Biden Orders U.S. to Share Russian War Crimes Evidence With Hague Court
President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, issued a classified directive to submit evidence of Russian military crimes to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
This was reported by New York Times, citing officials familiar with the matter.
Sources of the publication noted that the US intelligence services have gathered detailed information, including Russia's decision to target civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and forcibly deport thousands of Ukrainian children from Ukrainian territory to Russia and Belarus.
The United States has previously shared this evidence with representatives of the Ukrainian side but refrained from transmitting it to the ICC.
Biden's decision to hand over the documents to The Hague reportedly faced resistance from the Pentagon for several months. The department expressed concerns that such a step might create a dangerous precedent, potentially leading to the judicial persecution of American military personnel.
As of now, the White House has not officially announced its decision. However, this week, members of the US Congress were informed of the potential possibility of submitting the evidence by the American authorities.
Recall that in March of this year, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for two Russian Federation citizens, namely Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Russian Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, in connection with the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.
According to official data, at least 500 children were killed, and over 1,000 were injured during the Russian war in Ukraine. Additionally, at least 19,400 children were forcibly deported.
These figures are not definitive, as investigations and verification of crimes are impossible in areas of armed conflict and Russian-occupied territories. For instance, Ukrainian and international law enforcement agencies have not yet been granted access to the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, where, according to various estimates, between 20,000 and 87,000 civilians, including children, were killed by Russian military forces.