Sebastian Kaleta made the announcement as he attended the conference, which explored the options for bringing those responsible for Russian crimes in Ukraine to criminal justice, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Kaleta said in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius: “So far, we have managed to collect over 1,000 pieces of trial evidence, in the form of witness statements, as well as photographs and video recordings.”
He added that Polish prosecutors interviewed people who had fled the war to Poland and were either victims or witnesses of Russian war crimes.
He noted that the Polish investigation was part of a wider probe by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).
Launched on March 2, the probe "is now supported by as many as 41 of the court's member states, including non-European countries such as Australia, Canada, Colombia, Japan and New Zealand,” Kaleta told the conference.
Polish-Ukrainian-Lithuanian investigators helped by ICC
Meanwhile, Poland is also part of a joint probe with Ukraine and Lithuania aiming to collect evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine to bring perpetrators to criminal justice, Kaleta added.
He said the ICC's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, "has made an unprecedented decision to take part in this investigation,” adding that this support was "of key importance to the work of the team."
Kaleta said in Vilnius: “I call on countries that would like to offer stronger support to the ICC prosecutor’s investigation and to the process of documenting crimes committed in Ukrainian territory, to join this investigative task force."
Vilnius conference
Other participants in the Vilnius conference included Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, Latvian ex-President Valdis Zatlers and former Lithuanian leader Vytautas Landsbergis, the PAP news agency reported.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown participated via video link.
Also in attendance were representatives from the legal community, the NGO sector and academia, reporters were told.
Friday is day 72 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, gov.pl