War in Ukraine: In the footsteps of a young prosecutor investigating war crimes

Investigating war crimes in Ukraine is a journey of horror and destruction. To Chernihiv (Ukraine)in areas recently occupied by Russian troops, a team from France Télévisons was authorized to follow a prosecutor from the south of the region. “I did not study war crimes as such, there was no need for that, our country was not in total war like this”he confides. The young prosecutor goes to meet a mother whose daughter has disappeared. She says Russian soldiers took her away after discovering discussions with Ukrainian soldiers on her phone.

Further on, a neighbor was suspected of being an informant for the Ukrainian army, and was held captive for more than 20 days in a basement. “It’s hell, what they did here“, he testifies. “Later, we will do a more thorough police interrogation, we will raise everything that needs to be“, bounces the prosecutor. Last step of the day, he wants to see the nursery where the man was kidnapped. The building was totally destroyed.

There are testimonies of abuses in every village in Ukraine. However, “only a small number of them may be prosecuted due to insufficient evidence“, concludes the special envoy Marc de Chalvron.