On this morning of April 8, 2022, several hundred people wait patiently on the platform of Kramatorsk station, in eastern Ukraine. While the Russian invasion began more than a month ago, these civilians are trying to flee the most violent fighting, or to join their families already exiled in the west of the country. Shortly before 10.30 a.m., a ballistic missile equipped with a cluster munition head was released above their heads, causing the dispersion of about fifty small bombs around the station. The attack kills at least 58 people – all civilians – and injures more than a hundred other victims. Directly implicated by the Ukrainian authorities, Russia denies any involvement, even claiming not to use this type of missile, before throwing the responsibility on the Ukrainian forces. In the weeks that followed, more than 2,000 kilometers from Kramatorsk, Sam Dubberley and his team decided to launch a meticulous investigation into the precise course of the day’s events. From Berlin, motivated by the need to demonstrate the “horror and inhumanity” of this bombardment, the director of the Digital Investigations Lab of the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) began a long search for evidence.
For months, his small group of specialists studied hundreds of satellite images, photos and videos from social networks, cross-checked dozens of testimonies collected by correspondents sent to the field, recalculated the trajectory of the missile and its -ammunition, remodel destroyed buildings in 3D… Before rendering a full report, on February 21, determining the exact locations of the impacts, the precise time of the attack, the number and profile of the victims, the type of injuries caused by the shrapnel, and, above all, the type of weapon used and the origin of the latter. “In this kind of investigation, the slightest military logo, the shape of a piece of debris, the presence of suspicious containers on a satellite image or even the different angles of a video from documents taken from Facebook, TikTok or Instagram can help us understand exactly what happened, tells Sam Dubberley to L’Express. Obviously everything must be checked. But the most valuable thing is to combine this evidence found in open source with testimonies collected on the ground. “
To remove any possible doubt about Russian intentions, this former journalist also recalls having reviewed the videos of the days preceding the attack, which show “without any possible ambiguity” the station of Kramatorsk invaded by civilians trying to flee the combat zone . “It was an evacuation point for civilians: there was no military legitimacy to bomb this area. And even if it had been, nothing can justify the use of slot weapons “ammunition. This is definitely a war crime on the part of the Russians.” In the months or years to come, the documents exposed in his report could constitute evidence of war crimes to present to justice. “This work is more than necessary. We must take the time to do it properly,” said the director.
“The hardest thing is to understand who gave the orders”
Since the beginning of the conflict, Human Rights Watch has not been the only NGO to investigate these potential war crimes using open source information (a research method better known asopen source intelligence, Osint) and testimonies collected directly on site. “Not everything is authorized by the laws of war. And our job is to specifically look for disproportionate, unlawful and indiscriminate attacks by Russian forces, which have affected civilians when it was not legitimate”, explains Milena Marin, director of the Evidence Lab at Amesty International. For more than a year, his team of video investigators, remote sensing experts, weapons specialists and data scientists, dispersed between Europe and the United States, has been painstakingly documenting the human rights violations committed in Ukraine. “The range is wide: we are talking about the bombing of civilians, but also about torture, sexual crimes or discrimination against certain populations, such as the elderly for example”, list Milena Marin.
Despite the habit, she admits that this daily work of searching for evidence does not leave the investigators unscathed. On March 16, 2022, the bombardment of the Mariupol theater, in which several hundred civilians were sheltered, and in particular children whose presence was clearly indicated, particularly marked his team. “It can be violent at times. Day and night, seven days a week, we analyze extremely harsh photos and videos, helping to understand exactly how the victims are affected. Our mental health is one of my biggest concerns… But we supports yourself by telling yourself that what you’re doing is useful and important,” she says. Even if sometimes, certain information is particularly difficult to obtain. “Unlike other conflicts, we have absolutely no information from the Russian side. The hardest thing is not to find the evidence, which is there in the thousands, or to decipher the movement of the troops, but to understand who ordered this or that attack. Who gave the orders.”
Especially since the complexity of the conflict does not always work in favor of the investigators. “On both sides, the forces are not limited to the regular Russian or Ukrainian armies. You have militias, a whole bunch of actors in place”, recalls Sébastien, vice-president of the French association Open Facto, specialized in the search for information in open sources. This independent journalist, who trains other reporters or ordinary citizens looking for information on the Internet, warns. “On social networks, there is everything. You have to sort out the issues of propaganda, sometimes manipulated images, even completely acted or edited scenes.”
“What was striking was the number of victims”
Beyond the NGOs, journalists or independent volunteers who track down evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, the French authorities are also investigating the violence of the acts perpetrated on the ground. In April 2022, after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Boutcha, France responded favorably to the request of the Ukrainian authorities to obtain reinforcements to examine the bodies of the hundreds of civilians found in the streets of the city. Teams from the National Gendarmerie’s Criminal Research Institute (IRCGN) were sent to the country to support local authorities in their research. After deploying a forensic institute under a tent, the specialists examined the bodies of those killed at length and analyzed the fragments of explosives or bullets found on the victims, while taking the time to collect their DNA. “The goal was to ascertain the causes of death, but also to identify these people, explains Colonel François Heulard, director of the IRCGN. What was striking was the number of victims. And above all, the fact that they were all civilians. Men, women, of all ages.”
Since then, other missions have been carried out by the IRCGN in Ukraine, for the benefit of the Ukrainian or French authorities. Because since the start of the conflict, no less than seven investigations have been opened by the French National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT), which is only investigating acts that have been committed in Ukraine to the detriment of French nationals – such as journalists Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff and Pierre Zakrzewski, who died in the field in the exercise of their profession. The Central Office for the fight against crimes against humanity and war crimes (OCLCH), created in 2013, is responsible for collecting evidence of these war crimes, from France or directly on the spot. “The objective is that there is no loss of elements: it is necessary to freeze this evidence in the present in order to be able to use it later, in particular during possible trials”, summarizes L’ Express General Jean-Philippe Reiland, commander of the OCLCH.
Exchanges with the victims still alive and the witnesses of the scenes, examination of the bodies, of the crime scene, research of videos, photos or satellite images making it possible to determine the forces present and the regiment at the origin of the bombardment or the attack… “The goal is to put together a file provided with verified and sourced evidence, so that it is unassailable when presented to a judge”, adds General Reiland. To do this, the OCLCH can count on the evidence provided by civil society. During a trip to Ukraine last September, in order to investigate the scene of the death of the Franco-Irish journalist Pierre Zakrzewski, the general was able to count on the collaboration of several civilians, who came to bring videos or photos recorded on the day of the incident. “This help is invaluable, even if each element brought must be checked. Any testimony can be relevant.”
Jean-Philippe Reiland also recalls that Ukrainian refugees in France have the possibility of filing with French police stations and gendarmeries testimonies relating to war crimes which they may have witnessed in Ukraine. The accumulation of evidence of abuses can tip the scales in the event of a trial, for example before the International Criminal Court. At the beginning of February, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin announced that the authorities had counted more than 65,000 Russian war crimes since the beginning of the conflict.