The importance of legal protection and ensuring the prevention of criminal offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency was noted. The history of legal regulation of the use of cryptocurrency in Ukraine is briefly analyzed. An analysis of the Law of Ukraine "On Virtual Assets" was carried out and some of its shortcomings were identified. Cryptocurrency is proposed to be considered one of the types of virtual assets, namely digital currency (electronic funds), the emission and accounting of which is based on asymmetric encryption, the use of cryptographic protection methods. It is indicated that activities to prevent crimes related to the use of cryptocurrency should be extremely diverse, taking into account the fact that violations of the circulation of cryptocurrency will eventually penetrate into all major spheres of public life, and will require adequate measures. The concept and main types of general social principles for the prevention of offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency in Ukraine are defined. It is indicated that such preventive activity is a humane means of maintaining the country's security and law and order. These include verification of state regulation of the virtual assets market, control over the activities of participants in the virtual assets market, identification of criminogenic factors in legal entities where offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency are most often committed; development of rules for the use of cryptocurrency typical for all participants of the virtual assets market and others. The implementation of general social principles for the prevention of offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency in Ukraine, along with the protection of society from these offenses, protects offenders from committing more serious offenses, and thus saves them from severe criminal punishment. Special criminological measures to prevent crimes related to the use of cryptocurrency are analyzed. It is emphasized that such measures involve the creation of an optimal system for detecting the facts of these offenses and identifying persons who commit such actions. For this, it is necessary to reach a situation where the maximum possible number of sources of information regarding offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency will function. Individual approaches to the prevention of offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency involve the work of authorized bodies with individual individuals. Forms of individual prevention include studying the identity of potential offenders, interviewing individuals, surveillance and other measures. An important measure of individual prevention of offenses related to the use of cryptocurrency is the creation of a data bank on persons who have committed offenses in the specified or related areas.

A cooperation between states in criminal cases is carried out in order to achieve the goals of justice and may exist at the stage of pre-trial investigation, trial, as well as after the entry into force of a court decision (sentence, ruling). Forms of international cooperation in the investigation of criminal cases are quite diverse. The main ones are: providing legal assistance, which consists in carrying out procedural actions, because during the investigation and trial of criminal cases there is often a need to gather evidence abroad by questioning defendants, victims, witnesses, experts, conducting searches, examinations, court inspections, seizure and transfer of items, delivery, and forwarding of documents, etc.; extradition of persons for criminal prosecution or for the execution of a court sentence; arrest, search and confiscation of proceeds of crime (states undertake to cooperate in the investigation of money laundering; assist in the investigation and take appropriate measures: to freeze bank accounts, seize property to prevent its concealment; confiscate proceeds of crime or property, value of which corresponds to the value of income, etc.). The normative basis for the international cooperation in the investigation of criminal cases is the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters dated April 20, 1959; the Criminal procedural code of Ukraine; Methodical recommendations of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine; Order No. 223 “On the organization of the work of the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine in the field of international legal cooperation” dated September 18, 2015. The legal basis for international cooperation in criminal matters is the current bilateral and multilateral international treaties of Ukraine, the binding nature of which has been approved by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Among the multilateral international agreements, there should be noted the European conventions on criminal justice: the European Convention on the Extradition with two additional protocols to it, the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters with an additional protocol to it, the European Convention on the Transfer of Proceedings in Criminal Matters, The Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons with an additional protocol, The European Convention on the Supervision of Conditionally Sentenced or Conditionally Released Offenders, the Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure, and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and the European Convention on the International Validity of Criminal Judgements. In addition, the Commonwealth of Independent States has the 1993 Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters and its 1997 Protocol; within the framework of the United Nations, there is the Convention on Transnational Crime of 2000, together with two Protocols thereto. These multilateral international agreements establish a uniform sphere of cooperation between law enforcement and judicial authorities in relation to all European countries. Today, the most effective is the method of “SWOT-analysis”, which is currently recognized in the scientific community as one of the most popular tools in strategic planning of social processes, including in the investigation of criminal cases. Although the type of analysis is still considered by most scientists as Bohomolova Ye., (2004) a method of marketing research of enterprises in the market in the context of business practice, the object of “SWOT-analysis” can be as legislation, the practice of its application and prospects of their improvement, and materials of criminal cases. Methodology. Achieving the purpose of this publication is ensured by the use of cognitive philosophical, general scientific and special methods, among which the main are analysis and synthesis, comparative law method, which allow to identify prospects for the use in criminal cases of the method of “SWOT-analysis”, which is currently recognized in the scientific community as one of the most popular tools in strategic planning of social processes. Methods of grammatical review and interpretation of legal norms have helped to identify gaps in the legislation governing the investigation of criminal cases, in particular in the field of economics, and to develop proposals for its improvement. Practical importance. International cooperation in criminal proceedings is an organizationally complex process, which requires the use of effective and efficient methods to perform the tasks of criminal proceedings, respect for the rights and freedoms of all participants in the process, including not violating a reasonable time in the investigation. To date, science has developed many methods of analyzing the law, the practice of their application, and identifying ways to improve legislation, taking into account the results of forecasting the prospects for society and the state. To ensure a high level of quality of criminal investigations in the framework of international cooperation, it is necessary to choose the one that will give the most effective results and allow to formulate the most optimal proposals in a particular criminal case and the practice of their application. An attempt to solve this problem is presented in this study.

In particular, information weapons and social media weapons have become a weighty and decisive factor in warfare. Moreover, military conflict models increasingly use information as a weapon in virtual space. The article aims to analyze the peculiarities of the use of information weapons in interstate struggle on the example of empirical assessment of the use of disinformation methods against Ukraine in 2021-2022. Methodology. The study used the methods of cases and content analysis of reports and analytical bulletins of the Centre for Counteracting Disinformation of Ukraine to assess the use of information weapons, in particular the spread of disinformation in the information space of Ukraine. The reports and analytical bulletins from December 3, 2021, to February 21, 2022, were used for content analysis. Results. The main types of misinformation that are spread in the Ukrainian information space are: 1) misleading a particular person or group of people (even an entire nation); 2) manipulation, and 3) creation of the desired public opinion. We determined the main characteristics of fake news (unknown source, manipulative headline, emotional coloring, lack of reference to the head, value judgments). Based on the analysis, trends in the dissemination of false, manipulative information are identified.

No abstract