The Biden administration has said it has begun sharing evidence with the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague on war crimes committed in Ukraine.
The announcement ends a months-long dispute within the administration over the issue, in which the national security council (NSC) and the state department backed cooperation with the ICC, with the Pentagon resisting on the grounds it would imply endorsement of an international court that could one day seek to prosecute US soldiers.
The quiet decision to start sharing information about Russian war crimes with the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, suggests that Joe Biden has, after a delay of some four months, taken a position in the debate.
“I can confirm that the US will share evidence with the ICC,” a US official told the Guardian.
“Since the beginning of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, the president has been clear: there needs to be accountability for the perpetrators and enablers of war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine,” an NSC spokesperson said.
“We support a range of international investigations to identify and hold accountable those responsible, including through the Office of the Ukraine Prosecutor General, the Joint Investigative Team through Eurojust, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission, the Expert Missions established under the OSCE’s ‘Moscow Mechanism’, and the International Criminal Court among others.
“On the ICC specifically, 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.”
According to the New York Times, which first reported the decision, the administration began notifying members of Congress of the new policy on Tuesday.