THE ROLE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN THE INVESTIGATION OF WAR CRIMES IN UKRAINE: CRIMINALISTIC PROBLEMS

Summary. The article is devoted to the study of current problems of the use of digital technologies in the investigation of war crimes in Ukraine. The emergence and formation of new areas of criminalistics due to scientific and technical progress, the introduction of the latest digital technologies and tools of digital criminalistics are substantiated. It is noted that it is important to take into account the modern trends in the development of forensics related to the formation of its separate branches (directions): medical, genotoscopic, aerospace, nuclear, digital and military criminalistics. In the conditions of the war in Ukraine, the problems of researching digital technologies in the investigation of war crimes and improving criminalistic methods and means of combating crime in Ukraine in modern conditions are gaining special relevance. It is substantiated that the process of digitization of criminalistics is a natural stage of development and formation of modern criminalistic knowledge, which involves the introduction of digital technologies in various fields of criminalistic science, forensic expertise and legal practice. At the same time, special attention should be paid to increasing the role of criminalistic didactics, in particular, forensic training of investigators, prosecutors, courts, detectives, criminalistic investigators, criminalistic experts in the field of digital technologies. The most urgent and promising problems of the study of the problems of digital technologies in the investigation of war crimes are highlighted.

Introduction.In modern realities, the ХХІ century is often called the era of digital technologies and global threats.Today, the use of digital information and modern information technologies is not just the latest technological trend or fad -it is actually a new digital reality, which is based on social innovations and advanced digitalization technologies [9, р. 102].It is obvious that in today's conditions digitalization processes act as an important strategic direction for the future development of the advanced states of Europe and the world, including Ukraine, which has chosen the European vector of development.
Granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership created an additional impetus for harmonizing approaches and intensifying transformations in the digital sphere.In this regard, an important event was the fact that Ukraine joined the "Digital Europe» Program until 2027, the goal of this program is to activate the recovery of the economy and the digital transformation of Ukraine [25].Under such conditions, digitalization has become not only a modern trend in the development of society, but also a significant factor in the economic, social, political and international growth of the state, as well as a priority direction of the state policy of digital transformations in war conditions [32, р. 325-327].
Modern processes of activation of digitization of all spheres of state activity, in turn, necessitate the improvement of the system of law enforcement agencies and the prosecutor's office, judicial bodies.There is a transition of the existing traditional system to a new reality -a digital one, in which digital information is an integral attribute, both in the work of criminal justice bodies, on the one hand, and modern criminal activity, on the other [30, р. 97].This, in turn, determines the current trends and prospects for the development of legal science, including criminology, which is at the forefront of the fight against crime [43, p. 12-27].
It is obvious that today's digital reality is closely related to the emergence of new forms of crime -cybercrime, information fraud, a large number of cyberattacks on enterprises and institutions, including state databases [3, р. 7].Undoubtedly, such threats require the development of the latest approaches to combating crime, modernization and updating of the system of criminal justice bodies to modern conditions and global threats of the ХХІ century [4, р. 7].This leads to the intensification of the use and spread of digital technologies in investigative, judicial and expert activities.
In addition, among the new challenges and threats, the military aggression of the Russian Federation and the full-scale invasion of the Russian occupation forces on the territory of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 became unprecedented and shocking.The armed aggression of the Russian Federation and the introduction of martial law in Ukraine significantly affected all spheres of our life [10, р. 73].Crimes committed by the military of the Russian Federation on the territory of our country are extremely large-scale, and their recording, documentation and investigation require the study of a significant volume of events, the careful collection of a large mass of evidentiary information, the involvement of experts and specialists, and the conduct of a huge number of forensic examinations and forensic studies [13, р. 75].
Under such conditions, today's challenges and threats determine the need for the formation and introduction of innovative approaches in criminalistic protection against military criminal offenses and war crimes.Such challenges today determine the modern trends in the development of legal science, including criminalistics, which is at the forefront of the fight against crime [41; 46; 47].Therefore, the problems of researching the use of digital technologies in the criminalistic investigation of war crimes in the conditions of war and modern realities of digitalization processes are gaining special relevance and significance.
Results and discussion.The military aggression of the Russian Federation and the introduction of martial law significantly affected the dynamics of crime in our country, there were changes and transformation of criminal manifestations during the war.The armed invasion of Russian troops and the attack on Ukraine resulted in the emergence of a new category of crimes that either did not exist before, or were in small numbers.First of all, these are criminal offenses against peace, security of humanity and international legal order (violation of the laws and customs of war (Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); planning, preparation, launching and waging of an aggressive war (Article 437 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine); propaganda of war (Article 436 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), etc.The second fairly large block of criminal offenses that are committed today are crimes against the foundations of the national security of Ukraine (treason (Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), collaborative activity (Article 1111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), assistance to the aggressor state (Article 1112 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) etc.And the third block -military criminal offenses and criminal offenses against property, which have been significantly aggravated and for which criminal liability has been increased, for their commission in the conditions of martial law [27, p. 187-195].
According to the official statistical data of the Office of the Prosecutor General, among the crimes committed during the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the following are the most common: a) crimes of aggression and war crimes -registered (as of March 10, 2023) -73502 crimes; b) crimes against national security -16,909 crimes; c) crimes against children -464 children were killed, 934 children were injured; 4) the main case concerning the aggression of the Russian Federation -639 suspects are representatives of the military and political leadership of the RF (military command, officials, ministers, deputies, etc.) [23, р. 7].
It can be seen that the transformation of crime in Ukraine during the war had a significant impact on the change in the priorities of criminalistics tasks and the peculiarities of the formation and application of criminalistics knowledge in the conditions of martial law.The main task of criminalistics is the development and application of tools, techniques and methods that allow collecting, researching, and using evidentiary information in the conditions of war and global threats of the 21st century [29, р. 170-183].In such conditions, the question of increasing the role of criminology in the conditions of war and digitization processes is acute [34, р. 40-47].In such circumstances, there is a need for criminalistic investigation of war crimes committed by the military of the Russian Federation, in order to use all available national and international legal mechanisms to bring to criminal responsibility all those guilty of this war, to prove the inevitability of punishment of all war criminals, as well as compensation for damage, restoration of the rule of law and justice [31, р. 221-223].
Today, Ukraine already has the first completed investigations of war crimes and even verdicts.As we can see from the open court hearings, during the investigation of each individual war crime, the prosecutor's office does not always establish a cause-and-effect relationship with the decisions of the highest military and political leadership of the RF, and is limited, as a rule, only to the executors, that is, the Russian military of the lowest ranks.As practice shows, pretrial investigation bodies are often forced to balance between the speed and completeness of the investigation, since there is a lack of resources and evidence for both indicators, as well as their correct and high-quality documentation.At the same time, it should be taken into account that a poor-quality investigation can lead to the acquittal of war criminals, which will have a particularly negative effect for Ukraine during the consideration of such cases by courts of international jurisdictions [39, р. 325].
In view of the above, today it is important to take into account that for the trial of war crimes and military criminal offenses, in particular, both for the courts of Ukraine and for any international court, it will be fundamental to establish a causeand-effect relationship between the guilty actions of the aggressor country and not only individual Russian military occupiers, but also the military and political leadership of the Russian Federation and the resulting consequences, that is, the damage caused [21, р. 79].Correct work with the evidence base is quite important for this, in particular, the collection, documentation and investigation of war crimes and military criminal offenses should be carried out taking into account international experience and European standards of evidence.
In such realities today, one of the most important trends of modern criminalistics is the integration of knowledge, the creation and offering of innovative developments of science, aimed at solving the tasks of combating crime in the conditions of war, regarding the effective formation of evidence, which can be used in both national and international courts.An innovative direction in the development of criminology is the development and implementation in practice of forensic protection against modern crime [47], including war crimes.This requires intensifying the development and implementation of advanced technologies, which are based on the application of modern criminalistic knowledge [37, р. 69], adhering to the standards of evidence in criminal proceedings and the active use of digital technologies [3, р. 35-39].
In this case, we can talk about the formation of new scientific directions in forensics (medical, nuclear, aerospace, genotoscopic, digital, military criminalistics), the emergence of which is determined by modern trends and tasks of the development of science [98; 99].
