The War Department of Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General includes a dedicated analytical unit that conducts investigations of Russian war crimes using specialized OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) technologies.
This was reported by Andrii Oliinyk, a representative of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed in Armed Conflict Conditions at the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO), in a comment to Ukrinform following the presentation of their OSINT war crimes investigation strategy.
“The Prosecutor General’s Office has approved official standards for investigating war crimes. These are publicly available. They were developed by PGO experts, the public sector, and the international community. There are established protocols for documentation and investigative strategies. One of these protocols allows for the use of OSINT investigations — specifically for war crimes,” Oliinyk said.
The head of the War Department emphasized that, at this stage of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, every prosecutor must become an OSINT investigator.
“According to the prosecutorial ethics guidelines, we are obliged to continuously improve. A prosecutor is not only a coordinator but, in practice, also an investigator and an intelligence officer. Therefore, today, every prosecutor must also be an OSINT investigator,” he noted.
He added that the PGO currently operates a unit authorized to conduct war crimes investigations under these protocols. This includes working with open sources and building OSINT-based evidence databases.
“Our structural unit is fully engaged with OSINT. For instance, we have analysts — this is an analytical unit specializing in OSINT investigations, documentation, and intelligence gathering. Every member of my 15-person team can work with platforms that enable comprehensive OSINT investigations. In essence, they’re all ‘mini-OSINTers’,” Oliinyk said.
He also recalled that last year, the PGO prosecutors underwent OSINT training in Estonia, focused on using open-source intelligence as digital evidence in criminal proceedings.
“Our international partners regularly involve prosecutors in such trainings. The training center’s team is constantly improving. There are specific plans in development related to using various tools. There are thousands, even tens of thousands, of OSINT tools, and it’s crucial to know which ones to use and how, specifically for investigating war crimes,” he added.
As previously reported, in November 2024, representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office took part in Ukraine’s first OSINT Hackathon.
