Documentation and investigation of crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine

By Margaryta Ianovska

Photo Source: Office of the General Prosecutor of Ukraine

Over the past eight months, the Ukrainian government and international organizations have  identified more than 40,000 war crimes that have been committed by Russian army in Ukraine. In order to hold Russian soldiers and their commanders accountable, a number of organizations are engaged in collecting and documenting evidences of the atrocities happening during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Documentation takes place on several levels. The first level happens by collecting and documenting  data from the open sources. In order for the information to be used by international justice mechanisms, it is important to document not only the content: what is happening, but also procedurally describe how it happens - who, in what way, when and from where saved the document, page or video.

Currently there are many open source intelligence organizations that collect, verify, document and archive information on the war crimes. Each organization has the distinct focuses of their work or certain expertise.

One of such groups is OSINT FOR UKRAINE, an independent (non-profit) collective of university students and young professionals, that works on creating an archive of information that can act as a “gateway to evidence”. Its map database enables the access to the open source information and data related to war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the environment, direct attacks on civilians, aerial strikes targeting civilians, rape/sexual assault of civilian, violations against prisoners of war and killed/injured journalists.

Another organization, Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), that works with Bellingcat, Geoconfirmed, Conflict Intelligence Team, Advance Democracy and the open source community, runs another database Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map with the focus on civilian casualties, bombing/shelling/explosions, civilian infrastructure damage, Russian firing positions, military losses and military movement from both sides. 

These databases can be used by justice, accountability and advocacy groups in Ukraine and by international organizations that will be involved in prosecutions of crimes that have been committed by Russian army.

The next level of documentation is to interview witnesses and victims. Most often it is done by lawyers and human rights activists, who transfer afterwards all the accumulated materials to the investigating authorities. Currently, more than a hundred Ukrainian human rights activists are working on the Tribunal for Putin initiative in cooperation with law enforcement agencies. They began the process of collecting evidence immediately, from the first days of the war. At first, they simply recorded the crime scenes. After the de-occupation of the territories, they began to travel around these places and talk with the survivors.

Among other organizations are Truth Hounds that has been operating in Ukraine since 2014, documenting war crimes in Crimea and the Donbas; Ukraine 5AM Coalition that includes 29 public organizations and has 4 independent experts including Human Rights Centre ZMINA that interviews people, conducting field missions, documenting at crime scenes and verification from open sources.

The third level of documenting the evidences is to conduct field missions. At the beginning of the war, according to Ukraine’s chief war crimes prosecutor Yuriy Belousov, there were problems of coordination between national and local authorities, investigators and prosecutors. Currently on collecting the available evidence in the field works a single team that includes employees of the prosecutor’s office, the intelligence services, the National Police and explosives experts. For instance in September Ukraine has dispatched 23 mobile investigative and prosecutorial groups to work across Kharkiv.

The most important investigations, also called as "magisterial proceedings", are overseen by the Prosecutor General's Office. These investigations concern those Russians who made a decision about the war and play the most important roles in the aggression. The Prosecutor General's Office frequently posts an updated information on amount of registered crimes during the invasion of  Russian Federation in Telegram. In addition, the Office of the President of Ukraine has also created the Database of Russian militaries who committed war crimes in Ukraine - The book of executioners of the Ukrainian people.

Due to the joined international effort, on March 2 International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan announced the opening of an investigation into the Situation in Ukraine with the focus on alleged crimes committed in the context of situation in Ukraine since 21 November 2013. In May ICC sent 'largest ever' team of 42 investigators to Ukraine to investigate alleged war crimes there since the start of Russia's war on Ukraine.

On March 4, a Human Rights Council established an Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine comprising three human rights experts for an initial duration of one year to investigate all alleged violations of human rights in the context of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine.

With the support of European Union's judicial cooperation agency Eurojust, on  March 25, the Joint investigation team (JIT) was set up by Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, with the aim to facilitate investigations and prosecutions in the concerned states and coordinate the exchange of evidence of Russian atrocities in Ukraine through Eurojust.

On September 23,  the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine provided updates on their investigations into human rights violations between February and March 2022, in four regions of Ukraine, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy.  Erik Møse, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine reported: “The Commission has visited 27 towns and settlements and has interviewed more than 150 victims and witnesses. We have inspected sites of destruction, graves, places of detention and torture, as well as weapon remnants, and consulted a large number of documents and reports... Based on the evidence gathered by the Commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine”.

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There is no doubt that Russia bears sovereign responsibility for what it has done in Ukraine. The scale of war crimes committed by Russians in Ukraine is astounding. 

The documentation of the evidences of the atrocities happening during the Russian invasion in Ukraine is a complex and a multilayer process. The amount of work that has already been done by Ukrainian authorities and international organization is tremendous. But even more is required to prosecute both direct executors and top military and political leaders of Russia. 

However, with the joint international effort the justice will undoubtfully prevail.