Spanish police investigations prove war crimes in Ukraine

And this points to the Eurocommissioner’s proposal to give continuity to the European police missions that assist Ukraine in confirming crimes committed by the Russian Federation on its territory.

Among these research groups, a Hispanic 20 police officers and civil guards. The evidence they collected over the winter is already in the hands of the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office.

Interrogations Among the Remains

Perhaps the memories of the members of the Police Support Team (EPA) that Spain sent to Ukraine today, the lightless nights in the Kiev region, the hours between the notes and reports in the bomb shelter, in short, the despair of the people. But what remains is the data and reconstructions they collect for them. Investigation into ten Russian attack scenarios. Each had been bombed two or three times, each at least two weeks ago, and each several bomb explosionsdrones or missiles.

“ destruction of electrical and heating facilities had a huge impact on the population – confirms operation, commander Head of the Civil Guard and EPA. Although they were determined to keep fighting, they really affected the morale of the people.”

The type of crime the Spanish team must investigate is the destruction of critical infrastructures. Research areas have been the remains of substations, thermoelectric power plants and dilapidated residential areas.

Members of the Spanish police war crimes investigation team inspect a bombed power plant in Kiev GC

Russia has been making cogeneration power plants, boilers and high-voltage towers war targets since winter. leaving their victims in icy darkness without light and heat. This type of sabotage is a form of aggression against the civilian population, which is defined as a war crime by the Geneva Convention.

But more often than not, Spanish police and guards found themselves not only as the target sought by the Russian artillery, but also – or instead – the surrounding houses, shops and offices in ruins. “It happened often,” the commander agreed. The missile has arrived in the area, but was either mislaunched or Anti-missile measures on the ground caused it to lose orbit and blew up a residential building”.

This had happened at one of his jobs in Vyshgorod, north of Kiev. A missile searching for a power station “destroyed the homes of a working-class and troubled neighborhood. The child fell from a height of 20 meters from the playground…” recalls the head of the mission. The balance was 10 dead and 30 injured. Algo is another party for a total of 9,369 dead civilians and 16,646 injured, according to the UN Human Rights Commissioner’s count.

sad scenes

“The purpose of these attacks was to make the public suffer,” the OP says. EPA agents saw this live. They left friends in the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office and police. Now, after a great bombardment, they write to them from Spain: “Are you okay? And your families?

kyiv and kyiv Oblast were the main working area of ​​the group. With 8.300 million euro damage to infrastructures -According to the Kiev School of Economics-, it is one of the regions most attacked by this strategy of Russia. leave the people without a roof, without water and without energy.

After some research in Kharkov, it was recommended to focus on the Kiev region. Kharkov was within range of Russian artillery and “and the security conditions were complex,” recalls the OP Specialists in forensic analysis and mapping were accompanied by a team from the Rapid Action Group (GAR), in addition to agents from the Internal Security Service of Ukraine. Geos of the Civil Guard and Police.

They coordinated the group Two experts from the intelligence field: Commander OP works in the Civil Guard’s Information Service; He became his assistant, deputy coordinator, chief inspector of the Police General Information Station. No one in the EPA wore uniforms to prevent the Russians from taking over as a military force. to those on police duty.

A member of the Spanish Support Police Team in Ukraine observes a civilian building destroyed by a missile. GC

In principle, the Spaniards saw it as a tripartite task: forensic support to determine causes of death, 3D modeling of crime scenes with scanners and drones, and identification of explosives and weapons banned by TEDAX agents. The second objective became the main objective of the mission.

On the previous preparatory trip, OP visited several Ukrainian morgues. He confirmed how little media coverage they received and how the corpses reached them by exceeding their response capacity: to a warehouse with autopsy capacity once a day. 3,000 deaths in one month reached ten.

The nightmare harshness of the extreme war in Ukraine. On one of these visits, vorodiankaThe Ukrainians were saved because there was no room in the morgue, 50 kilometers from Kiev. many corpses on the street in a refrigerated containerat the door of the morgue. A Russian missile hit that cold room and the street was filled with dead people.

work in a shelter

Electronic and infographic data and photographic evidence collected by the EPA are in the hands of the EPA. Ukrainian prosecutor Andryi Konstin. Tests collected during the day and ordered at night. Inspectors sent by the Internal Affairs they needed sunlight “When the sun went down, we went to the hotel to do the treatment,” says the Mission’s coordinator to get the data.

However, it was rarely possible to work in the comfort of a hotel. During the stay of the Spanish team, 144 missiles and suicide planes crashed in their areas. The OP recalls receiving anti-aircraft alerts through both an ancient and modern system: “In the city, the sirens sounded like they were from WWII, and an app also gave a warning on the cell phone with an alert. but many times you could also hear the drone’s engine. People have already grown to that sound.”

When the alarm went off, they went down to the -1 floor of the hotel, to the shelter. “And you can stay there for 20 minutes or five hours,” remember the commander. Agents lowered their computers to continue working.

Members of the Spanish Police Support Team sent to Ukraine are at the bomb shelter in Kiev. GC

Night bombardment is insidious, exhausting. “People went to bed early because they had no electricity or heating. But if You go to bed at 11, they take you out of bed at 12. to go to the shelter and so from day to day… he finally gets tense and tired. It was very painful to see those who do not have a basement go to the Metro…” he says.

They remain in his memory nights in the bunker, the smell of morgues, the pain of frozen fingers When they take off their gloves to pick up their mobile phones, some Kievites gift them vegetables from their garden or are suddenly greeted in Spanish on a sidewalk in Kiev. had ancient Children of Chernobyl, to give a break to the children who brought families and NGOs here.

damage control

When the multinational Advisory Group on Heinous Crimes (ACA) met in Warsaw on 12 May, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin told the forum: 82,000 cases from war crimes.

Consisting of the EU, the United States and the United Kingdom, the ACA advises the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office on the collection of evidence for future judicial proceedings. Also about how to interview vulnerable victims and witnesses, how to get statements from inmates, children or victims of gender-based violence.

But there is also an important aspect of collecting data for a criminal case: assessing damage to critical infrastructures. A study conducted by the Kiev School of Economics, again last May, estimates damage to all kinds of public, social, road and industrial facilities at 134.8 billion euros.

Of this amount, a third of the 158,000 homes and residential buildings that were destroyed or damaged were received. Attacks on energy facilities also occupy High place in the damage assessment: €7,310m. These are the figures collected for the project Russia will pay, which unites various Ukrainian organizations.