Criminal legal protection of state sovereignty of Ukraine in the information sphere
Authors: Kubalskiy Vladyslav 
Published: August 2023

Introduction. In the context of the ongoing armed aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine and globalization processes in the information sphere, special attention of legal scholars is drawn to solving the problems of criminal legal protection of Ukraine’s state sovereignty in the information sphere. Against Ukraine, the russian federation uses the latest information technologies to influence the minds of citizens aimed at inciting national and religious hatred, propaganda of an aggressive war, changing the constitutional order by force or violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Failure to ensure the sovereignty of the state in thein formation sphere can lead to the loss of sovereignty in general. Therefore, the state needs to ensure proper protection of state sovereignty in the information sphere by means of criminal law.

The aim of the article. This research is aimed at defining the system of norms that provide for criminal liability for encroachment on the state sovereignty of Ukraine in the information sphere.

Results. State sovereignty in the information sphere should be understood as the supremacy and independence of the state in the information sphere, its ability to:1) to control and regulate information flows from outside and within the state;2) to independently and independently determine the state internal and external information policy and implement it; 3) to form and freely dispose of its own information resources, to form the infrastructure of the national information space; 4) to ensure information security in accordance with the Constitution and legislation of Ukraine and international law, while maintaining the balance of interests of thein dividual, society and the state; 5) to ensure the implementation of the state policyaimed at: a) protection of the national idea, national values and realization of thenational interests of Ukraine through the implementation of the information function of the state and information policy, b) ensuring the security of the individual, society and the state from external and internal threats in the information sphere, c) formation of modern effective mechanisms for ensuring information security that meet the nature and scale of the current challenges.

According to the analysis of the provisions of the Special part of the Criminal code,these acts may in certain cases include the following criminal offenses: public calls for violent change or over throw of the constitutional order or seizure of state power (part 2of Art. 109); public calls for actions committed with the aim of changing the boundaries of the territory or state border of Ukraine in violation of the procedure established bythe Constitution of Ukraine (part 1 of Art. 110), high treason (Art. 111), public calls to support decisions and/or actions of the aggressor state, armed formations and/or the occupation administration of the aggressor state; public calls to cooperate with the aggressor state, armed formations and/or the occupation administration of the aggressor state; public calls to non-recognition of the extension of state sovereignty of Ukraine to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine (part. 1 of Art. 1111), propaganda by a citizen of Ukraine in educational institutions regardless of type and form of ownership to facilitate the armed aggression against Ukraine, the establishment and consolidation of the temporary occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine, avoidance of responsibility for the armed aggression against Ukraine by the aggressor state, as well as actions of citizens of Ukraine aimed at implementing the education standards of the aggressor state in educational institutions (part 3 of Art. 1111), publiccalls for illegal elections and/or referendums in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine (part 3 of Art. 1111), organizing and conducting political events, carrying out information activities in cooperation with the aggressor state and/or its occupation administration aimed at supporting the aggressor state, its occupation administration or armed formations and/or avoiding responsibility for armed aggression against Ukraine, in the absence of signs of treason, active participation in such events (part 6of Art. 1111), espionage (Art. 114), unauthorized dissemination of information on the sending, movement of weapons, armaments and ammunition to Ukraine, movement,movement or deployment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or other military formations formed in accordance with the laws of Ukraine, committed under martial law or a stateof emergency (Art. 1142), terrorist act (Art. 258), disclosure of state secrets (Art. 328),loss of documents containing state secrets (Art. 329), transfer or collection of data constituting official information collected in the course of operational and investigative, counter intelligence activities, in the field of defense of the country (Art. 330),unauthorized interference with the operation of information (automated), electronic communication, information and communication systems, electronic communication networks (Art. 361), public calls for aggressive war or for the outbreak of a military conflict (Art. 436), production, distribution of communist and Nazi symbols and propaganda of communist and national socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes (Article 4361), justification, recognition as lawful, denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, glorification of its participants (Art. 4362) andothers.

Conclusions. The criminal law protection of state sovereignty in the information sphere requires qualitatively new approaches of the legislator to the construction of relevant criminal law provisions, taking into account the increased danger and prevalence of such encroachments in the context of the armed aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine.

Key words: state sovereignty in the information sphere (information sovereignty),armed aggression of the russian federation, criminal law protection, information security.