1Volume 12- Issue 72
/ December 2023
69
http:// www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.72.12.6
How to Cite:
Truba, R., Kozin, S., Vykhrystiuk, A., Kuzmenko, D., & Bulkat, M. (2023). Features of the actors ensuring national security of
Ukraine. Amazonia Investiga, 12(72), 69-79. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.72.12.6
Features of the actors ensuring national security of Ukraine
Ознаки суб’єктів забезпечення національної безпеки України
Received: November 1, 2023 Accepted: December 26, 2023
Written by:
Roman Truba1
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0971-8350
Serhii Kozin2
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7640-4579
Anatolii Vykhrystiuk3
https://orcid.org/0009-0008-5734-8004
Dmytro Kuzmenko4
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7437-0122
Maryna Bulkat5
https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4647-8199
Abstract
The article aims to elucidate the key features of
the actors ensuring the national security of
Ukraine. Methodology. The methodological
basis for the research is a set of modern general
and specific methods and techniques of scientific
knowledge, such as logical and semantic,
dogmatic, analytical, documentary analysis,
classification and systematization, modeling and
forecasting methods. Research results. It was
stated that these actors possess a specific set of
minimal characteristics, which qualifies them as
integral components within the structure of
entities responsible for ensuring national
security. In their activities, they pursue specific
goals, thus implementing the function of
ensuring national security. Thus, the
corresponding circle of actors perform actions
that are characterized by a special content, which
is based on the rules of current legislation.
Practical implementation. A notable feature of
the entities under consideration is the
performance of an important public meta
function – the function of ensuring national
security. This function is realized through the
1
PhD in Law, Doctoral Student of the Scientific Institute of Public Law, Ukraine.
2
Doctor of Law, Senior Researcher, Leading Researcher of the Department of scientific and legal expertise and legislative work of
the Scientific Institute of Public Law, Ukraine.
3
Candidate of Legal Sciences, Senior Research Fellow of the Scientific Institute of Public Law, Ukraine.
4
Candidate of Legal Sciences, Senior Research Fellow of the Scientific Institute of Public Law, Ukraine.
5
Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, Head of the Claims and Case Sector of the Analytical and Legal Department of the Supreme
Court, Professor of the Department of Branch Law and General Law Disciplines of the Institute of Law and Public Relations of the
Open International University of Human Development "Ukraine", Ukraine.
70
www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
implementation of a set of target functions aimed
at ensuring the conditions of national security.
These target functions include law-making,
protective, security, defense, control,
coordination, ideological, and educational
functions. It is also important to keep in mind that
the studied actors are engaged in activities
consistent with the principles of ensuring
national security and comply with the
requirements of current legislation.
Value/originality. It is concluded that under
current national security doctrine of Ukraine the
actors ensuring it appear as subjects of
administrative law, which are characterized by
certain key features.
Keywords: national security, professional public
service, actors of administrative law, subjects of
national security, ensuring national security.
Introduction
National security is a state of the functioning of
the State, the existence of the individual and
society under conditions of acceptable risks. It is
achieved through specific security activities of
different types of national security actors, aimed
at preventing national security risks,
safeguarding and protecting national security, as
well as restoring the appropriate national security
state. Ensuring the national security of Ukraine is
traditionally understood as an important task, the
implementation of which allows the state to be
truly independent, democratic, legal and social.
Thus, national security is a complex of
conditions of the actors’ existence in objective
reality, which: firstly, allow them to fully exist,
develop, accumulate their socio-economic and
other kind of potential; secondly, exist only when
they are supplied by appropriate actors.
Ensuring national security of Ukraine is
traditionally understood as an important task, the
implementation of which allows the State to be
truly independent, as well as democratic, legal
and social, moving in its development in the
direction of European and Euro-Atlantic
integration. In particular, E.V. Kobko (2023,
p. 100) correctly points out that "ensuring
national security is one of the key problems that
must be solved by the national legislator on the
way to the formation of Ukraine as an
independent, democratic, economically and
politically independent European country that
will be reckoned with by the world community".
Hovewer, in the current context of crisis in
Ukraine, which negatively affects the state of
national security, the need arises to form real
scientific thinking about the entities that provide
national security, and mainly, their key
characteristics. This article aims to identify the
key characteristics of the actors ensuring the
national security of Ukraine. The first section
presents a review of the literature on national
security and the entities that guarantee it. The
second section describes the methodology used
in the study. The third section presents the main
findings of the study. In the fourth section, the
results of the study are discussed and the
conclusions are presented. We hope that this
article contributes to the understanding of entities
ensuring the national security of Ukraine and to
the formulation of public policies to strengthen
the country's national security.
