US Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unannounced visit to Lviv on March 3, 2023, to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to helping Ukraine hold Russia accountable for crimes committed during its invasion, Axios reported.
United for Justice
Garland, who travelled at the invitation of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, attended the United for Justice conference alongside President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kostin and other international officials. The trip was not announced in advance for security reasons.
Zelenskyy called the conference the first step towards building a legal network to identify and prosecute Russians involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“No refuge in America”
Garland said those responsible for atrocities “will not get away with them.” “War criminals will find no refuge in America,” he said.
He noted that a recent change in US law allows the Justice Department to prosecute alleged war criminals found in the United States, regardless of where the crimes were committed. He said the department was working with Ukrainian prosecutors to investigate Russian war crimes.
Accountability team
On a previous visit to Ukraine in June 2022, Garland announced a War Crimes Accountability Team to centralise and strengthen the Justice Department’s work on crimes committed in Ukraine, led by veteran Nazi-hunter Eli Rosenbaum.
The visit came days after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen travelled to Kyiv to reaffirm US economic support.
Sources
Image note: The featured image was generated by AI based on the content of this article. It is an illustration, not an actual photograph of the people, places or events described.
