France donates DNA analysis lab to help Ukraine unravel Russian forces' alleged war crimes

France on Friday announced that it has donated a mobile DNA analysis lab to Ukrainian government to ensure that those responsible for the mass atrocities committed against the civilians during Russian aggression are held into account. The DNA lab is similar to the one deployed on the ground by the French IRCGN’s forensic support mission and financed by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

It will help extract the forensic genetics, and enable genetic analyses that can be conducted within short frame of time involving large quantity of biological samples. 

The analysis lab will help identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice, France’s government informed in a release. The lab donated to Ukraine was developed by French company TRACIP (Deveryware Group) in conjunction with the IRCGN, which is an expert in victim identification (DNA sampling and processing) and evidence gathering.

'Fight against impunity'

France reiterated its support to Ukraine in its “fight against impunity”. Several specialised investigators have been available to the Office of the ICC Prosecutor, as well as an exceptional financial contribution of €500,000 has been made to the ICC in this regard, the French ministry stressed. The measures were taken in accordance with the French President Emmanuel Macron’s instructions, it continued. 

“Ministry of the Interior and Overseas France and the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs remain fully mobilized to lend practical support to the efforts being made to this end by the Ukrainian authorities and the International Criminal Court (ICC),” French Foreign Office said in a statement. 

It notified that a mission of two forensic doctors and 15 gendarmes from the National Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute (IRCGN) have also been deployed on the ground for several weeks, in response to a request by the Ukrainian authorities. Under the impetus of the French presidency of the Council of the European Union, a mandate of the Eurojust agency was also reinforced in order to preserve, store and analyse evidence of war crimes by the Russian forces in Ukraine.

France is also cooperating on data linked to Moscow’s crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide in Kyiv. This in turn will be redistributed to the criminal investigator and judicial authorities of the EU Member States and by the International Criminal Court.