Literature review
Security and national security are topics of great
interest to scientists and lawyers, both in Ukraine
and abroad. The literature review in this article
presents a selection of relevant research on these
topics, including studies on the definition of
Truba, R., Kozin, S., Vykhrystiuk, A., Kuzmenko, D., Bulkat, M. / Volume 12 - Issue 72: 69-79 / December, 2023
1Volume 12- Issue 72
/ December 2023
71
http:// www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
security (Abedi, Zeleznikow & Brien, 2019;
Baldwin, 2018; Hoijtink, Mühlenhoff &
Welfens, 2023) and national security (Cohen &
Romm, 1993; Cizre, 2003; Hellman, 2019).
In addition to defining security and national
security, several authors have also addressed the
question of how to ensure national security.
Lemak (2016), Lipkan (2003), Reznikova (2015)
and Shevchenko (2014) have highlighted the
importance of security actions to achieve this
goal. Kobko (2023) criticizes the current state of
national security research, arguing that most
studies are outdated, ignore practical reality, or
focus on specific aspects of national security.
An additional problem is the fragmentation of
scientific opinion on national security actors.
Although some authors have begun to explore the
characteristics of these actors (Kobko, 2022;
Mykhailova, 2017; Nesterenko, 2020; Shteba,
2019), much remains to be investigated. This is
because these works are, firstly, morally outdated
and do not meet the current challenges; secondly,
they ignore practical reality, focusing mainly on
theoretical issues of this activity; thirdly, reveal
individual components of national security
(informational, financial, economic ones, etc.).
Thus, literature review has indicated that there is
a need for more in-depth research on the
characteristics of national security actors. The
present study aims to clarify the main features of
the latter. Achieving this goal requires solving
the following tasks: 1) to justify the existence of
a list of basic features of entities ensuring the
national security of Ukraine; 2) to outline key
features of the actors of ensuring the national
security of Ukraine, as well as to analyze their
content; 3) to summarize the research results.
Methodology
The methodological basis for the research is a set
of modern general and specific methods and
techniques of scientific knowledge, which were
chosen according to the posed research question,
its main idea, hypothesis. First of all, it was
determined:
whether the selected methods provided an
opportunity to clarify the essence of the problem;
conditions for their application in practice;
which of the methods allowed obtaining the most
reliable results.
Thus, with the help of the logical and semantic
method, the concepts of security and national
security of the state as an object of
administrative-legal protection were defined,
their meaning was revealed; the categories
“administrative and legal regime in the sphere of
ensuring national security” and “principles of
ensuring national security” were clarified.
Dogmatic method provided an opportunity to
estimate the state of research of the problems
under consideration by examining the works by
domestic and foreign scientists on this issue.
The application of analytical method made it
possible to establish the purpose of the activity of
the entities in the field of ensuring national
security, to provide a description of the public
meta function implemented by the actors
ensuring national security of the state, to
characterize legal principles of ensuring national
security and identify the place of administrative
and legal regulation in this process.
The method of documentary analysis helped to
examine legal instruments governing the
activities of the circle of entities ensuring
national security (e.g. Law of Ukraine
No. 2469-VIII “On the National Security of
Ukraine” (2018); Law of Ukraine No. 964-IV
“On the Fundamentals of National Security of
Ukraine” (2003), etc.).
The methods of classification and
systematization were used to systematize the
actors ensuring national security, to present their
system, to structure the legal framework for the
activities of these subjects of ensuring the
national security of Ukraine.
Modeling and forecasting methods were applied
to establish the features of the actors ensuring
national security, to outline promising directions
for further research into the administrative and
legal status of these entities.
Results and discussion
The view that a certain list of basic features is
characteristic of the actors of national security of
Ukraine is based on the position that they belong
to the structure of the system of national security
actors (subsystem of the national security
system), they have a general administrative and
legal status of the relevant type of entities. At the
same time, it should be remembered that the Law
of Ukraine "On the National Security of Ukraine"
(Law No. 2469-VIII, 2018) does not indicate the
existence of a system of national security actors
but refers to the security and defense sector.
However, the corresponding approach of the
legislator is not based on the denial of the
72
www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
existence of the system of national security
actors, and this system itself (until it is translated
into legislation) is a purely theoretical
construction, which has important practical
significance in the matter of ensuring the state of
national security, and the objective existence of
which will be further revealed.
Thus, considering the views of scientists on the
essence of national security and its provision, as
well as the legal status of the actors of ensuring
national security of Ukraine, we conclude that
these subjects are characterized by the following
key features:
1. Actors of ensuring national security are part
of the security management system.
Ensuring national security is a complete
system, the basis of which "consists of
bodies, forces and means of ensuring
national security" (Lipkan 2003, p. 58). The
above is quite natural, because, as correctly
Yu.O. Mykhailova (2017, p. 152) pointed
out "national security requires a system of its
provision", and at the same time, the key
element of this system must be considered
"relevant actors whose activity lies in the
implementation of a number of legal,
organizational, personnel, material and
technical, socio-economic and other
measures aimed at on timely prevention,
detection and overcoming of real and
potential internal and external threats,
ensuring the appropriate level of protection
of the vital interests of the person and
favorable conditions for the development of
the country as a whole".
