U.S. withdraws from international group investigating those responsible for invasion of Ukraine — including Vladimir Putin

The U.S. Department of Justice has quietly informed European officials of its withdrawal from an international group established to investigate figures responsible for the invasion of Ukraine, including Vladimir Putin himself, The New York Times reported earlier today.

The decision to leave the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine, which the Biden administration joined in 2023, is seen as the “latest indication of the Trump administration’s move away from holding Vladimir Putin accountable for crimes committed against Ukrainians.”

The United States was the only non-European country cooperating with the group. U.S. authorities had sent a senior Justice Department prosecutor to The Hague to work alongside investigators from Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Romania. The Trump administration’s decision regarding U.S. withdrawal is expected to be officially announced on Monday in an email to staff and members of the group’s parent organization, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust).

The Trump administration is also scaling back the operations of the War Crimes Accountability Team (WarCAT), which was established in 2022 by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland. Under the Biden administration, WarCAT played a crucial supporting role to investigators on the ground in Ukraine, providing logistical assistance to overburdened Ukrainian prosecutors and law enforcement, training them, and helping them bring charges of war crimes committed by Russians to Ukraine’s courts. The Trump administration has not provided a reason for withdrawing from the investigative group beyond the need to “redeploy resources.”

Earlier today, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he plans to speak with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, March 18, to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.