USAID donates drones to help Ukraine document war crimes

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) says it has delivered nine drones to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine to collect evidence of possible war crimes. As an independent agency of the US federal government, USAID has been pursuing accountability for war crimes and human rights abuse in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.

The drones, donated by Skydio, are critical for the Prosecutor General’s team because they will help to document the more than 115,000 instances of destroyed civilian infrastructure and evidence of human rights abuses on frontline communities and liberated territories.

Two USAID-supported Ukrainian human rights coalitions have already documented more than 40,000 incidents of Russia’s war crimes since February 24, 2022. Additionally, the agency has made it a point to participate in joint war crimes documentation visits with Ukraine’s Office of the Ombudsman for…