On Friday, Merrick Garland, US Attorney General made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Friday and promised to maintain “Russian war criminals accountable” for their efforts.
We are here today in Ukraine to speak clearly, and with one voice: the perpetrators of those crimes will not get away with them.”
Garland said.
He went to Lviv in western Ukraine at the invitation of his Ukrainian counterpart to take part in the “United for Justice Conference.”
Garland told the summit the United States stood beside Ukraine’s war crimes investigators as they collect and cataloged evidence from explosion areas that include hospitals, apartment buildings, and schools, exhume mass graves and study human remains — “to tell the tales of those who no longer can,” according to a Justice Department transcript of his statements.
Since the invasion started a year ago, Russia has been committing horribleness on the largest scale of any battle since World War II, he said.
The United States has signed an agreement with Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, and Romania that will strengthen our efforts to hold Russian war criminals accountable.”
Garland added.
The recent visit is the second of Garland to Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022, was not announced ahead of time for safety causes. Garland’s visit came almost two weeks after US President Joe Biden’s visit to Ukraine and met with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Washington is assisting Ukraine to investigate war offenses and Garland this week branded Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s mercenary Wagner military force, a war criminal. February 24’s statement to mark the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, Garland said his unit is “standing with our Ukrainian partners in hunt of justice.”
Kamala Harris, US Vice President blamed Russia last month of executing crimes against humanity in Ukraine, saying Moscow’s forces had conducted “widespread and systemic” invasions on the country’s civilian population.
