Ukraine – Fight against impunity (June 12, 2023)

France is continuing its determined effort to combat impunity for acts committed in the course of the Russian aggression in Ukraine. For more than a year now, France has been doing its utmost to provide concrete support for investigations undertaken by the Ukrainian authorities and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ensure that those responsible for the crimes committed in Ukraine do not go unpunished.

In this regard, on June 10 and 11, France deployed two teams from the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas France to Ukraine, one composed of investigators and the other of forensic officers. This mission is being funded by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs as part of its effort to assist Ukraine and is being implemented by the Ministry for the Interior and Overseas France.

In order to respond to Ukraine’s request for help from France, the first team will assist Ukrainian authorities with investigations into crimes that have had serious and long-term impacts on the environment since the beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine. This team will be composed of gendarmes from the Central Office for Coordinating Crimes against the Environment and Public Health (OCLAESP) and an expert from the Forensic Sciences Institute of the Gendarmerie Nationale (IRCGN).

France will also deploy a mission composed of forensic officers under the auspices of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Drawing on the IRCGN’s expertise, this mission will gather evidence of damage to civilian objects which it will document using 3D digital models. The information collected in this way may assist the ICC’s investigation as well as Ukrainian court proceedings.

These two new missions follow five previous deployments from the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas France in Ukraine, two of which were long-term; they too were funded by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Those missions investigated infrastructure damage, identified victims in order to return their remains to their families, determined causes of death and mapped crime scenes.

France reiterates its strong condemnation of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In keeping with its longstanding commitment, France will continue to lend its support to the critical work carried out by the Ukrainian courts and the International Criminal Court in order to combat impunity for those responsible for all the crimes committed in Ukraine.