Inside the digital hunt for Ukraine’s missing children  – POLITICO

THE HAGUE — The investigators and digital experts gathered in The Hague called it a “hackathon,” but the target was not a piece of software — it was missing Ukrainian children.

Over two days in mid-April, teams from 18 countries convened in Europol’s headquarters to comb through photographs, social media profiles and metadata, seeking information about children believed to have been abducted by the Kremlin and taken to Russia, Belarus or occupied areas of Ukraine.

“It looked a bit like a 1990s computer party,” said Paolo Di Rocco, one of the Europol investigators involved in the operation. “Everyone brought their own specialized expertise.”

Di Rocco spoke to WELT — which, like POLITICO, is part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network — from Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, a building that rises from the city like a concrete ship, complete with a narrow, fish-filled moat. 

The operation, which representatives of the International Criminal Court also attended, was part of a broader effort by Europol to investigate one of the most sensitive areas of Russia’s war on Ukraine — the systematic abduction of what Kyiv says are at least 19,500 children.