Washington: US President Joe Biden has ordered his administration to start sharing evidence of alleged war crimes of Russia in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Pentagon had been resistant to the measure and privately argued that cooperation with the international court could lead to the politicized prosecution of US forces deployed overseas, according to US media.
The Hague-based court, a permanent war crimes tribunal, issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March for alleged deportation of children from Ukraine, which could amount to be a war crime.
A National Security Council spokesperson said that since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the President Joe Biden has been clear that there required to be accountability for the enablers and perpetrators of war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine.
US cooperation with ICC
The spokesperson added that on the ICC specifically, the US was not going to discuss the specifics of cooperation, which was consistent with the tribunal’s practice of treating requests for cooperation in a confidential manner.
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Democratic and Republican legislators have accused the Pentagon of effectively undermining war crimes prosecution of Moscow by blocking the sharing of US military intelligence with the court.
Russia is not a member of the court and rejects its jurisdiction. It denies committing war crimes and atrocities during its war with Ukraine.
The US is also not a member of the Hague-based court.
