Lib Dems urge government to fund scheme that traces Ukrainian children abducted by Russia

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From the Guardian:

The Liberal Democrats are urging the government to provide replacement funding to an American project that locates Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia, as the party gathers for a spring conference heavily focused on the response to Donald Trump.

British support for the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University could be part of a more robust approach towards the US president, particularly over Ukraine, according to Calum Miller, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson.

Earlier this month, Yale said US government funding for the lab, which has attempted to track the fate of the estimated 20,000 Ukrainian children taken to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, had been ended as part of cuts imposed by Elon Musk’s so-called department of government efficiency.

The paper has spoken to the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller. As it reminds us, he entered politics just four years ago when he became an Oxfordshire county councillor.

But with his background as a senior civil servant and then heading Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, he was given the foreign affairs brief immediately after becoming an MP in July.

Calum will be moving a motion at the the party's spring conference expressing "profound alarm" at Trump’s presidency and urging closer European collaboration in response. 

He is calling for the government to use the £2bn-plus proceeds from Roman Abramovich’s sale of Chelsea FC to help such efforts:

"We’d like to think that some of this Abramovich money could be put to exactly those purposes, so this terrible chapter of children being forcibly removed and almost indoctrinated in Russia, can be brought to an end, but also hopefully when those children return to Ukraine they can be given all the support they need as part of a humanitarian package."

Calum also told the paper that more confiscated Russian assets should be used to aid Ukraine.

He is strongly critical of the Conservative approach to the new international situation:

"I’m genuinely baffled by the approach taken by the Conservatives in this regard, fawning over Donald Trump at his inauguration and declaring a new era in UK-US relations. It looked unwise at the time and events since have proven how ill-advised it was.

"So many people in my area opened their doors to Ukrainian families, like they did across the whole country. Voters can see that the Russians have been emboldened and empowered by the US administration, and they think that’s just the wrong thing."

It's worth reading the whole piece: Calum also talks about the Labour government's approach to US under Trump.

Finally, as a Chelsea fan I cannot help reflecting that, after paying £2bn to buy the club, its new members have invested another £1.4bn in making the team far weaker than the one they inherited.