the planned facility, blowing whistles and some riding atop a pickup. Smoke could be seen rising from something burning on the road. Local residents put the number of protesters in the hundreds.

NTV Kenya and Citizen Kenya television channels showed footage of people standing by a wall outside the air base, with a tank stationed there and a handful of soldiers on guard.

Patrick Wahome, one of the organisers of the protest, told Reuters that they wanted the health facility to be shut down for good by Tuesday, June 9.

“Nanyuki is a very small town. The military personnel who serve the base… live with us. Our kids go to the same schools and that means if anyone is infected, we are all infected,” he said.

“We are picketing for our lives,” he added.

Cafe owner Patrick Maina said he was forced to shutter his business and described the situation as “very bad.”

“We haven’t opened since morning and it’s likely to be worse tomorrow,” he told Reuters.

A U.S. military C-130 transport plane flew into Nanyuki as recently as Friday afternoon, according to the flight-tracking service Flightradar24. 

Two Nanyuki residents also reported seeing military aircraft flying towards the base over the weekend, though Reuters was unable to confirm if they were U.S. aircraft.

(Reporting by David Lewis, Noor Ali, George Obulutsa, Aaron McNicholas and Edwin Okoth; Editing by Ammu Kannampilly)

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By Julia Symmes Cobb

BOGOTA, May 31 (Reuters) – Colombian right wing outsider Abelardo de la Espreilla is poised to compete in a runoff in the country’s presidential race against leftist senator Ivan Cepeda, data from the country’s national registry office showed on Sunday, after no candidate reached the more than 50% support needed to avoid a second round with a majority of votes counted.

De La Espriella and Cepeda were running extremely close in tallies, with the right wing lawyer notching 44.2% support and the long-time senator and activist 41%.

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb)

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NAIROBI, June 1 (Reuters) – Ethiopia will hold parliamentary and regional elections on Monday that analysts expect Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s party to win in a landslide, despite significant unrest in much of the country. 

More than 50 million of Ethiopia’s people are registered for the elections, but voting will not take place in the northern Tigray region, where the electoral board has cited “unfavourable conditions” following a 2020 to 2022 civil war and continuing political turmoil. 

Abiy, 49, will be looking to further consolidate his grip on national politics. He was appointed in 2018 following mass protests against the long-ruling EPRDF coalition and his newly formed Prosperity Party won 410 out of 484 seats in parliament in elections in 2021. 

Prosperity Party candidates have campaigned on the government’s economic record, citing improved food security and economic growth in Africa’s second-most populous country that officials project will top 10% in 2026, one of the fastest rates on the continent. 

Nearly half of Ethiopia’s 135 million population is under 18.  

GOVERNMENT FACES INSURGENCIES IN TWO BIGGEST REGIONS

But Abiy faces insurgencies in the country’s two biggest regions linked to grievances by different ethnic groups about alleged marginalisation within Ethiopia’s federal system.  

In his native Oromiya, a region in the south, fighting between government forces and the Oromo Liberation Army separatist group has killed hundreds of people in the past few years. 

In neighbouring Amhara, a militia known as Fano has seized swathes of the countryside since 2023. As a result, voting will not take place in at least eight of Amhara’s 138 constituencies. 

Though a 2022 peace deal ended the civil war in Tigray, which researchers say caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, a move this month by the main political party there to reassert control over the region’s political administration has led Ethiopian officials and analysts to warn of the risk of fresh unrest. 

ABIY’S PARTY FACES WEAK OPPOSITION

The Prosperity Party is nevertheless expected to dominate the elections against a fragmented opposition weakened by internal rivalries. Results are expected by June 11.  

Opposition parties accuse the federal government of undermining them by arresting their leaders and imposing legal obstacles to their political activities, charges denied by the government. 

Reuters has not been able to report from inside Ethiopia since mid-February, when the Ethiopian Media Authority declined to renew the accreditation for its three Addis Ababa-based journalists.

Upon taking office in 2018, Abiy moved to liberalise Ethiopia’s tightly controlled economy and freed journalists, activists and other political prisoners. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for ending hostilities with neighbouring Eritrea.

His opponents and human rights activists accuse his government of reversing those gains in recent years by detaining journalists, shutting down civil society groups and overseeing military campaigns marked by atrocities. 

The government has denied systematic human rights abuses and said its actions are necessary to protect national security. 

The rapprochement with Eritrea has given way to fresh animosity in the past few years, in part over repeated declarations by Abiy that landlocked Ethiopia has a right to sea access.

Eritrea, which won its independence from Ethiopia in 1993, has viewed the comments as an implicit threat of military aggression. Abiy has said that although sea access is an “existential” matter for Ethiopia, he intends to pursue it through dialogue. 

(Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

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IDF Raises Israeli Flag Over Beaufort Castle After Capturing Hezbollah Stronghold   

Israeli troops have raised Israeli and Golani Brigade flags over Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon after capturing the strategic hilltop position during recent operations aimed at dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure in the area, according to the Israel Defense Forces.   

The operation brought Israeli forces to one of the most prominent positions in southern Lebanon. The military said troops advanced beyond the Litani River near Metula and reached the fortress, which commands views of both northern Israel and the Nabatieh region.   

According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the area surrounding Beaufort and Wadi Saluki has served as a major Hezbollah operational zone. The military said the armed group established significant infrastructure there with Iranian assistance and used the area to coordinate attacks and launch hundreds of rockets at Israel and Israeli forces operating in southern Lebanon.   

The military said forces remain active near Nabatieh and are prepared to broaden operations.    

“The IDF is operating near Nabatieh, a significant Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon, and is prepared to expand the offensive as required,” the military said, “to destroy [Hezbollah] infrastructure and eliminate terrorists, as part of strengthening operational control in southern Lebanon and removing the direct threat to the Galilee Panhandle and Metula,” as well as to “expand the forward defense line.”   

Defense Minister Israel Katz said the return to Beaufort carried symbolic significance because of the site’s history in Israel’s military campaigns in Lebanon.   

“Forty-four years after the heroic Battle of the Beaufort, and on the memorial day for the Peace for the Galilee War, including the Golani soldiers who fell in the Battle of the Beaufort, IDF soldiers, led by the Golani Brigade, returned to the summit of Beaufort and once again raised the Israeli flag and the Golani flag there,” Katz said.   

The Crusader-built fortress was first captured by Israeli forces during the opening stages of the First Lebanon War in 1982. During that battle, Golani Brigade soldiers fought members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) at the site. Dozens of PLO fighters were killed, while six Israeli soldiers lost their lives. Israeli forces remained at the position until the withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. 

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Pezeshkian Submits Resignation as Iran’s President Citing IRGC Power Grab – Report  

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has submitted a resignation letter to the Office of the Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, citing his exclusion from key decision-making processes and the growing role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in governing the country, according to a report by Iran International.  

The report said Pezeshkian requested to step down immediately, arguing that he could no longer effectively lead the government or fulfill his legal responsibilities because major decisions were being made outside his administration.  

The claim has not been confirmed by Iranian authorities or major international wire services, and there was no immediate indication that the resignation had been accepted.  

According to Iran International, Pezeshkian stated that the IRGC had assumed control over critical areas of governance while sidelining the civilian government. The outlet reported that the transfer of authority had left the president’s administration unable to advance diplomatic negotiations or implement planned changes to the cabinet structure.  

Iran International previously reported that the IRGC had gradually curtailed presidential powers and taken control of key parts of the government. The outlet said informed sources described a political and executive deadlock that had limited the administration’s ability to carry out policy initiatives.  

The report also said that key decision-making authority had shifted from the civilian government to senior IRGC figures and the Supreme Leader, resulting in blocked executive decisions and diplomatic efforts being pushed aside.  

According to The Jerusalem Post, the IRGC controls an estimated 20% to 40% of Iran’s economy. The newspaper reported that the organization bypasses international sanctions through “dark fleet” oil tankers and smuggling networks and commands the majority of the country’s oil exports, directing revenue into its military-industrial complex.  

The Council on Foreign Relations has reported that the IRGC operates an internal security and intelligence network that includes the Basij militia. According to the organization, the force monitors dissent and plays a role in ensuring that only candidates aligned with the IRGC are permitted to hold significant political power.  

It remains unclear whether Mojtaba Khamenei will accept Pezeshkian’s reported resignation. 

