Methods used by Ukraine to document russian crimes have never been used in the world - Prosecutor General's Office
Kyiv • UNN
Ukraine is using the latest methods to document international crimes committed by russia during the war in Ukraine, which allows for real-time documentation, even without physical access to the occupied territories.
The methods that Ukraine is currently using to document international crimes committed by russia have never been used by any country in the world in previous wars or conflicts. Open-source research methods, intelligence data, data from our international partners, social media data and other interesting methods allow us to document russian crimes right now. Yuriy Belousov, Head of the War Crimes Department of the Prosecutor General's Office, told Hromadske Radio about this, UNN reports.
Some of the methods used by Ukraine to document international crimes have not been used by any country in the world in previous conflicts. One of the first war crimes convictions upheld by the Supreme Court was that of a russian military commissar from Crimea who forced our citizens under occupation to serve on the side of the aggressor. This is a war crime provided for, in particular, by the Rome Statute
He emphasized that in this case, the investigator and prosecutor did not have access to the temporarily occupied territories, and the case was based mainly on a qualitative study of materials from open sources.
This is a new era in the investigation and prosecution of crimes. New methods have emerged that allow us to work on the evidence base without having physical access to the territory. That is why we are not sitting around waiting for the Ukrainian Defense Forces to liberate our territory and then start collecting evidence. In this context, Ukraine has a unique experience
According to him, open-source research methods, intelligence data, data from our international partners, social media data and other methods allow us to document russian crimes right now.
Recall
As of April 2024, 100 high-ranking russian military officers were notified of suspicion of preparing, starting and waging an aggressive war, as well as committing war crimes, 15 of them under two articles.
