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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms 
of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0

1 Odesa State University of Internal Affairs, Ukraine (corresponding author)
Е-mail: oleh_shkuts@ukr.net
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0395-5710
2 Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University, Ukraine
E-mail: allablagaya@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4112-6147
3 Odesa State University of Internal Affairs, Ukraine
E-mail: Lisnichenko_Dmitriy@ukr.net
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6562-6651

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2025-11-4-400-404

ROLE AND PLACE OF THE STATE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION 
AS A ENTITY OF PREVENTING ECONOMIC CRIME  

IN THE CONDITIONS OF MARTIAL LAW IN UKRAINE
Oleh Shkuta1, Alla Blaga2, Dmytro Lisnichenko3

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to study the role and place of the State Bureau of Investigation as a subject 
of economic crime prevention under martial law in Ukraine. The article notes that under martial law in Ukraine, the 
issue of preventing criminal offenses in the economic sphere is an urgent one. The SBI plays an important role in 
this area. The military-political situation related to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and as a result, martial 
law introduced on February 24, 2022 by the Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 64/2022, became a significant 
destabilizing factor in public life, which is especially noticeable against the background of the dramatic changes that 
have recently taken place in society. The analyzed statistical data showed that over the 3 years of the SBI's operation 
under martial law in Ukraine, the number of criminal proceedings in the economic sphere has increased almost  
1.5 times. In this regard, it is impossible to solve the problem of the rapid increase in the number of economic criminal 
offenses under martial law in Ukraine without significant legislative changes. Our research has shown that for more 
than 5 years of the SBI's functioning, the legislator has not yet resolved the main issues that make it impossible 
to properly fulfill the tasks assigned to the SBI, the main ones being: creation of a modern regulatory framework 
for the prevention of economic criminal offenses and amendments to the system of regulatory legal acts of  
Ukraine; outlining the SBI's subject matter competence in the prevention of economic crime; determining the 
departmental affiliation (subordination) of the SBI in the national system of prevention of criminal offenses.

Keywords: State Bureau of Investigation, SBI, economic crime, economic criminal offenses, crime in the economic 
sphere, prevention, counteraction, subject of crime prevention, martial law in Ukraine.

JEL Classification: K10, K14

1. Introduction
The military-political situation related to Russia's  

full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and as a result, the martial 
law introduced on February 24, 2022 by Presidential 
Decree No. 64/2022, became a significant destabilizing 
factor in public life, which is especially noticeable 
against the backdrop of the dramatic changes that have 
recently taken place in society (Shkuta, 2022).

The armed conflict first in the ATO zone, the JFO 
in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and then the actual 
war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, caused 
serious changes in the country and at the same time 
led to a tendency to increase crime. Rapid, large-scale 
and in many ways negatively colored social processes 
have exacerbated the state of the fight against crime", 

and therefore today criminological research in this 
area is becoming even more relevant as a result of the 
emergence of new state bodies in the legal field and 
the state apparatus, whose main functions include the 
prevention of criminal offenses, including economic 
ones (Shkuta, 2020).

One of the main entities performing this preventive 
function is the State Bureau of Investigation 
(hereinafter – SBI), which solves the tasks of prevention, 
detection, suppression, disclosure and investigation:

1) crimes committed by officials who hold 
a particularly responsible position in accordance  
with part one of Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine  
"On Civil Service", persons whose positions are  
classified as the first to third categories of civil service 



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positions, judges and law enforcement officers, except 
when these crimes are under the jurisdiction of 
detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of 
Ukraine;

2) crimes committed by officials of the National  
Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the Deputy 
Prosecutor General – Head of the Specialized Anti-
Corruption Prosecutor's Office or other prosecutors of 
the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, 
except when the pre-trial investigation of these crimes 
is under the jurisdiction of detectives of the internal 
control unit of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of 
Ukraine;

3) crimes against the established order of military 
service (war crimes), except for crimes under  
Article 422 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine  
(Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine "On the State Bureau  
of Investigation" No. 794-VIII (Shkuta, 2022).

2. Literature review
Given the extremely acute problem of updating, 

improving, changing, expanding the legislative 
framework for preventing economic crime, minimizing 
negative crime trends, neutralizing the causes and 
conditions of criminal offenses under martial law in 
Ukraine, as well as blocking the channels, sources,  
and opportunities for their production, an important 
area of activity to improve the functioning of the  
system is the theoretical development of the issues 
raised, and the following national scholars have made  
an integral contribution to this: V. V. Babanina, 
S. F. Denisov, V. I. Kasyniuk, V. A. Klymenko, 
M. V. Kornienko, Koropatnik I. M., Kulkina Y. S., 
Kurilyuk Y. B., Mitrofanov I. I., Navrotsky V. O., 
Nikolayenko T. B., Polehenka O. R., Popovich V. P., 
Reeva A. O., Sarnavsky O. M. Sarnavsky,  
O. V. Stolyarsky, V. M. Stratonov, E. L. Streltsov, 
M. S. Turkot, M. I. Khavroniuk, S. O. Kharytonov, 
I. O. Khar, G. I. Changuli, V. V. Shablystyi,  
O. O. Shkuta, etc.

