Protection of energy resources in the legal mechanism of food security

Abstract

The article is devoted to analyze, evaluate, and propose improvements to the legal mechanism in Ukraine concerning the protection of energy resources to ensure national food security, specifically within the context of Ukrainian national agrarian and protection policy and the ongoing challenges posed by military aggression. The interconnectedness of energy security and food security is a critical, yet often under-examined, factor in the national security calculus of modern states. For Ukraine, a major global agricultural producer currently facing the profound challenges of armed aggression, this nexus has become acutely central to its national agrarian and protection policy. The legal mechanism for ensuring food security must, therefore, explicitly and robustly incorporate provisions for the protection and efficient use of energy resources, which are vital for every stage of the agri-food supply chain. The objectives of the study were: a) critical analysis of existing Ukrainian legislation (e.g., laws on martial law, agriculture, and energy) to identify gaps and inconsistencies in the protection of energy assets critical to the agricultural supply chain; b) to conceptually define the legal link between the protection of energy resources and food security, and to justify why disruptions in the former, under Ukrainian law, pose a fundamental threat to the latter. While Ukraine’s legal framework provides general mechanisms for martial law and critical infrastructure protection, there is a significant legal gap in assigning enhanced, targeted protection status specifically to energy assets essential for the agricultural supply chain. However, the legal framework must fully catch up to ensure these small, distributed assets which are crucial for keeping local food production functional during large-scale grid failure are afforded the necessary legal safeguards, simplified operational procedures, and prioritized fuel (maintenance) access over non-critical commercial users. The methodology of researching legal problems of protection of energy resources in the legal mechanism of food security is based on the provisions of the general scientific dialectical method of scientific knowledge. In addition, were used formal-logical, formal-legal and hermeneutic methods to achieve the research goal.