A new Operational Taskforce (OTF) has been set up by Europol to assist ongoing investigations into core international crimes committed in Ukraine following the invasion of the country by Russian armed forces in February 2022, Europol announced.
This Taskforce aims to help identify suspects and their involvement in war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide crimes committed in Ukraine through the collection and analysis of open source intelligence (OSINT).
Since the outbreak of the war, there is an unprecedented level of OSINT available online, largely owing to the growing importance of the internet and social media. Such intelligence can greatly assist investigators in verifying and recording instances of war crimes.
Due to the enormous amount of information that is available online and the impact of core international crimes on the global community as a whole, international cooperation is invaluable.
The OTF is led by the international crimes units of the Dutch Police (Nationale Politie) and German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt), with the support of Europol and its Analysis Project Core International Crimes (AP CIC).
So far, 14 countries have agreed to assign a dedicated OSINT capacity to the taskforce to support prioritised requests from Ukraine, other countries and the International Criminal Court. Participating countries are Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Norway, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
The OTF may also appeal on the support and cooperation of non-OTF members, EU agencies, NGOs or private companies.
Image source: Europol FB page
