In the context of the ongoing transformation of the international legal order, the impermissibility of expanding the legal grounds for the use of force in international relations has become an issue of particular importance. The legislative approach adopted by the Russian Federation, which links the possible use of armed force to the criminal or other prosecution of its citizens, constitutes a fundamentally new challenge to the system of jus ad bellum and to international criminal justice. The purpose of the article is to determine the legal nature of a construct under which criminal prosecution or the activities of international judicial institutions are treated as grounds for the use of force, as well as to assess its compatibility with the fundamental principles of contemporary international law. The article analyzes the classical model of jus ad bellum, the doctrine of the protection of nationals abroad, the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice, and the contemporary Russian legislative approach. It substantiates that, for the first time at the normative level, this

approach links the possible use of force not to an armed attack or a genuine physical threat but to procedural actions undertaken by judicial and law enforcement authorities. The study demonstrates the incompatibility of such a construct with the Charter of the United Nations, the principles of the sovereign equality of States and non-intervention, and reveals its potentially adverse implications for the functioning of the International Criminal Court, the future Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, and the Euro-Atlantic security architecture. It is concluded that the construct under consideration does not establish a new basis under international law for the use of force but rather represents an attempt to revise the post-war model of the international legal order. Its scientific novelty lies in substantiating the transformation of the doctrine of the “protection of nationals” into a model of the “protection from justice”, which constitutes a new challenge to contemporary international law.

Authored books

1. Bowett D W, Self-Defence in International Law (Manchester University Press 1958).

2. Brownlie I, International Law and the Use of Force by States (Clarendon Press 1963) https:// doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198251583.001.0001.

3. Gray C, International Law and the Use of Force (4th edn, Oxford University Press 2018).

Edited books

4. Pylypenko V P, ‘Pravovyi status hromadian Ukrainy na terytoriiakh, okupovanykh Rosiieiu’, in Current Issues in the Development of Ukrainian Legal Education and Science in the Present Day and Post-War Reconstruction (Baltija Publishing 2026) 241–262 https://doi. org/10.30525/978-9934-26-629-4-11 (in Ukrainian).

Journal articles

5. Lillich R B, ‘Intervention to Protect Human Rights’ [1967] 15(2) McGill Law Journal 206–219.

6. Ruys T, ‘The “Protection of Nationals” Doctrine Revisited’ [2008] 13(2) Journal of Conflict & Security Law 233–271.

7. Alieksieichenko O, ‘Viiny RF v Hruzii ta Ukraini ta yikh naslidky dlia mizhnarodnoi spilnoty’ [2024] 18 Visnyk Prykarpatskoho universytetu. Seriia: Politolohiia 44–52 https:// doi.org/10.32782/2312-1815/2024-18-4 (in Ukrainian).

Newspaper articles

8. Bondarieva K, ‘German Intelligence: Putin Prepares for War with NATO’ (European Pravda, 28 March 2025) (accessed 29.06.2026).

9. Hanson M A, ‘Grenada, 1983: Operation Urgent Fury’ (Leatherneck Magazine, 10 September 2022) (accessed 29.06.2026).

10. Hlushchenko O, ‘ISW Analyses Ways Russia Prepares for War with NATO’ (Ukrainska Pravda, 13 February 2025) (accessed 29.06.2026).

Websites

11. To Prevent War, NATO Must Spend More: speech by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the Concert Noble, Brussels (12 December 2024) (accessed 29.06.2026).

12. What Is R2P? (Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect) (accessed 29.06.2026).

13. 17 bereznia 2023 roku Mizhnarodnyi kryminalnyi sud (MKS) v Haazi vydav ordery na aresht prezydenta rosii volodymyra putina ta upovnovazhenoi pry prezydenti rosii z prav dytyny marii lvovoi-bielovoi (Pres-sluzhba Aparatu Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy 17.03.2025) (accessed 29.06.2026) (in Ukrainian).

14. V Haazi ofitsiino rozpochav svoiu robotu Mizhnarodnyi tsentr z peresliduvannia za zlochyn ahresii proty Ukrainy (ICPA) (Ofis Heneralnoho prokurora 03.07.2023) (accessed 29.06.2026) (in Ukrainian).

15. Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy ratyfikuvala Rymskyi statut Mizhnarodnoho kryminalnoho sudu ta popravky do noho (Pres-sluzhba Aparatu Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy 21.08.2024) (accessed 29.06.2026) (in Ukrainian).

16. Z istorii Izrailiu: operatsiia “Entebbe” (ICC Nativ – Izrailskyi kulturnyi tsentr v Dnipri, 04.07.2024) (accessed 29.06.2026) (in Ukrainian).