The analysis of the scientific works of the above-
mentioned scholars has shown that the problems of the 
State Bureau of Investigation as a subject of economic 
crime prevention have been given a rather small number 
of scientific works, especially under martial law in 
Ukraine.

And the role and place of the State Bureau of 
Investigation as a subject of economic crime prevention 
under martial law in Ukraine has not been studied  
at all, which indicates the great relevance of the chosen 
topic of scientific research.

3. Materials and Methods
The study is based on the work of Ukrainian and 

foreign scholars on methodological approaches to 

understanding the problems of preventing economic 
crime under martial law in Ukraine.

The study used general scientific and special 
methods, in particular: hermeneutic – for cognition  
and interpretation of texts of scientific articles, 
monographic publications, educational materials, 
which contributed to the disclosure of the content 
of the problems raised; sociological – to clarify the 
positions and opinions of scientists and practitioners 
on the causes and conditions of economic crime; 
dogmatic – to identify positive foreign experience in 
the field of economic crime prevention and statistical 
method – to process statistical indicators of economic 
crime.

4. Results and Discussion
In the context of martial law, the issue of preventing 

criminal offenses is an urgent one. The SBI plays an 
important role in the implementation of this area 
(Rejman, 1994). 

In 2022, 31399 criminal offenses were under 
investigation by the SBI, including 520 criminal offenses 
against property (Misappropriation, embezzlement 
or seizure of property by abuse of office,  
Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – 216, 
other – 216). And 141 criminal offenses in the field 
of economic activity (Smuggling, Art. 201 of the  
Criminal Code of Ukraine – 2; Movement across 
the customs border of Ukraine outside the customs  
control or with concealment from customs control 
of timber or lumber of valuable and rare tree species, 
unprocessed timber, as well as other timber prohibited 
for export outside the customs territory of Ukraine, 
Art. 201-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – 0; 
Illegal manufacture, storage, sale or transportation 
for sale of excisable goods, Art. 204 of the Criminal 
Code of Ukraine – 11; Illegal appropriation of 
property of an enterprise, institution, organization,  
Art. 206-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – 1; 
Legalization (laundering) of the proceeds of crime,  
Art. 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – 39;  
Intentional violation of the requirements of the 
legislation on prevention and counteraction to 
legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime, 
financing of terrorism and financing of proliferation 
of weapons of mass destruction, Art. 209-1 of the  
Criminal Code of Ukraine – 0; Misuse of budgetary 
funds, making budgetary expenditures or granting loans 
from the budget without the established budgetary 
allocations or exceeding them, Article 210 of the 
Criminal Code of Ukraine – 0) (Leheza, 2025).

In 2023, the number of registered criminal offenses 
under investigation by the SBI increased by 17% and 
amounted to 37823 criminal offenses at the end of the 
year, including 1,089 criminal offenses against property 
(Misappropriation, embezzlement or seizure of property 



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by abuse of office, Article 191 of the Criminal Code 
of Ukraine – 405, Other – 684). And 197 criminal 
offenses in the sphere of economic activity (Smuggling,  
Art. 201 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – 3;  
Movement across the customs border of Ukraine 
outside the customs control or with concealment  
from customs control of timber or lumber of valuable 
and rare tree species, unprocessed timber, as well 
as other timber prohibited for export outside the 
customs territory of Ukraine, Art. 201-1 of the Criminal  
Code of Ukraine – 1; Illegal manufacture, storage,  
sale or transportation for sale of excisable goods, 
Art. 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – 41; 
Illegal appropriation of property of an enterprise, 
institution, organization, Art. 206-2 of the Criminal 
Code of Ukraine – 6; Legalization (laundering) 
of the proceeds of crime, Art. 209 of the Criminal  
Code of Ukraine – 75; Intentional violation of 
the requirements of the legislation on prevention 
and counteraction to legalization (laundering) of 
proceeds of crime, terrorist financing and financing 
of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Art. 
209-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – 2; Misuse of 
budgetary funds, making budgetary expenditures or 
granting loans from the budget without the established 
budgetary allocations or exceeding them, Article 210  
of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – 0) (Shkuta, 2023).

