Europol has announced the creation of a dedicated Operational Taskforce (OTF) aimed at aiding ongoing investigations of “core international crimes” committed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The primary objective of the task force is to identify suspects and determine their involvement in war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide. To achieve this, the OTF will leverage open source intelligence (OSINT) through the collection and analysis of data available online.
The Operational Taskforce is led by the international crimes units of the Dutch Police (Nationale Politie) and the German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) with the support of Europol and its Analysis Project Core International Crimes (AP CIC).
Currently, 14 countries have committed to contribute to the task force. These nations have agreed to respond to prioritized requests from Ukraine, as well as from other affected countries and the International Criminal Court. The participating countries include Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Norway, the UK, and the US.
In addition to the participating countries, the OTF has the authority to seek support and cooperation from non-OTF member nations, European Union agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private companies, Europol said.
According to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, the Ukrainian authorities collected evidence of around 109,000 alleged Russian war crimes, including physical and cyberattacks. Officials have identified more than 400 suspected perpetrators of these crimes, of which around 300 have been indicted, and 66 convicted.
Kostin said the inclusion of cyber crimes and crimes against the environment for the ICC evidence is a new initiative by Ukraine during this war, stressing that “every crime has victims.”
The State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP) said in its recent report that more than two dozen Russia-linked hacker groups targeted Ukraine in 2023 with the attacks primarily focusing on the energy and media sectors. However, Russian hackers have been increasingly targeting law enforcement agencies aiming to collect information on what evidence on Russian war crimes Ukrainian law enforcement teams have obtained, collected and submitted materials for trials and prosecution, arrest warrants for suspected agents, etc.