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PARIS (AP) — French police detained 780 people involved in violent clashes in Paris and other French cities that erupted Saturday night after Paris Saint-Germain won the Champions League title.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 57 officers were wounded, with most suffering minor injuries, as football fans set off fires and vandalized shops. One small group even tried to storm a Paris police station.

Nuñez said at a news conference Sunday that “the situation has been largely brought under control.”

“Most of the celebrations took place peacefully” across the French capital, he said, noting most incidents happened in the Champs Elysees neighborhood and close to the Parc des Princes stadium in western Paris where fans had gathered to watch the match.

Police also intervened five times overnight to prevent people from blocking traffic on the main ring road around Paris, he said.

Nuñez said incidents took place in about 15 cities in France, describing “one to two” shops vandalized in each other than Paris. He said 780 people were detained in all, with 480 of them in the Paris area alone.

The Paris prosecutors’ office said 277 people have been formally placed in police custody, including 82 minors, for alleged offences. Most were for assault of police officers while other allegations include theft, vandalism and disturbing the public order.

One serious accident involved a driver losing control of a car that rammed into a restaurant’s terrace, leaving two people wounded including one seriously, Nuñez said.

But Nuñez said that planned celebrations for the team’s win on Sunday afternoon at the Champ de Mars, near the Eiffel Tower, would go ahead as scheduled. He warned that police would respond with “firmness and determination” to any potential violence.

The PSG team will then be hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee presidential palace.

Fans began celebrating in Paris after the final whistle Saturday evening in Budapest, Hungary, where Paris Saint-Germain won by beating Arsenal on penalties in a dramatic final.

Fans marched along the avenues near Paris’ Arc de Triomphe monument, with some setting off flares and blaring car horns. Around 20,000 people gathered on the Champs-Elysees, where police worked to contain the crowd.

The Paris police prefecture said smaller groups caused disturbances in various locations, with some vandalizing shops and setting fires to garbage and self-service bicycles in the streets. Cars were also set ablaze. Those who attempted to storm a police station in the posh 8th Arrondissement neighborhood were dispersed, police said.

In May last year following PSG’s first title, 201 people were injured in the French capital and police made more than 500 arrests across France.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

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By Anthony Deutsch

IZIUM, Ukraine, May 31 (Reuters) – Roksolana Makar braved icy roads and the threat of drone strikes to interview a woman in the Ukrainian town of Izium who said Russian forces tortured her.

Surrounded by woods and farmland, Izium still bears scars from a 2022 Russian occupation that left bridges smashed and buildings flattened. The woman told Makar, a war-crimes investigator for a Ukrainian nonprofit, that Russian soldiers detained her at a battery plant for 10 days that year.

There, the woman said, she was beaten, electrically shocked, suffocated with a gas mask and raped.

“I asked them to kill me because I couldn’t take it anymore,” said the woman, 55, who asked to be identified only by one name, Alla.

Horrified by Russia’s alleged atrocities, Makar aims to document such accounts before evidence is destroyed and memories fade. But she worries fewer perpetrators will answer for their crimes after the United States stopped funding her organization, Truth Hounds, and dozens of others seeking justice in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.

Since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals, the U.S. has championed accountability for many of the world’s worst atrocities, supporting investigations and tribunals. But the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump cut tens of millions of dollars in funding for this work last year when it slashed overseas-development aid to advance the president’s “America first” agenda, according to a Reuters review of government data and interviews with eight current and former American officials. Ukraine was the largest single recipient, the officials said.

“There’s less hope” for accountability, Makar said after interviewing Alla in an Izium office in January.

Reuters could not independently verify Alla’s account. The Kremlin and Russia’s defense ministry did not answer questions about her case or other specific incidents in this story. Russia has repeatedly denied committing war crimes, calling the accusations Western propaganda.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office says it has opened more than 230,000 war-crimes cases since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. Allegations include targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, abduction and deportation of children, torture and sexual violence.

The deep U.S. aid cuts “could lead to a lot of victims being denied justice,” said Beth Van Schaack, ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice under former President Joe Biden.

The State Department said the U.S. is shifting the war’s financial burden to Europe and other “willing partners” but still provides substantial assistance to Ukraine, including programs for “war crimes, justice and accountability for atrocities.”

