US pulls out of multinational group investigating Russian actions in Ukraine

The US Justice Department has quietly informed European officials that it is withdrawing from the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke to the New York Times. 

This multinational group was established to investigate leaders responsible for the invasion of Ukraine, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This decision, which follows the Biden administration’s commitment in 2023 to hold Putin accountable, marks a significant shift under the Trump administration, indicating a departure from previous efforts to prosecute Russian leaders for crimes committed during the invasion.

The group was formed to hold the leadership of Russia, Belarus, North Korea, and Iran accountable for aggression, a category of crimes defined by international law as violations of another country’s sovereignty without self-defence justification.

The announcement of the US withdrawal is expected to come on Monday, via an email to staff and members of the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust), which oversees the group. The US had been the only country outside Europe involved in the initiative, sending a senior Justice Department prosecutor to work alongside investigators from Ukraine, the Baltic States, and Romania.

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This move comes as the Trump administration scales back its work with the War Crimes Accountability Team (WarCAT), created in 2022 under then-Attorney General Merrick Garland. WarCAT was designed to help coordinate U.S. efforts to hold Russian leaders accountable for war crimes committed after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Garland had emphasized that there would be "no hiding place for war criminals" and pledged to pursue all avenues to bring those responsible for atrocities in Ukraine to justice.

Under Biden, WarCAT focused on supporting Ukraine’s prosecutors with logistical aid, training, and assistance in handling war crimes cases. The team achieved a milestone in December 2023, charging four Russian soldiers with torturing an American citizen in the Kherson region.

Meanwhile, President Trump has increasingly aligned himself with Putin, at times clashing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump has suggested Ukraine provoked Russia’s invasion and criticized Zelenskyy’s leadership, calling him a “dictator without elections” and claiming he had “done a terrible job.”

The Trump administration has not provided a specific reason for withdrawing from the investigative group but has cited the need to redeploy resources, according to those familiar with the matter.

By Tamilla Hasanova