Europol has created a new operational task force (OTF) to help investigate major international crimes committed by the Russians in Ukraine.
The task force will help identify suspects and their involvement in war crimes, crimes against humanity or crimes of genocide. Team members will collect and analyze open source intelligence (OSINT).
Europol points out that there is an unprecedented level of OSINT on the Internet since the start of the war. Such information can significantly help investigators in the verification and registration of war crimes. The group is led by the international crime units of the Dutch and German police.
So far, 14 countries have agreed to provide the task force with a special OSINT capability: Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Norway, Great Britain, and the United States of America.
- On March 25, 2022, a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was established in The Hague to investigate the most serious international crimes in Ukraine. Its members are Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Eurojust, the International Criminal Court and Europol. They created the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Russian Aggression against Ukraine in The Hague. Ukrainian and foreign prosecutors at the international level continue to collect and analyze the evidence base. In April 2023, JIT members signed an agreement on the investigation of the crime of genocide.