Nestled amidst woods and fields, Izium still shows the devastation from a 2022 Russian occupation that resulted in destroyed bridges and flattened buildings. The woman recounted to Makar, a war-crimes investigator for a Ukrainian nonprofit, that she had been detained by Russian soldiers at a battery plant for ten days that year.
During her confinement, she reported being beaten, subjected to electric shocks, suffocated with a gas mask, and raped.
”I begged them to kill me because I could no longer endure it,” said the woman, 55, who requested to be identified only as Alla.
Shocked by the alleged atrocities committed by Russia, Makar is determined to document such testimonies before evidence is destroyed and memories fade. However, she expresses concern that fewer perpetrators will face justice after the United States ceased funding her organization, Truth Hounds, along with dozens of others working toward accountability in Europe’s most deadly conflict since World War II.
Since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals, the U.S. has advocated for accountability for some of the most horrendous global atrocities, providing support for investigations and tribunals. However, the Trump administration cut tens of millions of dollars for these efforts last year when it reduced overseas development aid to pursue the president’s ”America first” agenda, according to a Reuters review of government data and interviews with eight current and former officials. Ukraine was noted as the largest single aid recipient, according to the officials.
”There’s less hope” for accountability, Makar stated following her interview with Alla in an Izium office in January.
Reuters was unable to independently verify Alla’s account. The Kremlin and Russia’s defense ministry did not respond to queries regarding her case or other specific incidents mentioned. Russia has consistently denied committing war crimes, labeling the accusations as Western propaganda.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has opened over 230,000 war-crimes cases since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022. Allegations encompass targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, abduction and deportation of children, torture, and sexual violence.
The significant U.S. aid cuts ”could result in numerous victims being deprived of justice,” remarked Beth Van Schaack, ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice under former President Biden.
The State Department indicated that the U.S. is reallocating the financial burden of the war to Europe and other ”willing partners,” yet maintains substantial support for Ukraine, including initiatives focused on ”war crimes, justice, and accountability for atrocities.”
To assess the implications of the funding cuts, Reuters spoke with more than 40 members of an extensive network backed by the U.S. engaged in investigating Ukraine’s war crimes, facilitating prosecutions, and assisting victims. This group included law enforcement officials, legal experts, human-rights activists, and researchers. Almost all reported that their efforts have been hindered, compromising investigations and diminishing prospects for justice.
Examples they shared included Truth Hounds needing to lay off staff, pause an archiving project, and delay international law training for judges and prosecutors.
Numerous foreign experts who aided in the collection and analysis of battlefield evidence are no longer able to travel to Ukraine due to decreased support for the nation’s overwhelmed prosecutors, according to five sources familiar with the situation.
Additionally, plans to reconstruct a courthouse destroyed in the conflict were halted following the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the termination of a $62 million initiative designed to strengthen the Ukrainian justice system, according to a source familiar with USAID’s operations.
Russia’s invasion has created immense demand in Ukraine for the arrest and trial of individuals accused of atrocities.
Even at the height of U.S. funding under Biden, the workload overwhelmed Ukrainian prosecutors, who had recorded 252 war-crimes convictions as of April 1. Moreover, the prosecutor’s office reported identifying 1,175 suspects and indicting 842.
High-ranking suspects may face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which has sought the arrest of President Vladimir Putin. Additional cases are being pursued in U.S. and European courts.
Reuters tracked over $283 million in U.S. funding substantially earmarked for Ukraine war-crimes initiatives since 2022 via interviews with more than two dozen sources and a review of public announcements, government documents, and watchdog reports.
However, the news organization could not determine how much of this funding was disbursed when Trump mandated a pause in foreign-development assistance in January 2025, pending review, or how much was later reinstated. But reports suggest that at least 40% of the spending was either terminated or allowed to expire, as found by Reuters.
Although the tallies are likely undercounts, they provide the most thorough assessment to date concerning the U.S. defunding of war-crimes accountability in Ukraine.
Pinpointing the exact amount of aid Washington is providing proves challenging due to the variety of U.S. agencies and recipients involved. Grants are sometimes shared among multiple organizations, span several years, or include funds for different priorities. The U.S. also offers expertise and intelligence.
A senior source in Ukraine indicated that Trump’s funding cuts impact roughly half of the U.S.-funded initiatives promoting accountability for war crimes and upholding the rule of law.
The administration has initiated one new program. In March, the State Department announced it would allocate up to $25 million to aid in the return of missing Ukrainian children, a cause supported by First Lady Melania Trump. However, the recipients of these funds have not yet been disclosed.
This new grant follows funding cuts to other programs addressing the same issue, including a Yale University initiative that has tracked thousands of missing Ukrainian children to locations in Russia and Russian-occupied territories.
The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab is expected to run out of funding by August after the State Department withheld approximately $8 million, as detailed by its executive director, Nathaniel Raymond.
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Truth Hounds has been tracking war-crimes suspects since 2014, when Russian forces annexed Ukraine’s Crimea. Reuters accompanied the organization’s investigators on a three-day mission in the northeastern Kharkiv region to gather more testimonies.
In Izium, netting designed to shield against Russian drone strikes was hung over roads, and the lights flickered out during interviews due to attacks on power infrastructure. The distant rumble of artillery could be heard.
