Counteracting and preventing collaboration activities during the period of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine (original) (raw)

2024, Актуальні виклики розвитку юридичної науки і практики в умовах воєнного стану та повоєнної відбудови: матеріали Міжнародної науково практичної конференції (2 травня 2024 року): ел. збірник. Київ: Видавництво Людмила, 2024. 845 с.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11562529

The active phase of the armed confrontation with the Russian Federation, the seizure and occupation of Ukrainian cities prompts us to think about implementing effective measures to prevent collaboration by Ukrainian citizens and counteract their cooperation with the occupation administration. "Soft" measures to counteract and prevent collaboration in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, which have been implemented since 2014, have not yielded results [1]. The criminalisation of collaborationism, although belated, has become one of the steps in the fight against this socially dangerous phenomenon. Thus, starting from 15.03.2022 (when Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the CCU) came into force), liability for a special form of treason, which consists in military, political, economic, administrative, cultural, informational, media cooperation of a citizen of Ukraine with the aggressor state or its representatives, illegal armed groups created or supported by it, was established. As aptly noted by scholars dealing with this issue, collaboration activities are aimed at the complete undermining and overthrow of a state that suffers from aggression and carries a high degree of public danger. Accordingly, persons who cause such actions should be held criminally liable. The choice of the type and amount of punishment should, of course, depend on the type of collaboration. After all, domestic and political collaborationism are incomparable phenomena and differ significantly in the degree of public danger [2, p. 102]. Given the commission of the above-mentioned criminal acts in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, to which law enforcement officers do not have access, conducting all necessary investigative (search) actions to establish the circumstances to be proved in criminal proceedings is significantly complicated.