Since the onset of the armed conflict in Ukraine, pre-trial investigation authorities have been faced with unprecedented challenges. It is their direct legal responsibility to swiftly respond to criminal offences, investigate crime scenes, and conduct pre-trial investigations. Instead, the prosecution authorities remain under the impression that the 2012 Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine reduced the responsibility of investigators for the quality and outcomes of their performance, shifting it towards those responsible for procedural oversight. However, the Code's approach emphasises a more quality engagement between pre-trial investigation and prosecution bodies, suggesting that the success of criminal proceedings hinges on their effectively coordinated efforts.
In accordance with Article 38 of the CPCU, the entities responsible for pre-trial investigations include: investigative units of the National Police, the Security Service, and the State Bureau of Investigation; the detective unit and the internal control unit of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine; and detective units of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine[301]. The general rules on jurisdiction of these organs concerning grave international crimes are detailed in the section above[303].
Despite facing significant challenges since 2014 that necessitated a shift in their approach, it was not until 2021 that the pre-trial investigative authorities began to specialise in addressing the consequences of the armed conflict. The Office of the Prosecutor General, the National Police of Ukraine, and the Security Service of Ukraine decided to establish dedicated investigative units. These units focus on crimes committed in the context of the armed conflict and operate at the level of the main investigative departments and territorial branches in Donetsk and Luhansk regions[304]. However, this decision lost its relevance after 24 February 2022. The consequences of the armed conflict were recorded in different regions of Ukraine, so the scale of the events required the extension of the specialisation of investigative bodies to other regions. Therefore, some investigative bodies subsequently decided to introduce specialisation at the level of other regions, while others cannot afford this approach due to the peculiarities of their internal structure and lack of staff. But even against all these initiatives, an important step would be to prioritise investigations of grave crimes for the pretrial investigative authorities. The general scale of crimes committed, length of the investigations, low prospect of real prosecutions of the perpetrators result in deprioritisation of such cases by authorities.