Truth Hounds has recorded approximately 17,000 allegations of war crimes across Ukraine, according to the group’s co-executive director, Dmytro Koval. Their operations slowed when the organization lost U.S. funding that had accounted for a third of its budget since 2023.
”Certain important lines of inquiry will remain unexplored,” Koval stated.
The funding cuts reflect a broader U.S. retreat from addressing human rights violations.
Last year, the Trump administration closed a State Department office that had coordinated the global response to mass atrocities since 1997, disbanded a Justice Department unit aiding Ukraine in prosecuting war crimes, and withdrew the U.S. from a multinational coalition building cases against Russian leaders for the invasion.
The administration also imposed sanctions on ICC officials over efforts to investigate supposed crimes by Israel’s leaders in Gaza and U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. The U.S. is not affiliated with the ICC and has long rejected its authority to probe American citizens.
Other major contributors, including the European Union and Britain, maintain their commitment to achieving justice for Ukraine.
However, the absence of U.S. aid will be difficult to compensate for, stated Wayne Jordash, deputy lead of an Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA) established by the U.S., EU, and Britain to support the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office. A recent audit by the department’s Office of Inspector General revealed that last year, the State Department ceased funding two of the three main organizations in the initiative, including Jordash’s international law foundation, Global Rights Compliance.
The State Department confirmed that it continues to support the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, national police, and the ACA initiative, although it did not provide further specifics. The Justice Department reiterated its commitment to promoting accountability for war crimes.
The British Foreign Office declined to comment. Since February, Britain has announced an additional £5 million ($6.73 million) to support justice for Ukrainian war-crimes victims, and £1.2 million to help track and verify illegally deported children.
EU foreign affairs spokesperson Anitta Hipper noted that member states have allocated €10 million ($11.66 million) to establish a special tribunal for trying high-ranking Russian leaders for aggression against Ukraine and are contributing €1 million toward creating an international claims commission to ensure Kyiv receives compensation.
In May, the EU unveiled €50 million in funding for Ukraine’s child protection system and efforts to achieve justice for abducted children.
”Russia will be held accountable,” Hipper asserted.
For Yuliia Usenko, Ukraine’s lead prosecutor for crimes against children, Yale’s digital investigations have proven ”invaluable.”
Most alleged crime scenes are located in Russian-occupied areas or within Russia, inaccessible to Ukrainian investigators. Yale’s researchers employ satellite imagery, Russian social media, and other open-source information to track children taken to over 200 sites believed to be part of a vast Russian reeducation and militarization scheme. Some were subsequently placed in Russian foster homes or adopted, as detailed in a series of reports.
Experts deployed by the ACA are assisting Ukraine in sifting through cases to identify links that might suggest a deliberate strategy by Russian officials.
”Our goal is to demonstrate that Russia’s true intent goes beyond merely seizing a portion of Ukraine’s territory; it includes an attempt to destroy our nation and assimilate it into Russian society,” Usenko remarked.
The Ukrainian authorities claim Russia is responsible for over 20,500 child deportations or forced transfers, noting that just over 2,000 children have returned. Yale estimates that up to 35,000 may have been taken.
Russia denies any abduction of Ukrainian children, maintaining that they were evacuated from conflict zones for their protection.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov informed Reuters that in June 2025, Kyiv submitted a list of 339 children it claimed ended up in Russia. Ukrainian officials have stated that this list serves as a foundation for negotiations aimed at the return of all missing children.
Organizations such as the Emile Foundation, which operates in frontline communities, are utilizing Yale’s findings to help reunite children with their families.
”Without this assistance, we face many years of setbacks,” stated Mariam Lambert, co-founder of the Netherlands-based foundation.
The last time Hanna Zamyshliaieva saw her son, Anton Volkovych, was on January 14, 2022, when she visited him at a boarding school for special needs children in Oleshky. He was 19 and required constant care due to a neurological disorder. The mother showed Reuters journalists a photograph depicting Volkovych in a wheelchair, clutching a stuffed owl.
That February, Russian forces occupied the town in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region. Zamyshliaieva maintained contact with the school via phone; however, over the following months, students and some staff were transferred to locations deeper within Russian-controlled areas, rendering her unable to reach them, she recounted.
Among the 87 pupils at Oleshky before the occupation, only 13 have returned, Lambert stated. Her foundation received a lead regarding Volkovych’s location in March, yet no confirmation has come from Russia.
Zamyshliaieva grapples with the unbearable uncertainty of whether he has survived the years without the intensive care he received at the school.
”All I want is to hold him,” she expressed.
Tetiana Popovych is another Ukrainian seeking justice.
She dedicated years to searching for her son, Vladyslav, who disappeared during Russia’s occupation of Bucha, near Kyiv, early in the war when he was 29.
With the help of neighbors and returning prisoners of war, Popovych retraced her son’s path.
One witness recounted seeing Vladyslav, a civilian, hiding in her walnut grove during an artillery assault. Another indicated that he treated her son’s gunshot wounds before Russian forces captured and assaulted them.
Ultimately, a released detainee informed her they had shared a prison cell in the Russian town of Vyazma. She believes her son is still there.
”It is crucial for me that justice is served, that everyone is held accountable, regardless of how many years pass,” Popovych resolved. ”I will continue to fight for this until the end.”
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