Satellite companies join the hunt for Russian war crimes

Companies are trying to help build war crimes cases.

Satellites are being used to locate mass graves, bombed-out hospitals and shattered schools. They help identify military units that target civilians. Real-time data is being used to deploy investigators from the International Criminal Court and the United Nations to collect more physical evidence from witnesses in Ukraine.

Steve Butow, director of the space portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit, the Pentagon's Silicon Valley outpost, said in an interview that there is truth in imagery.

The global community is seeing this for what it is. They can show you exactly what is happening.

The indiscriminate killing of hundreds of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha over the weekend was a war crime, and the need to collect evidence that could implicate Russian military or political leaders was highlighted by President Joe Biden.

He said that what is happening in Bucha is outrageous.

The White House said it has evidence that Russia is violating the laws of war. The Secretary of State said that there needs to be accountability for the information the U.S. government has to relevant institutions and organizations.

The International Criminal Court is investigating war crimes in Ukraine after receiving referrals. On Tuesday, the UN Secretary-General called for a coordinated international effort to collect evidence, citing the wholesale destruction of civilian areas and growing reports of rape and other human rights violations committed by Russian troops.

I immediately called for an independent investigation after seeing horrible images of what took place in Bucha.

Commercial satellites are capturing images of the Earth for many of the probes.

The CEO of Maxar Technologies said that the company has been working on this.

He said that the company has been shouldered out by other customers who are waiting for imagery so that Maxar can continue to make the Ukraine crisis a high priority.

One of the increasing demands is to chronicle the humanitarian consequences of the conflict.

Building getting blown up, holes being dug for graves, those kinds of things are being tracked and recorded in a way that we think is very important.

An unblinking, unclassified eye that is not information from the government but can be used to hold people accountable for behavior is proving to be the global network of imagery satellites operated by Maxar and other U.S. and international companies.

At the conference on Tuesday, the deputy director of national intelligence revealed that at the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, the U.S. government encouraged satellite companies to share their imagery far and wide.

She said that they asked a few commercial companies to quickly make available imagery like the one that was happening around the borders of Ukraine.

Members of Congress want the intelligence collected by the U.S. spy agencies to be made public.

Commercial satellites that can collect images day or night are changing how war crimes are being investigated.

While the technology has been used to illuminate Chinese human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslims in China, genocide in Sudan and other human catastrophes, its role putting the war in Ukraine under the microscope is seen as revolutionary.

In the last few years, the commercial satellite constellations have grown in size and capability, allowing more frequent coverage over areas of interest. Dozens of companies and universities in the U.S. have government licenses to operate.

A research scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California is assisting the U.S. European Command in Germany. We can get Maxar tasked and get imagery over that region in a few minutes.

Planet Labs has supported human rights organizations for years and has been working around the clock. Andrew Zolli, its chief impact officer, said that international war crimes investigators are spending enormous amounts of time using these tools to try to identify instances of the intentional targeting of civilians.

Zolli said that the investigations can now take place in real-time due to publicly available satellite data that was once the sole purview of secret government spy agencies.

The war crimes prosecutors will use the satellites to guide them to sites where they will collect ground evidence.

It takes a long time to find people who are scattered to the winds and you have to collect more evidence.

International authorities don't have to wait for the shooting to stop to begin their work.

The investigation doesn't come in the future anymore, Zolli said. This is about getting real-time information and using war crimes prosecutors when the conflict is still raging.

There are more instances than we can count.

The war crimes task is a test of how the space community can advance democratic interests.

He said that it is a strategic impact if you want to shape the world.

Some executives want more.

Satellites can be used to track radio frequencies, such as those from military units in confined areas, which could be used to investigate units or individuals responsible for atrocities.

Symposium attendees are urged to use their capacity in both resources and technology.

The company is circulating a concept paper that proposes that space companies contribute to an initiative to finance high-value projects in Ukraine.

There is an additional humanitarian role that our shared space community can serve in supporting the people of Ukraine.