The event was attended by representatives of more than 30 countries – investigative units from Europe, the USA, Canada, and Australia specializing in investigations of major international crimes, as well as representatives of Eurojust and international non-governmental organizations.

The annual meeting of representatives of investigative units from different countries was held at Europol Headquarters in The Hague (Netherlands). The international meeting brought together law enforcement officers specializing in investigations of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The event was organized within the framework of Europol’s Analysis Project on Core International Crimes.

The National Police of Ukraine was represented at the international event by First Deputy Head of the Main Investigation Department Serhii Panteleev, First Deputy Head of the Department for Protection of Public and State Interests Oleksandr Shapovalov, and a representative of the National Police of Ukraine in Europol Vitalii Kasap.

Representatives of the Ukrainian delegation shared with foreign colleagues their experience in investigating war crimes and spoke about the initiative of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine to strengthen cooperation aimed at investigating war crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine. The participants discussed ways to build a comprehensive international platform within the EU security architecture for interested international partners under the coordination of Europol to support Ukraine in investigating war crimes.

In turn, foreign colleagues shared the results of collecting information and evidence on war crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine, including information received from non-governmental organizations, witnesses, and victims. All these facts are being passed on to Europol for further processing.

In addition, back in March last year, Europol created a unified platform for the collection, storage, and analytical processing of information (intelligence) on war crimes on the basis of its servers. In case of a match, the information will be used in national and international investigations, including those conducted by the International Criminal Court and under the jurisdiction of Eurojust.

“Currently, the National Police of Ukraine is actively cooperating with Europol to exchange relevant data and use Europol’s capabilities to identify russian war criminals. Indeed, all law enforcement agencies of Ukraine are working to ensure that the occupiers are held accountable for their crimes in both Ukrainian and international courts,” said Serhii Panteleev.

As part of the international event, representatives of the National Police of Ukraine held a number of meetings with law enforcement officers from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, etc. They also met with Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, Deputy Executive Director of Europol for Operations. The parties discussed further steps of cooperation between Ukraine and Europol.