On July 31, 2025, the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Strengthening of the Powers of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office” came into force.
Paragraph 2 of Section II “Final and Transitional Provisions” of this Law states the following: “The internal control division of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine, the Office of the Prosecutor General, the State Bureau of Investigations, and the National Police of Ukraine, in accordance with the methodology agreed upon with the Security Service of Ukraine, shall conduct polygraph examinations of employees of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine, Office of the Prosecutor General, State Bureau of Investigations, and National Police of Ukraine who have access to state secrets, for the purpose of committing acts in favor of a state recognized by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as an aggressor state.”
Thus, this is already the seventh Ukrainian law that provides for the use of polygraphs and the first in which the research conducted by polygraph examiners is referred to by the professionally correct term: polygraphological research.

Let us recall:
– the Law of Ukraine “On the National Police” uses the term “polygraph testing” (Article 50),
– The Law of Ukraine “On the State Bureau of Investigations” uses the terms “psychophysiological interview with the use of a polygraph” (Article 24) and “psychophysiological examination with the use of a polygraph” (Article 26).
– The Law of Ukraine “On Intelligence” uses the term “psychophysiological examination using technical means of recording human reactions” (Article 31).
– In Article 24 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Economic Security Bureau” (Article 24) and the Customs Code of Ukraine (Article 572-1) – the term “psychophysiological questioning using a polygraph”
– The Law of Ukraine “On State Protection of State Authorities and Officials of Ukraine” refers to “psychophysiological examination using a polygraph” (Article 16).
The term “polygraph testing” is colloquial; polygraph examiners do not test “on a polygraph” but rather “using a polygraph.”

The term “psychophysiological interview” was once used in the first approved Instructions for the use of computer polygraphs in working with internal affairs personnel, but the word “interview” does not accurately reflect the work of polygraph examiners. After all, during an interview, there are no restrictions on the answers given by the interviewee, but in our case, there are: it is “yes” or ‘no’ in the Comparison Question Technique or “yes,” “no,” “I don’t know” in the Concealed Information Detection Technique. In addition, it is difficult to imagine an interview with silent answers, which are allowed in polygraph examinations…

The term “psychophysiological examination” is more appropriate for personnel selection and support than the term “psychophysiological questioning,” which is closer to the operational-investigative field. However, the emphasis on the word “psychophysiological” still does not reflect the content of the work of polygraph examiners: we do not study the relationship between mental processes and physiological functions of the body, as psychophysiologists do. We, polygraph examiners, also do not conduct research at the neural, synaptic, or molecular levels. Our task is to use a polygraph to determine whether a person exhibits a complex of significant physiological reactions to the test questions that we have prepared for them in accordance with the chosen methodology and the task received from the client commissioning the study.

Each of our tests is a separate study, because no two people are alike, and therefore, no two pre-test, mid-test, and post-test interviews are alike, nor are any two test questionnaires completely identical.
In many cases, we have to adapt and change the wording (sonority) of the questions posed by the client in the tests. We do this so that the person we are testing understands their meaning (semantics). It is unacceptable in our work not to take into account a person’s level of education, erudition, and existing life and professional experience when compiling questions.

That is why the most appropriate term to describe our activities is “polygraphological research,” i.e., research conducted using a polygraph.

Ukrainian polygraphology is developing and confidently moving toward professionalism. Terminological inconsistency is an inevitable stage of growth and, unfortunately, evidence that our lawmakers do not have a tradition of involving scientists who work in the field specified in the law when drafting legislation. Let us hope that this first law, in which our field is defined terminologically correctly, is evidence of change for the better.