EU Project Pravo-Justice handed over extra equipment for forensic experts to the Ministry of Justice

The EU Project Pravo-Justice handed over two additional modern 3D scanners to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine for forensic examinations in criminal proceedings to be used in investigating crimes committed by the Russian Federation. This is the second set of 3D scanners that the Project is handing over to the Ministry.

“We see the potential and very concrete results of using 3D scanners. Such technologies help to speed up the work of forensic experts, ensure their safety and make sure that war crimes are properly recorded, which is very important in proving cases. Within the Project activities, from the first days of the war, we have been trying to determine forensic experts’ needs to help them fulfil their duties during martial law and document all the atrocities taking place on the territory of Ukraine. After October 10, 2022, because of constant attacks targeting infrastructure facilities, such high-quality modern equipment as 3D scanners has become even more in demand, and we are glad that we helped to provide them to the Ministry of Justice,” said Oksana Tsymbrivska, Country Manager of the EU Project Pravo-Justice.

According to Andrii Haichenko, Deputy Minister of Justice for the Enforcement Service, documenting war crimes is now a priority for the Ministry of Justice:

“Providing forensics equipment is a priority. We need to prove that the crimes were committed exactly by the occupying Russian regime, precisely upon orders by certain persons, that some building was destroyed by Russian shells and rockets, that Ukrainian citizens were killed by Russian bullets, debris, ammunition, and explosives. This is indeed the help that we need, what the state needs. I will tell you: thousands of people need it – and maybe hundreds of thousands of people who lost their homes, lost their property, who are deprived of the right to live a normal life.”

Kyiv and Lviv Scientific Research Institutes of Forensic Expertise received canners as well as computers and respective software. Forensic experts from the Institutes have actually been working on objects hit by Russian bombs and shells since the very beginning of the Russian aggression.

“We visited 207 localities in the Kyiv region, examined each building. We conducted forensic examinations not only of buildings destroyed by missiles and artillery weapons. First and foremost, in each such case, we have to establish a cause-and-effect relationship – where it came from and what exactly happened – so that later it can be presented in court and so that we can prove that it was the enemy who did it. That’s why such equipment is very important for us,” said Oleksandr Ruvin, Director of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise.

“The construction laboratory of our Institute has the biggest workload today. I got to know the technical characteristics of this device, and the employees of the institute also got to know them. The staff are just delighted. Our experts have never before worked with such equipment, they are interested in exploring all the functions and areas for the equipment to be used,” added Mariia Zelinska, director of the Lviv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise.

The 3D scanners purchased by the Pravo-Justice Project will make forensic experts’ work many times more accurate and efficient, reducing the time it takes to examine the crime scene, record and document all the details necessary for the investigation and the court. For example, such a scanner can record up to 2 million parameters in one second. And in 30 seconds, it reproduces a complete three-dimensional picture of the scene with up to a millimeter.

“We have been cooperating with the Pravo-Justice Project since the first days of the war, and the Project has provided both moral and practical support. We have concrete proposals, concrete cooperation, and concrete actions. We already received the first two 3D scanners in the fall – they are already working, and forensic experts are doing a tremendous job with using these devices,” said Nataliia Tkachenko, Director of the Department of Forensic Support of the Judiciary at the Ministry of Justice.

Last October, the first two sets of such 3D scanners were handed over by the Pravo-Justice Project to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, and today they are used by research institutes in Kharkiv and Odesa.