Bodies of civilians, who according to residents were killed by Russian army soldiers, lie on the street, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Bucha in the Kyiv region, Ukraine April 2, 2022. REUTERS/ Zohra Bensemra
"It will be for the next weeks, next months, next years, maybe for the next decades. For some cases, it will be very fast. It will be longer for others," said Reynders. Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in war crimes or deliberately attacking civilians since it invaded Ukraine in February. It says it launched a "special military operation" to root out Ukrainian nationalists.
Reynders said the EU's 28 states were seeking to provide material and staffing assistance to help document suspected crimes, including collecting testimonies of sexual violence in settings more supportive of victims than a police station. "We are discussing how to organize confiscation without conviction but there are many legal problems around that, we are not sure about this yet," he added.