The EU’s judicial cooperation agency on Thursday unveiled what it said was a “game changing” data center to collect and analyze evidence of crimes in Ukraine, invaded by Russia a year ago.
The Hague-based body and Ukraine also backed the European Union’s announcement to coordinate a probe into crimes committed after the invasion.
“We expect this database to be fully operational by summer this year,” Eurojust president Ladislav Hamran said.
“This database is a real game changer in the prosecution of core international crimes,” he told journalists.
The center will gather, store, and analyze evidence presented by prosecutors of EU member states and other countries represented at the agency, including Britain and the United States.
Digital evidence that can be submitted for storage include pictures, video recordings, satellite and drone images, and witness statements.
This will allow prosecutors to “not only shed light on individual offences, but also on the systemic actions behind it” and “lead to more and faster national investigations,” Hamran said.
The data center will work in tandem with a new office at Eurojust to prosecute crimes in Ukraine.
Kyiv’s representative at the agency, Myroslava Krasnoborova, said over 71,000 alleged war crimes and more than 16,000 crimes against national security were being probed in Ukraine.
There have been growing calls for an independent tribunal to prosecute Russia for crimes of aggression.