Media: Suspension of US aid jeopardizes investigation of Russian war crimes in Ukraine
Kyiv • UNN
The suspension of US funding will affect the investigation of Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Six projects worth $89 million, including evidence collection and victim assistance, are at risk.
The freezing of foreign funding by the administration of US President Donald Trump will affect the prosecution of Russia for war crimes in Ukraine. This was reported by Reuters, according to UNN.
Details
According to the newspaper, the Trump administration's freeze on foreign funding has begun to affect international efforts to hold Russia accountable for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
It is noted that Ukraine has opened more than 140 thousand cases of war crimes after Moscow's invasion in February 2022, which killed tens of thousands of people.
“Russia has consistently denied war crimes committed by its forces during the conflict. International initiatives funded by the United States, such as the Advisory Group on Atrocity Crimes in Ukraine, have provided expertise and oversight to the Ukrainian authorities. Western partners have praised Kyiv for investigating alleged crimes while the war is still ongoing,” the newspaper adds.
The document on U.S. funding and cuts, seen by Reuters, also shows that six U.S.-funded projects of the Attorney General's Office, valued at $89 million, are at stake.
“Funding for at least five of these projects has already been frozen. The projects worked on a variety of issues, from preserving evidence from the battlefield to anti-corruption initiatives and reforming the Ukrainian prosecution system,” the publication writes.
Two of these projects were funded by USAID, three by the International Bureau of Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, and one by the State Department itself. Of that funding, $47 million was directly allocated to war crimes prosecutions, the document says.
However, due to the suspension of payments, almost 40 experts from the International Criminal Justice Initiative at Georgetown University, a key implementer of the ACA program, stopped working.
In addition, one of the advisors in the Prosecutor General's Office was put on leave, and a project to assist victims of war-related sexual violence was suspended
Recall
The Trump administration is preparing a massive cut in USAID staff, leaving only 294 employees out of more than 10,000. The decision threatens global humanitarian aid and disease control programs.
A US federal judge has temporarily barred the Trump administration from furloughing 2,200 USAID employees. The court sided with two federal employee associations that challenged the decision to effectively close the agency.
