By Marek Chrobok
Investigation of war crimes resulting from Russian military aggression in Ukraine lies mainly with official state authorities. As the number of different types of war crimes committed by Russian forces is huge, some of the war crimes are monitored, albeit not investigated, also by non-government organisations. One of these NGOs is Team4Ukraine, which is focusing in this area on war crimes against civilians and civilian infrastructure. As two members of T4U are former SMMU OSCE monitors, this area is familiar to them. This monitoring of war crimes has two levels of importance. First level is to gather information about war crimes, document them and later on hand them over to authorities, which in case of T4U is Police of the Czech Republic, for further processing and investigation. Second level is to show to the world or to the people, mainly in Czech Republic the real situation on the ground.
Regarding the documentation for handover to authorities, the priority of T4U is to arrive at the place of shelling, gather all the information needed and conduct Impact site assessment (ISA). All police officers know how to do such a thing on the basic level. We take pictures of craters and their surroundings with 360 panorama picture or video; it is a very basic thing, but later on it will give investigators enough material evidence. With the videos mentioned above investigators will have a complete overview and will be able to identify what the real target was. Was there a school nearby? Or a hospital? Or some military installation? Also, the measurements of the crater and its shape can give them an idea of the weapon used. Monitors can also search a crater for pieces or shrapnel (in and around it). You can find pieces that are specific for certain types of weapons. Taking the exact location of the crater and providing a basic map of the area with distances and grid reference of the crater and nearby objects is also performed.
In order to get a better picture, it is necessary sometimes to speak with witnesses about the time of shelling and also check with them the possibly of getting additional information. All the obtained details are added to a file and together with pictures and videos are handed over to the authorities responsible for investigation. But, of course, this is by no means all work which volunteers have to do. They have to stay abreast of the current situation in the field at all times as well as pay attention to security developments, watch out for UXOs and mines etc.
Regarding the second level of information, we mean bring home the information about real situation in Ukraine. In this case there is no need for precise data such as grid references, etc. Pictures or videos are targeted to reach a wide audience. Ideally, they are presented to the target groups with short explanations about the incident. Posting up-to-date pictures and videos on social medias, communication with other relevant NGOs and local authorities about certain developments in the war-stricken country – all these assignments are also fulfilled by volunteers from T4U in addition to their humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
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