ACTIVITIES OF THE MILITARY LAW ENFORCEMENT SERVICE TO COUNTERACT OFFENSES RELATED TO UNAUTHORIZED LEAVING OF MILITARY UNITS

The research article is devoted to the organizational and legal aspects of the activities of the Military Law Enforcement Service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the context of combating offenses related to unauthorized leaving of military units and places of service. The authors aim to reveal this issue by analyzing the scientific provisions and results of practical activities. In particular, the article highlights the issues of qualification of unauthorized abandonment of military units and places of service, the procedure for commanders of military units to submit reports and statements on such cases, the procedure for officials of the Military Law Enforcement Service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine to act upon receiving information about servicemen's unauthorized abandonment of military units and places of service, and the mechanism of interaction between various law enforcement agencies in combating these offenses. The article provides a detailed list of information and documents to be collected by officials of the Military Law Enforcement Service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the course of conducting an inspection of the facts of unauthorized leaving of military units and places of service by servicemen, and also sets out clear requirements for their content and execution. The final part of the article contains practical recommendations for building an effective system aimed at preventing, detecting and suppressing these violations. The authors propose to create a special purpose law enforcement body within the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine — the Military Police, which should retain the set of powers currently vested in the Military Law Enforcement Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and additionally be empowered to conduct operational and investigative activities. In addition, it is proposed to create a secure information and analytical database on servicemen who have committed offenses, with the possibility of prompt access to it by patrolling bodies of the Military Law Enforcement Service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (in the future, the Military Police), which will increase the effectiveness of combating military criminal and administrative offenses.