2. Ethnic  and  religious  tensions.  Ethnic  and 
religious  tensions  can  lead  to  armed 
violence. This means that mutual rejection, 
discrimination,  and  violence  on  ethnic  or 
religious  grounds  can  create  hostility  and 
armed conflict situations of various levels. 
3. Economic  reasons.  Contemporary 
researchers  note  that  economic  problems, 
such as poverty, unemployment, inequality, 
and access to resources, can also contribute 
to armed violence. Struggles for control over 
material  resources, wealth, corruption, and 
unequal  distribution  of  economic  benefits 
can  contribute  to  the  emergence  of  armed 
conflict situations. 
4. Political  and  military  ambitions.  Political 
and  military  ambitions  of  state  leaders  or 
political groups may lead to the use of armed 
force  to  achieve  their  goals.  Expansion, 
territory  acquisition,  and  geopolitical 
strategy are typical policies of the modern 
authoritarian Kremlin regime. 
 
Accordingly, the emergence and functioning of 
armed violence in the modern world depends on 
the type of political system behind  the regime. 
Balatska (2019) noted that armed violence in the 
modern  world  is  a  major  component  of  the 
political system. There are three types of political 
regimes:  totalitarian,  authoritarian,  and 
democratic.  Accordingly,  the  domestic  and 
foreign policy of the state is carried out using the 
means  of  armed  aggression  and  violence 
(totalitarian and authoritarian political system) or 
the  tools  of  diplomacy  (democratic  political 
system).  Let  us  consider  the  causes  of  armed 
violence  during  the  Russian-Ukrainian  war 
(since  2014).  The  Russian  Federation  is  an 
authoritarian state in terms of its political regime, 
in which power belongs to one person - V. Putin. 
This leads to the hypothesis that the first cause of 
armed  violence  is  the  internal  factors  of  the 
president, who seeks to defend the power of sole 
domination  through  conflict,  aggression,  and 
war. An additional factor in the development of 
armed  violence  is  legal  nihilism  (Toribio 
Vazquez, 2021; Rezvorovych, 2022). However, 
the  development  and  implementation  of  legal 
documents  on  military  and  civil-military  law 
remains relevant for the regulation of relations 
(Gorinov  &  Mereniuk,  2022).  Given  the 
existence of  the  Armed  Forces  of  the  Russian 
Federation  as  the  main  instrument  of  political 
power, their training, preparation, and production 
of weapons, the phenomenon of armed violence 
cannot  be  avoided.  In  addition,  the  anti-
democratic nature of Russia, different social and 
economic development leads to the development 
of armed violence. But to reduce the spread of 
armed  violence,  a  democratic  state  (Ukraine) 
needs  to  develop  and  implement  measures  to 
eradicate  corruption,  which,  in  turn,  provides 
energy  for  authoritarian  politics  to  flourish. 
Kushnarev (2018) noted that the development of 
political corruption hinders the achievement of 
sustainable development goals. In today's world, 
we can observe how Russia is striving to become 
a hegemonic state, which has caused an armed 
conflict. 
 
The  armed  conflict  that  lasted  for  8  years 
escalated into a full-scale war (since February 24, 
2022) between Russia and Ukraine, which can be 
classified as an escalation. The latter causes the 
functioning of armed violence, which consists in 
a purposeful act of destruction and harm. That is, 
the  number  of  war  crimes  (murder,  torture, 
destruction  of  civilian  infrastructure,  looting, 
misappropriation of property not caused by the 
needs  of  war,  etc.),  crimes  against  humanity 
during  armed  violence  is  growing  rapidly. 
However,  armed  violence  includes  not  only 
physical  destruction  but  also  psychological 
destruction.  In  this  context,  countering 
information  violence  and  warfare  is  becoming 
increasingly  important.  Macaya-Aguirre  and 
Espinoza  (2021),  studying  violence  during  the 
armed  conflict  in  Colombia,  noted  that  the 
emergence of this phenomenon is  due  to three 
aspects: 1) armed violence, including war crimes, 
including  sexual  violence,  as  a  means  of  war;                 
2) armed violence as an integral part of violence; 
3)  the  development  of  armed  violence  as  an 
acceptable practice  with a  weak  evidence  base 
and  low  level  of  criminal  liability.  Currently, 
about  72  thousand  war  crimes  have  been 
recorded,  and  only  29  people  are  criminally 
liable  (Sobenko  &  Kolomiets,  2023). 
Accordingly,  it  is  necessary  to  introduce  a 
renewal and modernization of the judicial system 
of  Ukraine,  based  on  the  principles  of 
subsidiarity  of  the  European  Court  of  Human 
Rights (Kumar, 2021). 
 
The armed violence in different types of political 
systems  can  have  objective,  subjective,  or 
artificially  created  conditions  for  the 
development of this phenomenon. According to 
Richardson-Little  (2021),  the  main  subjective 
cause  of  Russian  armed  violence  is  the 
motivation  of  the actors, the  belligerent mood, 
which is due to the existence of the empire world. 
A key factor that influences the subjective causes 
of the  war, as well as the formation of certain 
beliefs  about  the  use  of  armed  violence  by 
Russia,  is  the  high  level  of  armament  and 
availability  of  military  equipment.  As  well  as 
confidence in the Russian armed forces, which