Media: US Quits Group Investigating Russian Responsibility for Invasion of Ukraine

The U.S. is withdrawing from a multinational panel set up to investigate leaders responsible for the invasion of Ukraine, including Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. European officials were informed about this by the U.S. Department of Justice, The New York Times writes, citing interlocutors familiar with the situation, reports European Pravda. This is the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA), which was established to hold the leadership of Russia, as well as its allies in Belarus, North Korea and Iran, accountable for a category of crimes defined by international law and treaties as aggression that violates the sovereignty of another country and is not launched in self-defense. The office of former U.S. President Joe Biden joined ICPA in 2023. The US was the only country outside Europe to cooperate with the group. According to the newspaper’s interlocutors, the decision is expected to be announced on Monday, March 17, in an email that will be sent to staff and members of the group’s parent organization, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation. In addition, the newspaper said, the Trump office is also cutting the work of the War Crimes Task Force, created in 2022 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and staffed by experienced prosecutors, which was designed to coordinate war crimes investigations. This group was to coordinate the U.S. Justice Department’s efforts to bring to justice Russians responsible for atrocities committed after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.