US to withdraw from international group probing Russian war crimes in Ukraine: report
The US will be withdrawing from an international group investigating Russiaās alleged war crimes in Ukraine ā including those perpetrated by President Vladimir Putin, according to a letter sent to European allies on Monday.
The Department of Justice has said the US will no longer be part of the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA), which the Biden administration joined in 2023 as part of Americaās commitment to hold Putin personally responsible for the 2022 invasion.
āThe US authorities have informed me that they will conclude their involvement in the ICPA,ā Michael Schmid, president of the groupās parent organization Eurojust, said in a letter obtained by The New York Times.
The US was the only nation outside Europe to send a senior prosecutor to The Hague to work on the investigation to hold leaders in Russia, Belarus, North Korea and Iran accountable for the ongoing invasion.
The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision to withdraw from the investigation, which comes as President Trump tries to mend Americaās relationship with Russia.
The administration claimed the decision was made over the need to redeploy resources as part of Trumpās government overhaul, sources told the Times.
Along with exiting the ICPA, the Trump administration is also reducing the work done by the DOJās War Crimes Accountability Team WarCAT, which was coordinating efforts to hold Russians accountable for the crimes committed during the war.
āThere is no hiding place for war criminals,ā then-Attorney General Merrick Garland touted when WarCAT was created in 2022.
The group was tasked with providing Ukraine prosecutors and law enforcement with the help and training needed to bring war crimes charges committed by Russia to court.
The team notably brought a case against four Russian soldiers charged with torturing an American who was captured during the Kremlinās attack on the Kherson region in 2023.
Despite Americaās withdrawal, the ICPA said the group remains āfully committedā to holding āthose responsible for core international crimesā in Ukraine accountable, Schmid said.
The group consists of prosecutors from Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.
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