The Long Road to Justice in Ukraine: Investigating and Prosecuting War Crimes

Colonel Eugene Vindman is well-known in D.C. circles.  Not just because he and his twin brother Alexander grabbed headlines during the Trump Administration by raising alarms about the former president's pressuring of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to open a corruption investigation against then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, but also because he has recently announced plans to run for a U.S. Congressional seat in Virginia. He immigrated to the U.S. as a child from Soviet Ukraine and then served a career in the U.S. military in places like Iraq before landing at the White House. He was dismissed from his job at the National Security Council after testifying in the impeachment case that was brought against President Trump – when you might remember the former president was impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.  We ran into him in Kyiv during a Cipher Brief trip to Ukraine in September, where he was working on documenting the extensive war crimes that have been committed there since Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine in February of 2024.  The scenes have been horrific – from civilians gunned down in the streets for nothing to the kidnapping and forced relocation of Ukrainian children.  If this were to happen in the U.S. there would be outrage.  But it didn't happen here.  As Ukraine struggles to keep the world focused on helping it win this war, I sat down with Vindman earlier this year in Kiev, to talk about his unique perspective on the documenting and prosecution of war crimes and about why he feels like justice – however long it takes – must be served in Ukraine.