The peak of crimes investigated by the SBI  
was in 2024 – 98339, which is 1.5 times higher 
than in the previous two years under martial law, 
including 751 criminal offenses against property 
(Misappropriation, embezzlement or seizure of 
property by abuse of office, Article 191 of the 
Criminal Code of Ukraine – 360, other – 391). And 

197 criminal offenses in the sphere of economic activity  
(Smuggling, Art. 201 of the Criminal Code of 
Ukraine – 2; Movement across the customs border 
of Ukraine outside the customs control or with 
concealment from customs control of timber or  
lumber of valuable and rare tree species, unprocessed 
timber, as well as other timber prohibited for export 
outside the customs territory of Ukraine, Art. 201-1 of 
the Criminal Code of Ukraine – 4; Illegal manufacture, 
storage, sale or transportation for sale of excisable 
goods, Art. 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – 
11; Illegal appropriation of property of an enterprise, 
institution, organization, Art. 206-2 of the Criminal 
Code of Ukraine – 3; Legalization (laundering) of the 
proceeds of crime, Art. 209 of the Criminal Code of 
Ukraine – 99; Intentional violation of the requirements 
of the legislation on prevention and counteraction to 
legalization (laundering) of proceeds of crime, terrorist 
financing and financing of proliferation of weapons of 
mass destruction, Art. 209-1 of the Criminal Code 
of Ukraine – 0; Misuse of budget funds, budget 
expenditures or provision of loans from the budget 
without the established budget allocations or in excess 
of them, Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – 2) 
(Shkuta, 2022).

As a subject of crime prevention, the SBI has special 
powers that distinguish it from others (Gross, 2009).

Thus, in accordance with the procedure established 
by Art. 6 of the Law, the SBI, in accordance with  
its tasks and within its competence:
– Participates in the formation and implementation 
of state policy in the field of combating crime, submits 
relevant proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers of 
Ukraine;

Figure 1. Indicators of registered economic criminal offenses under investigation  
by the State Bureau of Investigation in 2022-2024

 
0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

2022 2023 2024



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– carries out information and analytical activities to 
establish systemic causes and conditions of organized 
crime and other types of crime, the counteraction 
to which falls within the competence of the State  
Bureau of Investigation, and takes measures to eliminate 
them;
– stops and solves criminal offenses, the investigation 
of which falls within the competence of the State Bureau 
of Investigation;
– conducts operational and detective activities  
and pre-trial investigation of criminal offenses falling 
within the SBI's jurisdiction on the grounds and in 
accordance with the procedure established by law;
– search for persons who are hiding from investigation 
and court for criminal offenses, the investigation of 
which falls under the jurisdiction of the State Bureau of 
Investigation;
– employs public and private staff and freelance 
employees on the grounds and in accordance with the 
procedure established by law, observing the conditions 
of voluntariness and confidentiality of these relations, 
and rewards persons who assist in the prevention, 
detection, termination and investigation of criminal 
offenses under the jurisdiction of the SBI;
– develops and approves methods of investigation of 
certain types of criminal offenses;
– takes measures to compensate for losses and 
damage caused to the state, provides opportunities 
for confiscation of funds and other property obtained 
as a result of criminal offenses in accordance with the 
procedure established by law;
– take measures to identify unjustified assets and 
collect evidence of their unjustification in accordance 
with the procedure and within the competence 
established by law;
– take measures to return to Ukraine from abroad 
funds and other property obtained as a result of criminal 
offenses under the jurisdiction of the State Bureau of 
Investigation;
– exclusively for the purpose of exercising its powers, 
has access as a user to information systems of public 
authorities, the list of which is established by the 
Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, independently creates 
information systems and maintains operational records 
to the extent and in the manner determined by the tasks 
assigned to the SBI, in compliance with the legislation 
on personal data protection;
– organizes personal security of rank-and-file and 
senior officers, SBI civil servants and other persons 
specified by law, as well as protection of persons involved 
in criminal proceedings from unlawful attacks;
– ensures training, retraining and advanced training of 
the SBI staff, participates in the formation of the state 
order for training, retraining and advanced training of 
specialists in the relevant fields;
– fulfills requests for legal assistance received from the 
competent authorities of foreign countries;

– develops proposals for draft international  
treaties of Ukraine and ensures compliance with and 
fulfillment of obligations under international treaties of 
Ukraine;
– cooperate with police and other relevant authorities 
of foreign countries in accordance with the laws and 
international treaties of Ukraine;
– ensures, in accordance with the law, compliance 
with the regime of legally protected secrets and other 
restricted information, as well as the procedure for 
disclosure and provision of access to public information 
established by law;
– reports on its activities in accordance with the 
procedure established by this Law and informs the 
public about the results of its work;
– exercises other powers provided for by this Law 
(Dmytrenko, 2022).

