The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is investigating suspected war crimes in Ukraine by interviewing people in Finland who have fled the conflict.
The agency began reaching out to new arrivals from Ukraine in the winter, and has so far interviewed around 50 individuals, most of them witnesses, according to NBI chief inspector Olli Töyräs.
"At worst, the war crimes in these cases have led to death, including circumstances in which a close, immediate family member has lost their life, and the course of events indicate possible war crimes," he explained.
In practice, the NBI's probes involve interviews with Ukrainians who fled from the war-torn country. The interviews help investigators determine whether a war crime may have been committed, according to Töyräs.
NBI investigators have approached newly-arrived Ukrainians across Finland, but most of the interviews have taken place in southern Finland, according to Töyräs.
"Our 'fishing net' is not completely failsafe. It depends on how much each person wants to say and how much they do not," he explained, adding that sometimes recounting traumatic events can be too much for the victims.
There are also people who don't want to remember the things they experienced in Ukraine, according to the chief inspector.
Töyräs acknowledged that the NBI's interview tally of around 50 witnesses or victims is not a large proportion of the more than 50,000 Ukrainians who have fled to Finland since Russia's February 2022 invasion.
But he said that information gleaned from interviews with Ukrainians in Finland could possibly be useful to investigators in, for example, Poland where authorities are also looking into similar crimes.
He said that investigating war crimes can be like putting together a puzzle, with pieces that can be found in different parts of Europe.
However it is not known where, exactly, the information gleaned by Finnish investigators will be sent forward, but Töyräs suggested that there are several potential options.
He noted that Ukrainians who fled the war can contact Finnish authorities themselves, if they wish.
"If a Ukrainian here feels that he has information and wants to bring it to the attention of authorities, he can go to the nearest police station," Töyräs said, adding that the information from those sources will be forwarded to NBI headquarters in Vantaa.
He added that investigators will be gathering information about possible war crimes in Ukraine for the foreseeable future, at least during this and next year.
He said investigations would continue "as long as the suspicion of possible war crime is concrete and real. It's probably not possible to give an exact time frame," Töyräs said.