Today, the question of increasing the effectiveness of the investigation of modern crime, including war crimes and cybercrimes with the help of digital technologies, is a pressing issue.Under such circumstances, it is necessary to talk about the activation of the problems of the formation of a new scientific direction -Digital Forensics, Digital Forensic Science or Digital Criminalistics [3; 14; 30].Other terms are used to denote this direction -«сomputer criminalistics» [22, р. 29], «electronic criminalistics»[8, c. 79], «criminalistics in computer systems» [43, р. 17].
The further development of criminalistics in the conditions of the information society, digitization and military realities of today is impossible without the wide use of innovative and fundamental knowledge in the field of digital criminalistics -a new field of criminalistics that is dynamically developing today and forms theoretical and methodological foundations in this area of knowledge [30].Today, the modern development of digital criminalistics takes place in three main directions: 1) the formation of a separate scientific field in criminalistics; 2) application of special knowledge when working with digital evidence; 3) conducting forensic examinations (in particular, computer-technical examination) [43, р. 7].
In today's modern realities, forensics corresponds to the development of digital technologies, creating means and methods of the possibility of extracting forensically significant information from a new type of media [33, р. 8-25].Thanks to scientific and technical progress, it is possible to use digital technologies in law enforcement activities, which accelerates the process of pre-trial investigation, allows more complete formation of the evidence base in the investigation of crimes [4, р. 52-54], and further ensures the quality of judicial review of criminal proceedings.In our opinion, the subject of digital criminalistics is the regularities of detection, recording, preliminary research, use of computer information, digital traces and means of their processing for the purpose of solving the tasks of detection, disclosure, investigation of criminal offenses, as well as the development of technical regularities based on this knowledge means, techniques, methodical recommendations aimed at optimizing activities to combat criminal offenses in the digital space.
The object of digital criminalistics is, on the one hand, criminal offenses (crimes) associated with the use of computer (digital) technologies and social relations arising in the course of detection, disclosure, investigation and prevention of criminal offenses (crimes), when the detection, recording, research, use of computer information, digital traces and means of their processing is carried out, and on the other hand, the activity of law enforcement agencies regarding the investigation of such criminal offenses and the issue of the development and application of criminalistic techniques, methods, means of using computers computer (digital) technologies in the fight against crime in the digital space.
Therefore, digital criminalistics is a branch of forensics that studies the patterns of occurrence and use of digital traces and, based on the knowledge of these patterns, develops technical means, techniques and methods for detecting, recording, extracting and researching digital information (evidence) and means of processing it for the purpose of disclosure, investigation and prevention of criminal offenses.
We believe that it is necessary to clearly distinguish digital criminalistics as a separate branch of forensic knowledge, aimed at the study of digital traces, on the one hand, and on the other -the use of digital technologies in the investigation and judicial procedure, that is, the process of digitization of criminalistics as a natural modern stage of its development and formation, which provides for the implementation of digital technologies in various fields of forensic technology and forensic examination, to the very process of pre-trial investigation [24, р. 288].Therefore, the modern tasks of digital criminalistics are the search and analysis of digital traces, data analysis (including metadata), collection of evidentiary information in the digital environment [1, р. 10-13].
It is understood that digitalization is the transformation of information into digital form, when analog (physical) data collection and processing systems are replaced by technological systems that generate, transmit and process a digital signal about their condition, which leads to a reduction in costs, to the emergence of new information opportunities In a broad sense, it is the process of transferring functions and activities previously performed by people and organizations to the digital environment.Digitization of criminalistics may include several aspects, including: 1) the use of digital technologies to increase the effectiveness of the investigator's search and cognitive activity, effective organization of this activity, and optimization of the interaction of various bodies in the investigation of criminal offenses; 2) the use of information and communication (informational computer) technologies for the investigation of criminal offenses, which contributes to the The investigation of war crimes and military criminal offenses in Ukraine has its own characteristics, caused by the rapid development of digital technologies, which determines certain specifics, which are caused by: 1) the wide possibilities of users of smartphones and other means with photo and video recording functions to document war crimes, broadcast events online, to spread information without borders through the Internet, social networks, mass media, blogs, etc., thus reaching millions of user audiences; 2) wide possibilities of monitoring, tracking various objects, establishing their geolocation, etc., big data processing using tools of criminal analysis, cyber intelligence; 3) digitization of criminalistics and criminalistic activities, which significantly increases the quality, accuracy and speed of evidence collection; 4) the gradual transformation of the model of criminal proceedings from paper to electronic, which already at the stage of the transitional paper-electronic model significantly affects the process of proof [5, р. 54].
