II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5233 

To require the President to submit to Congress a report on United States 

Government efforts to collect, analyze, and preserve evidence and information related to war crimes and other atrocities committed during 

the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine since February 24, 2022, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 12, 2022 

Mr. CORNYN (for himself and Mrs. GILLIBRAND) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

A BILL 

To require the President to submit to Congress a report 

on United States Government efforts to collect, analyze, 

and preserve evidence and information related to war 

crimes and other atrocities committed during the fullscale Russian invasion of Ukraine since February 24, 

2022, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. UKRAINE INVASION WAR CRIMES DETERRENCE 

2 AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT. 

3 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This section may be cited as the 

4 ‘‘Ukraine Invasion War Crimes Deterrence and Account5 ability Act’’. 

6 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con7 gress that— 

8 (1) in its premeditated, unprovoked, unjustified, 

9 and unlawful full-scale invasion of Ukraine that 

10 commenced on February 24, 2022, the military of 

11 the Government of the Russian Federation under 

12 the direction of President Vladimir Putin has com13 mitted war crimes that include but are not limited 

14 to— 

15 (A) the deliberate targeting of civilians and 

16 injuring or killing of noncombatants; 

17 (B) the deliberate targeting and attacking 

18 of hospitals, schools, and other non-military 

19 buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or 

20 charitable purposes, such as the bombing of a 

21 theater in Mariupol that served as a shelter for 

22 noncombatants and had the word ‘‘children’’ 

23 written clearly in the Russian language outside; 

24 (C) the indiscriminate bombardment of 

25 undefended dwellings and buildings; 


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1 (D) the wanton destruction of property not 

2 justified by military necessity; 

3 (E) unlawful civilian deportations; 

4 (F) the taking of hostages; and 

5 (G) rape, or sexual assault or abuse; 

6 (2) the use of chemical weapons by the Govern7 ment of the Russian Federation in Ukraine would 

8 constitute a war crime, and engaging in any military 

9 preparations to use chemical weapons or to develop, 

10 produce, stockpile, or retain chemical weapons is 

11 prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention, to 

12 which the Russian Federation is a signatory; 

13 (3) Vladimir Putin has a long record of com14 mitting acts of aggression, systematic abuses of 

15 human rights, and acts that constitute war crimes or 

16 other atrocities both at home and abroad, and the 

17 brutality and scale of these actions, including in the 

18 Russian Federation Republic of Chechnya, Georgia, 

19 Syria, and Ukraine, demonstrate the extent to which 

20 his regime is willing to flout international norms and 

21 values in the pursuit of its objectives; 

22 (4) Vladimir Putin has previously sanctioned 

23 the use of chemical weapons at home and abroad, in24 cluding in the poisonings of Russian spy turned dou25 ble agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia and 


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1 leading Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny, 

2 and aided and abetted the use of chemical weapons 

3 by President Bashar al-Assad in Syria; and 

4 (5) in 2014, the Government of the Russian 

5 Federation initiated its unprovoked war of aggres6 sion against Ukraine which resulted in its illegal oc7 cupation of Crimea, the unrecognized declaration of 

8 independence by the so-called ‘‘Donetsk People’s Re9 public’’ and ‘‘Luhansk People’s Republic’’ by Rus10 sia-backed proxies, and numerous human rights vio11 lations and deaths of civilians in Ukraine. 

12 (c) STATEMENT OF POLICY.—It is the policy of the 

13 United States— 

14 (1) to collect, analyze, and preserve evidence 

15 and information related to war crimes and other 

16 atrocities committed during the full-scale Russian 

17 invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, 

18 2022, for use in appropriate domestic, foreign, and 

19 international courts and tribunals prosecuting those 

20 responsible for such crimes consistent with applica21 ble law, including with the American Service Mem22 bers’ Protection Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 7421 et 

23 seq.); 

24 (2) to help deter the commission of war crimes 

25 and other atrocities in Ukraine by publicizing to the 


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1 maximum possible extent, including among Russian 

2 and other foreign military commanders and troops 

3 in Ukraine, efforts to identify and prosecute those 

4 responsible for the commission of war crimes during 

5 the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine that 

6 began on February 24, 2022; and 

7 (3) to continue efforts to identify, deter, and 

8 pursue accountability for war crimes and other 

9 atrocities committed around the world and by other 

10 perpetrators, and to leverage international coopera11 tion and best practices in this regard with respect to 

12 the current situation in Ukraine. 

13 (d) REPORT ON UNITED STATES EFFORTS.—Not 

14 later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this 

15 Act, and consistent with the protection of intelligence 

16 sources and methods, the President shall submit to the 

17 appropriate congressional committees a report, which may 

18 include a classified annex, describing in detail the fol19 lowing: 

20 (1) United States Government efforts to collect, 

21 analyze, and preserve evidence and information re22 lated to war crimes and other atrocities committed 

23 during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine 

24 since February 24, 2022, including a description 

25 of— 


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1 (A) the respective roles of various agencies, 

2 departments, and offices, and the interagency 

3 mechanism established for the coordination of 

4 such efforts; 

5 (B) the types of information and evidence 

6 that are being collected, analyzed, and pre7 served to help identify those responsible for the 

8 commission of war crimes or other atrocities 

9 during the full-scale Russian invasion of 

10 Ukraine in 2022; and 

11 (C) steps taken to coordinate with, and 

12 support the work of, allies, partners, inter13 national institutions and organizations, and 

14 nongovernmental organizations in such efforts. 

15 (2) Media, public diplomacy, and information 

16 operations to make Russian military commanders, 

17 troops, political leaders and the Russian people 

18 aware of efforts to identify and prosecute those re19 sponsible for the commission of war crimes or other 

20 atrocities during the full-scale Russian invasion of 

21 Ukraine in 2022, and of the types of acts that may 

22 be prosecutable. 

23 (3) The process for a domestic, foreign, or 

24 international court or tribunal to request and obtain 

25 from the United States Government information reVerDate Sep 11 2014 16:33 Dec 13, 2022 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5233.IS S5233

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1 lated to war crimes or other atrocities committed 

2 during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 

3 2022. 

4 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

5 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT6 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com7 mittees’’ means— 

8 (A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the 

9 Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on 

10 Armed Services, and the Permanent Select 

11 Committee on Intelligence of the House of Rep12 resentatives; and 

13 (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations, 

14 the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee 

15 on Armed Services, and the Select Committee 

16 on Intelligence of the Senate. 

17 (2) ATROCITIES.—The term ‘‘atrocities’’ has 

18 the meaning given that term in section 6(2) of the 

19 Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act 

20 of 2018 (Public Law 115–441; 22 U.S.C. 2656 

21 note). 

22 (3) WAR CRIME.—The term ‘‘war crime’’ has 

23 the meaning given that term in section 2441(c) of 

24 title 18, United States Code. 

Æ 


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