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A brief interview of the head of the International Police Cooperation Department of the National Police of Ukraine, Vitaliy Kasap, with the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency on the resumption of the use of Interpol tools in war crime investigations

By Oksana Herontiyeva

The other day you announced that during INTERPOL ' s annual meeting of Heads of National Central Bureaus, INTERPOL Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza confirmed the possibility of using INTERPOL tools to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Could you please tell us more about what this gives Ukraine?

In November 2010, the INTERPOL General Assembly adopted Resolution AG-2010-RES-10, which defines the conditions for the use of INTERPOL tools to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

In mid-2022, INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB) in Ukraine submitted a number of requests to the INTERPOL General Secretariat regarding the issuance of Red Notices for Russians who committed war crimes on the territory of Ukraine. After almost two years of consideration, in May 2024, the INTERPOL Secretary General rejected Ukraine's request to process our requests for the publication of these "red notices", arguing that INTERPOL's compliance with the requests of a belligerent country would have potential risks for the reputation of the organization and its member countries.

Not agreeing with the decision taken by the General Secretariat, as part of a carefully planned campaign, in June 2024, during INTERPOL's European Regional Conference, the delegation of the National Police addressed the participants of the event with a proposal to consider INTERPOL's ability to use its tools in response to requests within the framework of