Countering Collaborationism in the Context of Armed Conflict

The purpose of the article is to identify the peculiarities of combating collaborationism in the context of armed conflicts and to highlight the main areas for improving criminological policy in this area. It is established that collaborationism, in a broad sense, is a complex criminal phenomenon that arises as a result of the interaction of subjects of the communication process (individuals, certain organisations) or voluntary or forced cooperation with the aggressor. In a narrow sense, it is an act, the characteristics of which are defined, in particular, in Art. 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and which undermine the national security of Ukraine, pose a direct threat to the state sovereignty, territorial integrity, constitutional order and other national interests of Ukraine, and/or constitute conscious, voluntary and deliberate cooperation with the enemy in its interests and/or to the detriment of the state and its allies in the form of public denial by a citizen of Ukraine of armed aggression against Ukraine, establishment and confirmation of the temporary occupation of a part of the territory of Ukraine, or public calls by a citizen of Ukraine to support the decisions and/or actions of the aggressor state, armed formations and/or occupation administration of the aggressor state, to cooperate with the aggressor state, armed formations and/or occupation administration of the aggressor state, not to recognise the extension of the state sovereignty of Ukraine to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. It is emphasised that with the entry into force of the Laws of Ukraine "On Criminalisation of Collaboration" and "On Amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine to Improve Liability for Collaboration and Peculiarities of Application of Preventive Measures for Crimes Against the Fundamentals of National and Public Security" (2022), Ukraine has generally created a legal framework for preventing collaboration in the state. Results. The analysis has revealed the existence of problematic issues in countering collaboration in the current context of the armed conflict in Ukraine and allowed to propose ways of solving them, in particular the need to amend the sanctions of the Criminal Code to classify collaboration as a serious crime, since according to the Criminal Procedure Code the vast majority of covert investigative actions are carried out exclusively in criminal proceedings for serious or particularly serious crimes. These amendments will make it possible to properly document the criminal actions of "collaborators" and to significantly expand the legal scope of evidence collection in these crimes to include not only educational, but also cultural, athletic and sports institutions in the scope of collaboration, which will make it possible to investigate the dissemination of information in educational, cultural, sports and physical culture institutions aimed at distorting facts, historical culture and/or events, as such assimilation of Ukrainian children may lead to the loss of their national identity. It is expedient to change the construction of the provision, which is in line with the principle of legal certainty, and define the prohibited types of legal activities. Such a list is also provided for in the Law of Ukraine "On Ensuring Civil Rights and Freedoms, and the Legal Regime on the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine" (2014); Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine provides for alternative jurisdiction for pre-trial investigation of a criminal offence. In particular, in criminal proceedings on collaboration, the pre-trial investigation is carried out by the investigator of the body that initiated the investigation.