Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia join an international investigation into alleged war crimes committed during the war in Ukraine.
The joint investigation team (JIT) already includes Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The cooperation should help to prosecute suspects.
Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine in late February. Since then, reports have emerged of mass graves, summary executions and rapes by Russian soldiers.
Ukraine has registered 15,000 war crimes since the start of the war. More than 600 suspects are in the picture for this, Ukrainian chief prosecutor Irina Venediktova said on Tuesday during the announcement of the new cooperation in The Hague.
Last week, a 21-year-old Russian soldier was sentenced to life in prison in Ukraine for shooting an unarmed civilian.
The European judicial organization Eurojust calls the war in Ukraine “the most documented armed conflict in history”. Poland says that the alleged war crimes have now been discussed with about 1,100 people. To aid the investigation, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor will soon open an office in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.