Constructivist framework for analysing the criminal liability of officials for abuse in the energy market as a threat to Ukraine’s critical infrastructure

The purpose of the study was to determine to what extent the current model of criminal liability of officials in the energy market is effective and relevant to modern security challenges in the field of critical infrastructure. The research methodology combined historical-legal, systemic-structural, and discourse analysis of Ukrainian normative legal acts, as well as analytical reports. The research established that the current system of criminal-legal protection is a consequence of historical inertia and has inherited the shortcomings of the Soviet model, which was oriented towards ideological rather than technogenic threats. It was revealed that the general articles of criminal legislation on official crimes are qualitatively incapable of reflecting the specificity and scale of potential harm, as they are oriented towards individual consequences, rather than the threat of systemic collapse resulting from attacks on vital systems. It was proven that the privatisation processes in the 1990s created a gap in defining the subjects of liability among managers of private energy infrastructure operators. A significant gap was identified between outdated legal norms and new societal security expectations, formed under the influence of full-scale war. The conclusions were that the existing system of criminal liability is ineffective and requires immediate reform. The urgent necessity for developing and implementing into the Criminal Code specialised criminal offences with sanctions proportionate to the level of public danger of such acts was substantiated; this is intended to enhance the state’s resilience and ensure the inevitability of punishment. The practical significance of the study lies in the fact that its results can be used by law-making bodies to develop effective legal mechanisms to protect the energy market as a subject of influence on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine