Joe Biden issues orders to release evidence against Russian war crime
According to people familiar with the situation, President Joe Biden has carefully directed the US government to start sharing proof of Russian war crimes in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, signalling a significant shift in US policy. According to the officials, Biden’s decision surpasses the Pentagon’s months-long opposition, which contended that it may open the door for the court to punish American service members.
Arrest warrant against Putin for Russian War crimes
A warrant for Vladimir Putin’s arrest was issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), a permanent war crimes tribunal, in March for the alleged deportation of children from Ukraine, which would constitute a war crime.
American officials praised the court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, for looking into potential war crimes in Ukraine before the conflict started. Congress relaxed the constraints that prevented it from supporting the court’s inquiry into Russian atrocities in December. When the court issued arrest warrants for prominent Russian figures like President Vladimir V. Putin in March on suspicion of planning the kidnapping and deportation of Ukrainian children, the Biden administration showed its support for the court.
However, there was a heated internal debate about whether to provide intelligence that shed light on the acts of Russian officials going on behind the scenes. According to authorities, the Pentagon opposed such a move even though the Justice and State Departments were in favour of it.
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Joe Biden pressurized by US Senate
There has been growing bipartisan pressure on Biden to take action, but it is unclear why he allowed the standoff to continue or what finally convinced him to do so. For instance, a Senate committee last week passed a law authorising funding for the federal government that included a clause mandating that the president “shall provide information” to the court to help with its inquiries into war crimes in Ukraine.
According to reports, US intelligence agencies have obtained information about Russian leaders’ decisions to forcibly remove thousands of Ukrainian children from occupied territory and strike civilian infrastructure purposefully in Ukraine.
