U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department in Washington, D.C. on March 30, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images/TNS)
WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — President Joe Biden has asked the federal government to share evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine with The Hague-based International Criminal Court, U.S. officials said Wednesday, in a reversal of the administration’s stance.
The Biden administration said last year it was working to document war crimes and other atrocities carried out by Russian troops in Ukraine and was helping with various international efforts, but that the U.S. didn’t intend to formally join the ICC’s investigation.
Pentagon officials had been reluctant to share intelligence on Russian war crimes in Ukraine directly with The Hague, arguing it could pave the way toward prosecution of American troops. The U.S. is not a member of the ICC.
“We support the ICC’s investigation,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a news conference in Wellington, New Zealand. “We’ll be cooperating with that investigation.”
Biden officials recently briefed members of Congress on the decision to share evidence, an administration aide said.
“We are not going to discuss the specifics on any cooperation, which is consistent with the court’s practice of treating requests for cooperation in a confidential manner,” Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said Wednesday. “More broadly, we will keep working with Ukraine and other countries to expose the war crimes and other atrocities that Russian forces and officials are committing for the world to see.”
A joint investigations team comprising several European judicial authorities was set up in 2022 and deployed to Ukraine to gather evidence of alleged Russian crimes that fall within the court’s jurisdiction.
Russian forces have been accused of targeting civilians and committing atrocities in a number of Ukrainian towns, such as Bucha, where evidence of mass graves, torture and executions has been widely reported.
The New York Times, which was first to report the news about Biden’s order, said U.S. intelligence agencies have gathered details about Russian officials deliberately striking civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and deporting Ukrainian children. Some details have already been shared with the ICC.
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Visit bloomberg.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