In the realities of war, the central place for collecting evidence of war crimes and military criminal offenses in digital criminalistics was occupied by artificial intelligence technology [11; 12].The following areas can be singled out: 1) search for saboteurs and war criminals using facial recognition algorithms; 2) eavesdropping on the conversations of Russian military occupiers; 3) search for occupiers in social networks; 4) collection of intelligence data for the Armed Forces of Ukraine using artificial intelligence technologies; 5) identification of persons, unrecognizable corpses and conducting DNA analysis studies, etc.
As we can see, a huge array of various forensically significant information, including digital, requires a constant search and formation of new approaches to the detection and collection of evidence of war crimes.Among them, the use of artificial intelligence technologies, in particular digital forensics tools, is of particular importance [40, p. 19-22].Since the beginning of the 90s of the 20th century, the volume of digital information has grown so much that in 2020, the UN, with the participation of more than 150 experts, prepared a special practical guide "Berkeley Protocol on the effective use of data from open sources of digital information in the investigation of violations of international criminal law, human rights and IHL" (Berkeley Protocol, 2020) [2], which contains standards and methodological approaches to collection, preservation and analysis of publicly available information (social networks, satellite images, etc.), which can be presented as evidence in criminal proceedings.
In addition, digitalization of the evidence process is facilitated by the creation of specialized sites that offer a fairly simple scheme for downloading information and evidence about war crimes (https://dokaz.gov.ua/;https://warcrimes.gov.ua/).Moreover, we have examples of the creation of a database of war crimes by human rights organizations, both in Ukraine (for example, the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights), and at the international level (Sunflowers project) http://projectsunflowers.org/home.The information obtained in this way can help plan the investigation of war crimes, put forward forensic versions, ensure procedural savings of resources and means.
As the practice highlighted in open sources shows, today in a situation of fullscale aggression, digital criminalistics tools significantly help in the detection, disclosure and investigation of war crimes.It was thanks to the tools of digital forensics and data from open sources that the facts of mass murders and war crimes committed in the cities of the Kyiv region between February 27, 2022 and March 31, 2022 were established.The Armed Forces of Ukraine, having liberated the city of Bucha, found a large the number of bodies of civilians just lying on the roads.After the release of footage of these bodies, the Russian authorities began to promote the idea that this was the order and the bodies were dumped after the liberation of the city.However, satellite images helped to prove that the bodies appeared during the Russian occupation.In this context, mass burials cannot be forgotten.Since they are mostly located in temporarily occupied territories and there is no access to them, digital forensics, namely the analysis and comparison of satellite images, can significantly help in identifying the culprits.This is what happened with the mass burial near the church of St. Andrew in Bucha, which was recorded on Maxar satellite images [19].
In another case, artificial intelligence helped identify and expose a Russian occupier who pretended not to be able to speak and ended up in a hospital in Kryvyi Rih.The leadership of the Ministry of Digital Transformation was approached by a volunteer from Kryvyi Rih, where a soldier was in a military hospital who allegedly took part in hostilities and does not remember anything.After verification through artificial intelligence, it turned out that he is an occupier from Magnitogorsk.The Russian soldier hid in the Kryvyi Rih hospital and pretended that he did not remember anything and could not speak [51].
