US to exit international coalition investigating Russia's alleged war crimes in Ukraine

ISTANBUL

The US Justice Department has discreetly informed European officials of its decision to withdraw from an international coalition tasked to investigate those responsible for the war on Ukraine, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, The New York Times reported on Monday.

This move, involving the US exit from the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, an initiative the Biden administration joined in 2023, marks a departure from President Joe Biden’s commitment to holding Putin personally accountable for crimes committed during the war.

The decision aligns with a broader shift in US policy under the Trump administration to a more pro-Russian stance.

The coalition was established to hold Russia's leadership, along with its allies in Belarus, North Korea, and Iran, responsible for crimes classified as aggression under international law.

These crimes involve violating another nation's sovereignty without acting in self-defense.

According to sources, the decision is set to be communicated on Monday via email to the staff and members of the group’s parent organization, the EU Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, commonly known as Eurojust.

The US was the only country outside of Europe to work with the group, sending a senior Justice Department prosecutor to The Hague to join investigators from Ukraine, the Baltic States, and Romania.

In addition to withdrawing from the coalition, the Trump administration is reducing the activities of the War Crimes Accountability Team, created in 2022 by then-Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to oversee US efforts to hold Russia accountable for alleged atrocities during the war.

“There is no hiding place for war criminals,” Garland said when announcing the formation of the unit.

The department, he added, "will pursue every avenue of accountability for those who commit war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine."

During the Biden administration, the team aided Ukraine’s prosecutors and law enforcement by delivering logistical support, training, and assistance in pursuing alleged Russian war crimes. In December 2023, US prosecutors used a war crimes statute for the first time in nearly 30 years to charge four Russian soldiers with torturing an American in Kherson, Ukraine.

In recent remarks, Trump has aligned more with Putin while criticizing Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, suggesting that Ukraine provoked Russia’s war.

“You should have never started it,” Trump said in February, referring to Ukraine’s leaders. “You could have made a deal.” On social media, he later called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections” and said he had “done a terrible job” in office.

The Trump administration did not provide a specific reason for withdrawing from the investigative group, with sources familiar with the matter saying the move is due to a need to redeploy resources. These sources spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to publicly discuss the decision.

Since Trump took office, the US Justice Department has also disbanded its unit to deal with alleged foreign interference in US elections, including alleged acts by Russia, as well as enforcing violations of US sanctions on Russia.