The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide Ukraine with nine Skydio drones. These unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will help document Russia’s war crimes.
Documenting Russia’s War Crimes in Ukraine with Skydio Drones
USAID will provide nine Skydio drones to Ukraine to help document Russia’s war crimes. U.S. drone manufacturer Skydio donated these unmanned aircraft systems to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
The Skydio 2+ drones consist of six 4K cameras to take photos and footage for documenting war crimes. It can stay in the air for up to 27 minutes and can travel around 3.7 m2 at 36 mph. It utilises onboard artificial intelligence to fly completely independently with 360-degree object avoidance capacities. Moreover, these drones are equipped with Skydio 3D Scan, an inspection software that creates high-resolution digital twins of indoor and outdoor spaces.
These autonomous drones will help keep a record of over 115,000 occurrences of devastated civilian infrastructure. Likewise, these flying robots will expose evidence of human rights abuses in war-torn communities and liberated territories.
President Zelensky and Yermak, checked the damages after Russian troops caused havoc in Bucha. Oleksandr Ratushniak/WikimediaCommons
The U.S. private sector company also supports wider endeavours to seek accountability for war crimes, including abuse of human rights. Since February 2022, over 40,000 incidents of Russia’s war crimes have been documented by two USAID-supported Ukrainian human rights coalitions.
Aside from providing Ukraine with Skydio drones, USAID also supplied the battle-damaged country with Starlink data terminals, courtesy of SpaceX. They also gave laptops and software to teachers and schoolchildren. Moreover, it collaborated with AGRI-Ukraine to back Ukrainian grain production and exports, which started last year.
Details of Russia’s War Crimes Shared with the International Criminal Court
According to reports, the White House has shared details of Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague. In March, the ICC already issued a warrant of arrest against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The international court accused him of war crime, illegally deporting hundreds of Ukrainian children. This move will oblige the court’s 123 members to imprison Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial once he shows up on their territory. Kremlin, on the other hand, repeatedly denied allegations that its troops have committed injustices amid its one-year invasion of its neighbour. It said the court’s decision is null and void.
On a May 15 report, The Hague will establish a special Register of Destruction to record the damage done by Russian forces in Ukraine since the onset of its full-scale invasion. The Register will work as a record of proof and claims for damage, loss or injury made to all natural and legal persons involved. It includes the State of Ukraine by Russia’s international criminal acts in or against Ukraine. This is the initial step to an international compensation process for victims of this belligerence.
The United States cooperation with the ICC will help serve justice to Ukraine and its people. Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab Executive Director and war crimes investigator, Nathaniel Raymond ascertained the Russian government held at least 6,000 Ukrainian children in re-education camps.
Image Credit: Houses of the Oireachtas/WikimediaCommons)