In the process of gathering evidence, the persons involved in the commission of such crimes were identified, and further, during their investigation, four main groups of sources of forensically significant information about such war crimes and military criminal offenses can be identified, in particular, these are: personal sources (testimony of witnesses, victims, suspects (prisoners) about the circumstances of the event); material sources (material situation, places of destruction, abandoned equipment, things, weapons, ammunition, explosive objects that did not detonate, fragments of ammunition, corpses with signs of violent death; traces of biological origin in cases of torture, rape; materials and substances (soil, water, etc.), testifying to the facts of the use of prohibited weapons, the facts of contamination of the ecosystem with dangerous substances, etc.); digital sources (materials of photo and video recording of events, data of electronic, computer and telecommunication networks, geolocation data of vehicles equipped with GPS beacons, data from open sources of digital information, etc.); documentary sources (protocols, orders, orders, orders, plans for military operations, supply orders, personal documents of combatants, financial documents, etc.) [6, р. 372].For our research, digital sources are of particular importance because they are related to digital information and digital traces.
As we can see, in the modern world, almost all human activity, including that of war criminals, is accompanied by a kind of "trace picture", among which digital traces take a special place [4, р.53], as an important source of forensic information.It is and not electronic, traces that currently form the basis of the evidence base during the investigation and consideration of crimes and criminal offenses of the category under consideration.In digital traces, despite the constantly changing form of information storage, one thing remains unchanged -it is the digital encoding of this information, which has become quite widely used, replacing the analog signal.Taking into account these arguments, in our opinion, today it is necessary to talk about the digital traces left in the virtual space.
Today, such traces are files and their excerpts, storage devices of RAM and traffic, service information about these files, which are created by digital devicestechnical devices or devices designed to receive and process information in digital form using digital technologies.It can also be a certain category of items belonging to computer tools, in particular software products, text and graphic documents; multimedia files; databases; program files; system reports and application logs, etc.As a rule, they are used by criminals when committing criminal offenses, leaving a kind of "footprint" of digital traces.Therefore, a digital trace is forensically significant computer information about the events of a crime, reflected in digital information in the material environment, in the process of its origin, processing, storage and transmission [28, р. 23].
Today, the lack of a clear understanding of the nature and features of digital traces entails either a complete loss or a devaluation of the evidence base regarding the investigated criminal offenses.That is why, from the point of view, it is necessary to develop the concept of digital traces of methods of their acquisition, research and analysis both in an individual aspect and as part of a complex trace.In this regard, it is worth noting that a digital trace has a certain system of signs and properties, among which the impossibility of perceiving such a trace directly by the senses, but only with the help of special devices and programs, that is, working with them requires the application of special knowledge, is of particular importance, nontraditional, ways, methods and procedures for their detection, fixation, research and evaluation as evidence in the future.The success of the disclosure and investigation of such criminal activity will be possible only with the integration of criminalistic and special knowledge in the field of IT technologies, programming and the level of training of the investigator and the relevant specialist who will be involved in the investigation and the process of collecting digital information.
In turn, digital evidence requires the latest approaches to its collection, storage, use and research during evidence in criminal proceedings.The development of Ukrainian scientists regarding the methods of investigation of criminal offenses committed in cyberspace, the construction of their criminalistic characteristics, the definition of the algorithm of their investigation, as well as the specifics of the use of special knowledge and the conduct of forensic examinations during the investigation of this category of criminal offenses deserve attention [3, р. 7].«Digital evidence» in criminalistic refers to actual data presented in digital (discrete) form and recorded on any type of medium, which become available for human perception after computer processing and on the basis of which the investigator, prosecutor, investigating judge and court establish the presence or the absence of facts and circumstances that are important for criminal proceedings and subject to proof [42, c. 16].

ПР АВО
In the conditions of military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, traditional criminalistic means and forms of gathering evidence of war crimes and military criminal offenses can work to a limited extent due to the danger for all participants of investigative (search) actions, as well as the impossibility of direct access to the scene of the incident.Therefore, there is a need to use the tools of digital forensics [15, р. 165].In view of the above, in our opinion, the means of digital forensics, which help in the detection and investigation of war crimes and contribute to the inevitability of the punishment of war criminals highlighted in the professional literature, acquire a certain scientific and practical interest.Among them, attention is focused on the following: search by keywords and hashtags, the lists of which have been prepared in advance, monitoring of radars and official monitoring systems of Marine Traffic vessels, analysis of satellite images, use of "Big Data" analysis technology; analysis of geolocation tags, research of photo and video materials in public access and provided to the investigation, use of programs for the analysis and processing of digital images, research of telephone conversations, analysis of electronic devices, analysis of game systems, system for recognizing faces and searching for them in relevant databases (in Ukraine use the Clearview Af facial recognition application to identify potential criminals and victims); digital analysis of the behavior of individuals, groups of people and their relationships; digital forensic intelligence based on open sources, etc. [16, р. 35].