To understand the consequences of the cuts, Reuters interviewed more than 40 members of an extensive U.S.-supported network engaged in investigating Ukraine war crimes, aiding prosecutions and supporting victims. They included law enforcement officials, legal experts, human-rights activists and researchers. Almost all said their efforts have been curtailed, hampering investigations and dimming hopes for justice.

Among the examples they provided: Truth Hounds had to lay off staff, suspend an archiving project and defer international-law training for judges and prosecutors.

Dozens of foreign experts who helped collect and analyze battlefield evidence can no longer travel to Ukraine after State reduced support for the country’s overburdened prosecutors, according to five sources familiar with the matter. 

And plans to rebuild a courthouse destroyed in the war were halted after the Trump administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development and terminated a $62-million program to strengthen the Ukrainian justice system, a source familiar with USAID’s operations said.

TRACKING U.S. DEFUNDING OF WAR-CRIMES ACCOUNTABILITY

Russia’s invasion created huge demand in Ukraine for arrests and trials of those accused of atrocities.

Even when U.S. funding peaked under Biden, the burden overwhelmed Ukrainian prosecutors, who had secured 252 war-crimes convictions as of April 1. In addition, the prosecutor’s office said it had identified 1,175 suspects and indicted 842.

High-ranking suspects could be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which has sought the arrest of President Vladimir Putin. Cases are also being pursued in U.S. and European courts.

Reuters tracked more than $283 million in U.S. funding at least substantially earmarked for Ukraine war-crimes initiatives since 2022 through interviews with over two dozen sources and a review of public announcements, government documents and watchdog reports.

The news organization could not establish how much of that money had been disbursed when Trump ordered a pause in foreign-development assistance in January 2025, pending a review, or how much was later reinstated. But programs accounting for at least 40% of the spending were terminated or allowed to expire, Reuters found.

Reuters’ tallies are likely undercounts, but they offer the most comprehensive assessment to date of the U.S. defunding of war-crimes accountability in Ukraine.

Determining exactly how much aid Washington is providing is difficult because of the number of U.S. agencies and recipients involved. Grants are sometimes shared by multiple organizations, span several years or include money for other priorities. The U.S. also provides expertise and intelligence.

A senior source in Ukraine said Trump’s cuts affect about half the country’s U.S.-funded projects promoting war-crimes accountability and rule of law.

The administration has launched one new program. In March, State said it would provide up to $25 million to support the return of missing Ukrainian children, a cause championed by first lady Melania Trump. Recipients have not yet been announced.

The new grant followed cuts to other programs serving the same purpose, including a Yale University initiative that has tracked thousands of missing Ukrainian children to sites in Russia and Russian-occupied territory.

The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab will run out of money in August after State withheld about $8 million in funding, its executive director, Nathaniel Raymond, told Reuters.

A BROADER U.S. RETREAT FROM GLOBAL JUSTICE WORK

Truth Hounds has helped track war-crimes suspects since 2014, when Russian forces seized Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Reuters accompanied the group’s investigators on a three-day trip to the northeastern Kharkiv region to gather more testimony.

In Izium, netting to prevent Russian drone attacks was draped over roads, and the lights cut out during interviews because of strikes on power infrastructure. The thud of artillery sounded in the distance.

Truth Hounds has documented some 17,000 war-crimes allegations across Ukraine, said the group’s co-executive director, Dmytro Koval. Their work slowed when the organization lost U.S. funding that had covered a third of its budget since 2023.

“Some important lines of inquiry will not be opened at all,” Koval said.

The cuts reflect a broader U.S. pullback from work on human-rights violations.

Last year, Trump’s administration closed a State Department office that had helped coordinate the global response to mass atrocities since 1997, disbanded a Justice Department team helping Ukraine prosecute war crimes and pulled the U.S. out of a multinational group building cases against Russian leaders for the invasion.

The administration also imposed sanctions on ICC officials over attempts to investigate alleged crimes by Israel’s leaders in Gaza and by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. The U.S. is not a member of the ICC and has long rejected its authority to investigate Americans.

Other major donors, including the European Union and Britain, say they remain committed to delivering justice for Ukraine.

