By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press
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DENVER — The U.S. Justice Department is cooperating with the International Criminal Court and supporting Ukrainian prosecutors carrying out war crime investigation s, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday as he reaffirmed his department’s aid more than a year after the Russian invasion.

Congress recently allowed for new U.S. flexibility in assisting the court with investigations into foreign nationals related to Ukraine, and the Justice Department will be a key part of the United States’ cooperation, Garland said.

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“We are not waiting for the hostilities to end before pursuing justice and accountability. We are working closely with our international partners to gather evidence and build cases so that we are ready when the time comes to hold the perpetrators accountable,” he said in a speech to the American Bar Association in Denver.

He appointed a prosecutor to serve at a center opened last month in The Hague to support nations building cases against senior Russian leaders for the crime of aggression.

International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression will not issue indictments or arrest warrants for suspects but will instead support investigations already underway in Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

The ICC does not have jurisdiction to prosecute aggression in Ukraine because Russia and Ukraine have not ratified the Rome Statute that founded the court, though Ukraine’s prosecutor general has said they plan to join.

The United States also is not an ICC member state.

Since the Treaty of Rome, which established the court, took effect, successive U.S. administrations beginning during Bill Clinton’s presidency have taken a largely hands off approach toward the ICC due to concerns it might open investigations and prosecute American soldiers or senior officials.

Although it is not a member of the court, the U.S. has cooperated with the ICC in the past on war crimes issues, notably during the Obama administration when Washington contributed evidence to the investigation into atrocities allegedly committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and surrounding states in east Africa.