The United States today withdrew from an international team responsible for gathering evidence of possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine, the director of the institution hosting it said today.

The International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA) involves researchers from several European countries and the US, under the auspices of an EU judicial body, the EU Agency for Cooperation in Criminal Justice (Eurojust).

Eurojust’s president, Michael Schmidt, told reporters in Hague: “A few weeks ago, the United States announced that they are unfortunately leaving due to a change of priorities in the US Department of Justice”.

“We certainly regret that, but at the same time, we continue to work with the participants”who are still on the team, Schmidt added.

As of January this year, the ICPA had collected some 3,700 pieces of evidence from 16 countries, intended to be used in potential war crimes indictments against the Russians in the war in Ukraine.

The US supported the group financially and by providing evidence of its database. In particular, they paid $1 million in November 2023.

Smidt estimated that the financial costs would have to be covered by EU resources and expressed the hope that other contributing members would take on the task of collecting evidence.

“The truth is that we don’t know exactly what will happen in the future, Schmidt admitted, but “we intend to continue.”