Eight police officers for 3,000 cases: The challenge of investigating war crimes in Ukraine

Boxes upon boxes of cardboard containing hundreds of accumulated files cover the floor of a room in a Kyiv building. They pertain to cases of alleged war crimes committed by the Russians during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022. This dilapidated, multi-story building could easily be the set of a thriller. Behind the door of another room, a surprisingly small but renovated and well-lit office awaits. A large map of the area surrounding the Ukrainian capital, covered in markings and directions, hangs on the wall. Around the table sit two men, Artur and Dmytro (not the latter’s real name), and a woman, Alla. They are police officers who have dedicated themselves wholeheartedly for the past four years to trying to unravel all these cases. “We have 3,000 files for eight officers,” they complain. Referring to the shortage of personnel in the army, they imply that this is another area where they are desperately in need of help.

In the fifth year of the Russian invasion, the investigations are progressing at a snail’s pace, hampered by a severe lack of resources and personnel, according to some experts. The Prosecutor’s Office has identified more than 216,000 potential war crimes and 253,000 victims, according to February data. “We simply don’t have the physical capacity to investigate this vast number of crimes,” as it is “unprecedented,” says Maryna Slobodianiuk, a researcher with Truth Dogs, one of the humanitarian organizations working to shed light on and denounce what is happening. She estimates that each investigator is handling around 100 cases, an “unmanageable” number.

By the end of September 2025, when the estimated number of cases was 185,000, only 446 had reached the courts, and only 156 had resulted in a sentence — less than one in 1,000 — according to a study conducted by the Ukrainian Union for Human Rights in Helsinki. The report also highlights the system’s inability to manage such a large number of crimes. These include extrajudicial killings, bombings and attacks on civilian infrastructure, deportation of minors, torture, sexual violence, and enforced disappearances.

“67.2% of prosecutors — 64 were interviewed — provide procedural guidance in more than 100 war crimes cases simultaneously, the same figure given by Slobodianiuk. By comparison, only 27.4% of investigators — 117 were interviewed — have more than 100 ongoing cases. Such a disproportion inevitably affects the quality of proceedings and creates risks to compliance with procedural rules,” warns the text, published at the end of February.

A lack of technical resources has also been identified: armored and unarmored vehicles, workspaces, office equipment, and personal protective equipment. Those responsible must carry out their tasks “often under fire” and “missiles.” In fact, access to evidence is frequently limited because sites are located on the front lines of combat or in Ukrainian territory under Russian occupation.

The authors call for improvements from the Ukrainian government, parliament, and the prosecutor’s office, acknowledging the significant challenge of achieving this amid the ongoing conflict, which “poses additional challenges” to conducting “an effective investigation of war crimes for the future of justice and national memory.” In any case, they add, “ensuring justice for more than a quarter of a million victims requires [...] A structural transformation of the police system.”

“First and foremost, we need people, we need someone to do the work, and of course, we need a lot of technical equipment,” adds Slobodianiuk, who has investigated crimes across different regions of Ukraine for Truth Hounds, an organization founded in 2014 when Russia launched its invasion of eastern Ukraine and Crimea. The most complex case she has faced was the Iskander missile attack on the Ria Pizza restaurant in Kramatorsk in the summer of 2023, in which a dozen people were killed, including the writer Victoria Amelina.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office is trying to gather as much information as possible, including from those who have left the country during the conflict. “We ask everyone who witnessed a war crime to inform law enforcement in the country where they are now located,” a message on its website states. Since 2022, 1,127 suspects have been identified; 809 have been charged and 242 convicted, according to data published by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the newspaper Suspilne on March 4. Among the suspects are 30 prisoners of war. Of these, 27 have been charged and their cases brought before the courts, while 22 have already been sentenced.

“The easiest cases to investigate” are those in which “Ukrainian investigators have access to the suspects — that is, cases involving crimes committed by Russian prisoners of war,” notes Kostiantyn Zadoya, a professor in the Department of Political and Criminal Law at Taras Shevchenko National University and a specialist at the Center for Civil Liberties (CLC) of Ukraine, which published the study prepared by the Ukrainian Union for Human Rights in Helsinki. The CLC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 for its work on human rights. “However, these are very few. Most proceedings are conducted in absentia, which immediately complicates the investigation process, regardless of the type of war crime,” Zadoya adds.

Such is the case, for example, of the three Russian soldiers who participated in the 2022 occupation of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, accused by Ukrainian authorities of the murder of engineer Sergey Emelyanov on March 8 of that year. All three have been identified, but for the moment, they are beyond the reach of justice. The investigation was carried out by the very same three agents who received the EL PAÍS special correspondent in their office.

Amid the enormous mountain of pending cases, Zadoya sees it as highly unlikely that the highest-ranking Russian officials responsible for the invasion of Ukraine, such as President Vladimir Putin, will ever be brought to trial. “That would be realistic if investigators from the International Criminal Court (ICC) or Ukraine were able to access these individuals. However, this could only happen if there is a radical change in the situation in Russia. And it is difficult to predict when such changes might occur,” says the law professor.

This court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, issued an arrest warrant against the Russian president in March 2023 for war crimes related to his alleged involvement in the deportation of children. However, Moscow does not recognize the ICC, which merely requested the cooperation of the international community in case he could be arrested during any of his travels. Putin is the third sitting president to have an arrest warrant issued against him by the ICC, following Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.

A UN investigation concluded on March 10 that the deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children by Russian authorities constitute crimes against humanity. After tracking 1,205 cases of children from five Ukrainian regions, the investigation found that 80% of them have not yet returned to Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities claim that Russia has illegally deported or forcibly displaced more than 19,500 children to Russia and Belarus, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

In January of last year, Ukraine became the 125th member state of the International Criminal Court. Has that brought about any changes? “Nothing, generally speaking,” says Professor Zadoya.

Agents Artur, Dmytro, and Alla allow us to photograph the room where boxes of files are piled high. They survey the scene with half-smiles, aware that they face a formidable obstacle. Dmytro tries to convey how Putin’s orchestrated invasion has changed their lives, even on a personal level. In his case, he separated from his pro-Russian wife after Moscow launched its attack on Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014, where she now lives. He speaks of it as if it were ancient history, as if it were part of another war.

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