National Police investigators have been trained in The Hague to investigate war crimes
The training was organized with the assistance of the Consultative Mission of the European Union in Ukraine for heads of police investigative bodies, who are directly related to the organization of the investigation of crimes committed in the context of the armed conflict.
In 5 days in the Netherlands, the investigators of the National Police advanced their qualifications in the following areas:
— investigation of war and international crimes committed by members of the armed forces;
— Stimulating national investigations and prosecutions for international crimes;
— the rights of armed conflict and occupation;
— international human rights and international responsibility;
— functioning of the database of major international crimes;
— cooperation with Eurojust and other skills in documenting and investigating war crimes, which in the context of a large-scale war with the Russian Federation are a priority for Ukrainian law enforcement officers.
“The investigators of the National Police have launched more than 97 thousand criminal proceedings on the facts of war crimes committed by the Russian military, and they are horrified by the cruelty with which the Russians treated the civilian population,” said the head of the department of investigation of crimes committed in the conditions of armed conflict, the Head of the Organization for Investigations of Crimes Committed in the Armed Conflict of the investigative department of the National Police Christina Podyriko.
She added that mass executions, deportations, bullying, rape, intentional lynching and theft of private property and values are the facts that investigators are investigating.
“Over these nearly 20 scary months, we have mastered unique police skills using the latest technology and capabilities. International experience will help us to revise approaches to the organization of pre-trial investigation of such crimes, so that its results are taken into account not only in national but also in international judicial bodies. And that no war criminal escapes legal and just punishment anywhere in the world,” said Christina Podyriko.
Recall that since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the National Police has established and effectively functioned to document and investigate war crimes of Russians:
— two specialized departments for documenting and investigating war crimes. Their departments operate not only on the basis of the central apparatus, but also in 9 frontline regions of the country;
— the interdepartmental database “War Crimes”, which contains data on more than 236 thousand people and police exchange data on these criminals not only with law enforcement agencies and defense forces of Ukraine, but also with Europol and other international partners who help in the investigation of these crimes;
— other OSINT tools, such as verifying war criminals on social media and recognizing their faces using a network of more than 30 billion images obtained from open sources. Satellite images are obtained and analyzed, voice recognition technology and voice signature comparison are used;
— 20 obtained from the US partners of the ANDE DNA laboratory to carry out rapid biological sampling directly at missile landing sites after fires and in mass graves, where often only body fragments are found. Thanks to modern equipment, forensic officers of the National Police do this in just an hour and a half and often with almost 100% efficiency.
The study visit and its results will expand the skills already acquired by police investigators in investigating war crimes, and international experience will help Ukrainian investigators revise approaches to organizing pre-trial investigation of such crimes, so that its results can be taken into account not only in national but also in international judicial bodies. And that no war criminal should escape lawful and just punishment.
National Police of Ukraine
