NATIONAL SECURITY OF UKRAINE: HISTORICAL ORIGINS AND TODAY'S PRIORITIES

Abstract

National security of Ukraine as a state of protection of national interests and values has been formed since Ukraine gained state and political independence. In terms of content, institutional, resource, and other aspects, the main actor in creating national security was the state. Key regulatory and legal definitions explaining the essence of national security and methods of achieving it were prescribed on the pages of state regulatory and legal documents - the Constitution of Ukraine, laws, strategies, and parliamentary resolutions. At the same time, state bodies failed to achieve a coherent, conceptually verified interpretation of national security during the peaceful period of Ukraine's development (1991-2013).

One of Ukraine's fundamental mistakes in ensuring national security was the development of an antidemocratic military organization of the state (by analogy with Russia, Belarus, and the Central Asian republics), as well as the appointment of Russian citizens as heads of security agencies (Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Security Service of Ukraine). Under such conditions, Ukraine's national security existed as a theoretical postulate, rather than a reliable way to protect national interests.

In 2014, Russia began a war against Ukraine - annexation and occupation actions in the South and East of the country, which in early 2022 escalated into a large-scale invasion. One of the reasons for this development of events was the weakness of the state in ensuring national security. Under such conditions, civil society has become a mechanism for compensating for state miscalculations. Volunteer units, media outlets, and Ukrainians abroad support in cooperation with resistance forces were able to prevent Russian troops from capturing the entire territory of Ukraine and the restoration of Russian dictatorship over it. From the perspective of civil society, Ukraine's national security has been interpreted as the state of protection of national interests and national values.

Thus, the stages of development of Ukraine's national security have become imitative (1991-2013) and substantive (from 2014). In the second stage, national security must be fought for through joint efforts of the state and civil society in armed confrontation with imperial Russia, aimed at the revival of autocracy.