The analysis of the above-mentioned powers  
of the SBI showed that the vast majority of powers  
in the field of pre-trial investigation were transferred 
to the SBI from the prosecutor's office, military 
prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of 
Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine and the NABU. 

These powers are within its competence and are 
aimed at preventing, detecting, stopping, solving and 
investigating crimes committed by senior officials, 
officials of the NABU, the Specialized Anti-Corruption 
Prosecutor's Office or the military (Arkusha, 2019). 

It is also worth noting that the list of powers of the 
National Police of Ukraine (hereinafter – NPU)  
also coincides with the powers of the SBI, such as 
conducting pre-trial investigation of criminal offenses 
within the defined jurisdiction and conducting 
operational and investigative activities in accordance 
with the law. In this context, we share the view of 
V.B. Derevianko that "the difference in competence 
is manifested in the NPU's pre-trial investigation of 
criminal offenses committed by different persons, while 
the SBI investigates criminal offenses committed by 
senior officials, officials of the NABU or the SAPO or 
military personnel (Shkuta, 2022).

The analyzed statistical data showed that over 
the 3 years of the SBI's operation under martial 
law in Ukraine, the number of their proceedings  
increased by almost 2.5 times. In this regard, it is 
impossible to solve the problem of the rapid increase 
in the number of criminal offenses committed  
under martial law in Ukraine without significant 
legislative changes. And as our research has  
shown, for more than 5 years of the SBI's functioning, 
the legislator has not yet resolved the main issues  
that make it impossible to properly fulfill the  
tasks assigned to the SBI, the main ones being 
(Mozghovyi, 2025).

1. Creation of a modern regulatory framework for 
the prevention of economic criminal offenses and 
amendments to the system of legal acts of Ukraine.



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Vol. 11 No. 4, 2025
2. Defining the SBI's subject matter competence to 

prevent criminal offenses against the established order 
of military service.

3. Determining the SBI's departmental affiliation 
(subordination) in the national system of criminal 
offenses prevention. 

Supporting the position of E.B. Puzyrevskyi, it  
should be noted separately that among the above there 
are also a number of topical issues that require special 
research (Shkuta, 2020).

In this context, according to domestic criminologists 
O. M. Dzhuzha and R. A. Serbyn, the optimal strategy 
of the SBI's anti-crime impact on crime under martial 
law in Ukraine should include:

1) long-term measures are long-term initiatives aimed 
at systematically reducing the crime rate under martial 
law in Ukraine;

2) tactical measures are medium-term measures,  
the effectiveness of which is manifested within a few 
years;

3) operational measures are short-term actions  
aimed at immediately reducing the level of crime under 
martial law in Ukraine and eliminating the most acute 
problems.

5. Conclusions
Summarizing the above, it is worth noting that  

the SBI's strategy of preventing criminal offenses 
under martial law in Ukraine is a structural element 
of the overall crime prevention policy in the country.  
It is important to take into account at least two  

aspects: firstly, the impact of organizational, 
demographic, legal and other factors on the state and 
trends of crime, and secondly, the correlation of the 
dynamics and distribution of criminal offenses under 
the SBI's jurisdiction by various parameters with the 
overall dynamics and structural characteristics of  
crime in the country.

Despite all the measures taken, the SBI's activity as 
a subject of prevention of these socially dangerous acts 
under martial law in Ukraine does not allow to ensure 
an adequate level of economic security in the country. 
Most economic crimes have one thing in common: 
they are always planned, always intentional, although in 
some cases they can be committed through negligence. 
The effectiveness of combating crime directly depends 
on obtaining complete and reliable information on  
the quantitative and qualitative indicators of a  
particular type of crime and identifying trends in the 
development of the phenomenon under study.

The specific nature of economic crimes does not 
allow law enforcement agencies to respond immediately 
to their commission. Practice shows that all actions 
of the authorities to prevent economic crimes are 
accompanied by the emergence of more innovative 
mechanisms for committing economic crimes. That is 
why this topic is extremely important and will remain 
relevant for research for a long time.

The analysis of measures to prevent economic crime 
under martial law in Ukraine made it possible to 
identify and characterize in detail its three main levels:  
general social, special criminological and individual 
preventive measures.

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Received on: 12th of August, 2025
Accepted on: 03th of October, 2025

Published on: 29th of October, 2025