On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in what U.S. President Joe Biden declared to be an “unprovoked and unjustified” attack. This act of aggression was met with condemnation from 141 United Nations member states and demands that Russia withdraw its forces from Ukraine. Russia has ignored these demands and instead continues to fight in an armed conflict that persists today, over two years after the initial invasion in February of 2022. This enduring conflict has garnered support through billions of dollars of funding and weaponry from member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to aid Ukraine in fighting Russian forces. Additionally, private citizens from many of these nations, including the United States, have been inspired by the conflict and have traveled to Ukraine of their own volition to fight alongside Ukrainian forces. While the U.S. government has discouraged American citizens from joining the fight in Ukraine, it has not utilized the potential criminal penalties available under current U.S. law to stop them. Should the U.S. government decide to enforce its current body of federal criminal law, many of these American citizens could face prosecution.