It can be seen that in modern conditions of war, the following areas of application of digital forensics are gaining special importance: obtaining information from mobile devices of seized phones of participants in criminal proceedings; receiving information from personal computers of individuals and legal entities; obtaining information from servers and other information stores in organizations and institutions; obtaining information about radio frequency identifiers, GPS trackers, sensors, stationary and mobile measuring devices using geolocation, video surveillance and positioning systems; receiving information from network services that establish voice and video communication between computers via the Internet, such as ICQ, Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram and others; receiving information from banking systems on appropriate digital media (SD disks, flash cards, etc.); receiving information from cellular communication operators regarding the details of subscriber communication and establishing the location of the subscriber from geolocation; obtaining information from video surveillance cameras of various commercial and state structures; obtaining information from cameras and video cameras seized from participants in criminal proceedings [48; 49; 50].
To a large extent, the success of the implementation of the tasks of documenting war crimes depends on the standardization of the investigation process, the algorithmization of procedural actions, high-quality interaction between units, taking into account the foreign experience of investigating criminal violations of international humanitarian law.It is important to develop specific and sub-specific criminalistic methods of investigation depending on different situations and the type of war crime and violation of international humanitarian law, in particular, on the category of persons against whom an attack (strike) was carried out; depending on the object directly attacked (blow); depending on the means by which the attack (blow) was committed; depending on the method of committing illegal actions No less important is the connection of using special knowledge when collecting digital traces, determining the possibilities of forensic research, evaluating and using the results of forensic examinations in evidence in the conditions of the activation of the use of digital technologies [47].Currently, objects in digital form are submitted for forensic examination, both on individual data carriers and on computer systems.Therefore, to legally obtain digital traces, it is necessary to use appropriate special knowledge [36, р. 237-249], as well as conducting forensic computer-technical examination and examination of telecommunication systems and means (examination of digital and analog devices) [43, р. 21].
Conclusions.Thus, in today's realities, the problem of formation and implementation of criminalistic support for the investigation of war crimes and military criminal offenses, taking into account modern challenges and threats, acquires special significance and relevance.It is seen that the success of the tasks of documenting war crimes and proving them in court largely depends on standardization of the investigation process, algorithmization of procedural actions, high-quality interaction between units, taking into account foreign experience of investigation and trial.Modern criminalistics has chosen the European vector of development.European approaches are also found in the application of evidentiary standards during criminal proceedings.For a successful trial of war crimes in international courts, it will be fundamental to establish a cause and effect relationship between the culpable actions of the aggressor country and not only individual Russian military personnel, but also the military and political leadership of the Russian Federation and the resulting consequences, i.e. the damage caused.
It is believed that the process of digitization of criminalistics is a natural stage of development and formation of modern criminalistic knowledge, which involves the introduction of digital technologies in various fields of criminalistic science, criminalistic expertise and legal practice.At the same time, special attention should be paid to increasing the role of forensic didactics, in particular, criminalistic training of investigators, prosecutors, courts, detectives, criminalistic investigators, forensic experts in the field of digital technologies.Starting a new profession and training a digital criminalist is quite relevant today.Under such circumstances, the modern paradigm of criminalistics should be aimed at the further development and formation of digital criminalistics in order to effectively solve new tasks in the conditions of martial law and processes of digitalization of society.
pre-trial investigation process as a whole and its individual stages; 3) solving didactic tasks in the field of training, retraining, advanced training of investigators, criminalistics investigators, forensic experts, exchange of experience[3, р. 7].
person (persons); depending on the territorial feature; depending on the norms of the special part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine[5, р. 54] etc.