War in Ukraine: Europol deploys operational teams to all frontline partner countries

Europol has deployed operational teams to the frontline European countries neighbouring Ukraine within the framework of the Agency’s response to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. 

This will help to protect the European Union and Ukrainian refugees from criminal threats. 

Coming at the request of these countries, Europol now has operational teams in Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova, with an upcoming deployment planned to Hungary. 

These teams, comprised of Europol specialists and guest officers, support the national authorities with secondary security checks and investigations at the European external borders to identify criminals and terrorists trying to enter the EU in the refugee flow and exploit the situation. The teams are also gathering information in the field, which is used to develop criminal threat assessments at the European level and to support investigations. 

This complements Europol’s active engagement with Ukrainian law enforcement agencies through a Ukrainian liaison officer present at Europol headquarters in the Netherlands. 

All this intelligence-gathering activity allows Europol to anticipate developments and coordinate operational activities with EU member states to respond to criminal groups seeking to take advantage of the war in Ukraine.

Find out more

Press release