The Hague: The United States has withdrawn from an international group collecting evidence of potential Russian war crimes in Ukraine, the head of the institution hosting it said on Thursday.
The International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA) had brought together investigators from several European countries and the United States, under the umbrella of EU judicial body Eurojust.
Eurojust President Michael Schmid told reporters in The Hague: "Just a couple of weeks ago they (the US) announced that they would withdraw... unfortunately due to a change of priorities in the Department of Justice."
"We of course regret that but at the same time we obviously continue the work with the participants" still in the group, Schmid said.
As of January this year, the ICPA had collected around 3,700 pieces of evidence from 16 countries for use in any potential war crimes cases against Russians over the war in Ukraine.
The United States had supported the group financially as well as by contributing evidence for its database.
The ICPA was launched with great fanfare in July 2023. "History in the making," said Eurojust in a press release at the time.
In a statement in November 2023, Eurojust welcomed a financial contribution of $1.0 million from the US State Department.
Schmid said the financial blow will need to be covered by EU funds and hoped that the other contributing members will take up the slack in terms of evidence collecting.
"To be honest it is it is not quite clear what exactly will come in the future," acknowledged Schmid.
The body secured funding for six more months in January and Schmid said he was hopefully it would continue beyond then.
"The plan is to continue," he said.
