The US will be withdrawing from an international group investigating Russia’s alleged war crimes in Ukraine — 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 America’s commitment to hold Putin personally responsible for the 2022 invasion.
“The US authorities have informed me that they will conclude their involvement in the ICPA,” Michael Schmid, president of the group’s 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 America’s relationship with Russia.
The administration claimed the decision was made over the need to redeploy resources as part of Trump’s government overhaul, sources told the Times.
Along with exiting the ICPA, the Trump administration is also reducing the work done by the DOJ’s War Crimes Accountability Team WarCAT, which was coordinating efforts to hold Russians accountable for the crimes committed during the war.
“There is no hiding place for war criminals,” 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 Kremlin’s attack on the Kherson region in 2023.
Despite America’s withdrawal, the ICPA said the group remains “fully committed” to holding “those responsible for core international crimes” in Ukraine accountable, Schmid said.
The group consists of prosecutors from Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.