But the lost U.S. aid won’t be easily replaced, said Wayne Jordash, deputy lead of an Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA) set up by the U.S., EU and Britain to support the Ukraine prosecutor’s office. Last year, State stopped funding two out of three core organizations in the initiative, including Jordash’s international law foundation, Global Rights Compliance, according to a recent audit by the department’s Office of Inspector General. 

State said it still supports the Ukraine prosecutor’s office, the national police and the ACA initiative, without providing details. The Justice Department said it remains committed to supporting accountability for war crimes.

The British foreign office declined to comment. Since February, Britain has announced an additional £5 million ($6.73 million) to support justice for Ukrainian war-crimes victims and £1.2 million to help verify and trace illegally deported children.

EU foreign affairs spokesperson Anitta Hipper said member states have allocated €10 million ($11.66 million) to create a special tribunal to try senior Russian leaders for aggression against Ukraine and are contributing €1 million toward the creation of an international claims commission to ensure Kyiv is compensated.

In May, the EU announced €50 million in funding for Ukraine’s child protection system and to pursue justice for abducted children.

“Russia will be held accountable,” Hipper said.

A MOTHER’S DESPERATE SEARCH FOR HER SON

For Yuliia Usenko, Ukraine’s lead prosecutor for crimes against children, Yale’s digital investigations have been “invaluable.”

Most alleged crime scenes are in Russian-occupied territory or in Russia, where Ukrainian investigators have no access. Yale’s researchers use satellite imagery, Russian social media posts and other open sources to track children taken to more than 200 sites they say are part of a vast Russian reeducation and militarization network. Some were later placed in Russian foster care or adopted, they said in a series of reports.

War-crimes experts deployed by the ACA have been helping Ukraine sift through cases to identify connections that could indicate a deliberate strategy by Russian leaders.

“We want to show Russia’s true intent is not just to seize a piece of Ukraine’s territory, but much more: to destroy our nation and assimilate it into Russian society,” Usenko said.

Ukrainian authorities accuse Russia of more than 20,500 child deportations or forced transfers and say just over 2,000 children have been returned. Yale researchers estimate 35,000 may have been taken.

Russia denies abducting Ukrainian children, saying it evacuated them from conflict zones for their safety.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters that in June 2025 Kyiv provided Moscow with a list of 339 children it said ended up in Russia. Ukrainian officials have said the list was a starting point for negotiations to return all missing children.

Aid groups like the Emile Foundation, which operates in frontline villages, have been using Yale’s findings to help reunite children with their families.

“Without it, we are talking about many years of setbacks,” said Mariam Lambert, co-founder of the Netherlands-based foundation.

The last time Hanna Zamyshliaieva saw her son, Anton Volkovych, was on January 14, 2022, when she visited him at a boarding school for children with special needs in Oleshky. He was 19 and in need of constant care due to a neurological disorder. The mother showed Reuters journalists a photograph of Volkovych sitting in a wheelchair, clutching a stuffed owl.

That February, Russian forces occupied the town in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region. Zamyshliaieva kept in touch with the school by phone. But over the coming months, the students and some staff were transferred to locations deeper inside Russian-occupied territory, where she could not reach them, she said.

Of the 87 pupils at Oleshky before the occupation, 13 have returned, Lambert said. Her foundation received a tip about Volkovych’s whereabouts in March, but there has been no confirmation from Russia.

Zamyshliaieva grapples daily with the unbearable uncertainty over whether he has survived the years without the intense care he received at the school.

“I just want to hold him,” she said.

MAKING SURE ‘EVERYONE IS PUNISHED’

Tetiana Popovych is among the Ukrainians demanding justice.

She spent years looking for her son, Vladyslav, who was 29 when he disappeared during Russia’s occupation of Bucha, near Kyiv, early in the war.

Popovych retraced her son’s steps with help from neighbors and returning prisoners of war.

One witness saw Vladyslav, a civilian, hiding in her walnut orchard during an artillery barrage. Another said he bandaged her son’s gunshot wounds before Russian forces captured and beat them.

Finally, a released prisoner told her they had shared a detention cell in the Russian town of Vyazma. She believes he is still there.

“For me it is important that everyone is punished, that everyone is found, no matter how many years have passed,” Popovych said. “I will fight for this until the end.”

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(Additional reporting by Dan Peleschuk in Kyiv and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Alexandra Zavis)

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