U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has pledged to help prosecute war crimes committed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, saying on June 21 during a visit to the country that those responsible for such crimes will have “no place to hide.”
Garland met with Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova near Lviv and announced the creation of a team focused on tracking down war criminals, the Justice Department said.
“We and our partners will pursue every avenue available to make sure that those who are responsible for these atrocities are held accountable," Garland told reporters as he entered the meeting with Venediktova.
The newly created team will assist Ukraine with criminal prosecution, evidence collection, forensics, and legal analysis of human rights abuse, war crimes, and other atrocities, the department said, adding that the team's lead counselor once led the effort to track down Nazi war criminals.
The team will also focus on potential war crimes over which the United States has jurisdiction, including the killing and wounding of U.S. journalists covering the war, the department said.
“America -- and the world -- has seen the many horrific images and read the heart-wrenching accounts of brutality and death that have resulted from Russia’s unjust invasion of Ukraine,” Garland said in the department's statement.
Venediktova thanked Garland for his support, calling it "very important."
"We all understand that we have huge enemies," she said.
Nearly four months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Kyiv says it has identified thousands of suspected war crimes cases.
Most notorious have been allegations of indiscriminate killings of civilians in Bucha. U.S. President Joe Biden has denounced those killings as war crimes.