Europol is united with the EU and its Member States in staunchly supporting Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February 2022. The military invasion has caused a humanitarian crisis and prompted large numbers of refugees to flee from Ukraine to the EU, meaning that opportunistic criminal networks may use this situation to further their criminal activities.
Europol, alongside the Member States, remains strongly committed to identifying and tackling these criminal threats and working at all levels to support the EU Member States impacted by the conflict. As part of this ongoing support, the agency is in close communication with the Member States bordering Ukraine, and is currently deploying experts and guest officers to support local law enforcement authorities in these countries.
Europol's support activities
Gathering intelligence and carrying out operational monitoring of violent extremists travelling to Ukraine and streams of communication, financing or recruitment.
Responding to operational requests (including from Ukraine and Moldova) to take down specific Telegram channels used for pro-Russian disinformation and fake news (EC3 and EU Internet Referral Unit).
Europol supported the activation of the Law Enforcement Emergency Response Protocol (LE ERP) for major cross-border cyberattacks.
Europol ensures enhanced monitoring of cyber threats through constant contact with Member States, the Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT) and open source monitoring.
Europol produced five threat assessments since the beginning of the war.
Supporting investigations into war crimes through the Analysis Project Core International Crimes (AP CIC).
Established an Operational Task Force of Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) experts to assist investigations conducted by Ukraine, other countries, as well as the ICC, into war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Continuous and close monitoring of all reported cases involving Ukrainian citizens as possible victims of any form of exploitation (sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, forced begging, forced criminality, organ trafficking, domestic slavery, surrogacy motherhood, or benefit fraud).
Europol has organized and participated in numerous training sessions, awareness programs and campaigns on the topic. Moreover, Europol has developed guidelines and situation reports assessing the current situation. The goal of these efforts has been to support member states recognize key indicators and identify possible human trafficking victims in the earliest stages.
Launched Operation Oscar, conducted with the support of Eurojust and Frontex, supporting financial investigations by EU Member States targeting criminal assets owned by individuals and legal entities sanctioned in relation to the conflict.
Europol is working closely together with Ukraine to lower the risk of weapons trafficking during and after the war.
The European Commission has established the ‘Freeze and Seize’ Task Force, which seeks to ensure the effective freezing & confiscation of assets of sanctioned individuals and entities. This task force is in cooperation with Eurojust and the 27 Member States.
Europol is also supporting the Common Anti-trafficking Plan, Solidarity Platform and Blueprint meetings.
Supporting the mobilisation of the EMPACT framework through an intelligence-led approach.
The EMPACT community met at Europol to tailor operational actions to evolving threats related to Ukraine.
Providing advanced training on strategic analysis to Ukrainian law enforcement to support the work carried out by the situational centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In addition, training to Ukrainian LEAs was provided on OSINT, cybercrime and financial crimes.
Ukraine is one of the beneficiaries of project TOPCOP, led by CEPOL, where Europol is leading the Component on strategic analysis.
Actively engaging with Ukrainian law enforcement through the Ukrainian Liaison Officers at Europol headquarters and supporting specific requests from the Ukrainian Liaison Bureau.
Since the beginning of the war, Guest Officers have been continuously deployed in Ukraine’s neighbouring countries to support the investigations of the countries and perform secondary security checks.