Thus, the actors of ensuring national security are
the basis of the relevant system, taking into
account the fact that "the national security of the
state cannot be considered as some isolated
phenomenon, separated from public life"
(Ponomaryov, 2018, p. 1), as well as a
phenomenon that exists by itself, without the
activities of administrative law actors agreed
upon for a specific purpose and objectives,
resulting in the formation of conditions for the
functioning of the State, the existence of society
and individual, characterized by an appropriate
security measure. That is, national security of
Ukraine cannot exist only in view of the
operation of strategies for ensuring national
security, effective legislation, namely without
subjective element of such system, which is
created and operate in accordance with the
legislation and shall be provided with adequate
numbers and quality of professional staff.
2. Actors of ensuring national security are a
subjective element of the system of ensuring
national security, the structure of which is
derived from doctrinal concepts and legal
norms. To ensure legal certainty (a
constituent element of the rule of law), the
legislator defines a list of entities that, by
virtue of their legal status, are considered
actors ensuring national security. Thus, Art.
4 of the currently invalid Law of Ukraine
No. 964-IV (2003), the legislator considers
the relevant subjects to be: the Head of State;
Parliament; Government; National Security
and Defense Council of Ukraine; ministries
and other central bodies of executive power;
National Bank of Ukraine; courts of general
jurisdiction, as well as the Prosecutor’s
Office of Ukraine; National Anti-Corruption
Bureau of Ukraine; local state
administrations and local self-government;
The Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Security
Service of Ukraine, the Foreign Intelligence
Service of Ukraine, the State Border Service
of Ukraine and other military formations
formed in accordance with the laws of
Ukraine; bodies and units of civil protection;
citizens of Ukraine, as well as associations
of citizens. The new legislation on national
legislation takes a somewhat similar
approach. Thus, the Law No. 2469-VIII
(2018) reveals the list of entities ensuring
national security through the category of
security and defense sector of Ukraine.
Having critically analyzed this rule of the
current legislation, we concluded that the
actors of ensuring national security of
Ukraine are divided into two groups:
1) the security and defense sector, which
includes: the Ministry of Defense of
Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the
State Special Transport Service, the Ministry
of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the National
Guard of Ukraine, the National Police of
Ukraine, the State Border Service of
Ukraine, the State Migration Service of
Ukraine, the State Emergency Service of
Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine,
Anti-Terrorist Center under the Security
Service of Ukraine, Judicial Protection
Service, State Protection Department of
Ukraine, the State Service for Special
Communications and Information
Protection of Ukraine, the Apparatus of the
National Security and Defense Council of
Ukraine, intelligence agencies of Ukraine,
central executive body, ensuring formation
and implementation of the State military and
industrial policy;
1Volume 12- Issue 72
/ December 2023
73
http:// www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
2) entities (other State agencies and local self-
government) ensuring national security in
cooperation with public service bodies
assigned to the security and defense sector.
As one can see, the lists of national security
actors outlined by the legislator in Law
No. 964-IV (2003) and in the Law of
Ukraine No. 2469-VIII (2018), do not match. To
date, Part 2, Art. 12 of the latter normative act
does not indicate that the composition of the
security and defense sector also includes citizens
and public organizations, which does not
correspond to the level of democratization of the
administrative and legal regime for ensuring
national security. At the same time, Part 1, Art.
12 of the said Law enshrines those one of the four
interrelated components of the security and
defense sector of Ukraine is "citizens and public
associations that voluntarily participate in
ensuring national security." Thus, we can talk
about the existence of the third group of actors –
civil society actors (individual and collective),
ensuring national security in cooperation with the
relevant public service bodies (from the security
and defense sector), or without such cooperation,
carrying out enforcement actions in the direction
of ensuring national security of the State.
Additionally, we can notice that Art. 12 of the
Law No. 2469-VIII (2018) does not indicate the
President of Ukraine among the actors ensuring
national security, even though he is the Head of
State, and most importantly in this matter – the
Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Army.
Along with that, he specified legislative act,
namely Art. 13, indicates that the President of
Ukraine exercises leadership in the spheres of
national security and defense of Ukraine. That is,
in the context of the study of the structure of
national security entities, the fourth type of
entities – the Head of State – should also be
considered. O.V. Nesterenko (2020, pp. 37-38)
also draws attention to this fact; he concluded
that the system of actors ensuring national
security and defense of Ukraine consists of:
firstly, the governing sub-system (the President
of Ukraine); secondly, the managed sub-system,
which includes: security forces; defense forces;
defense industrial complex; citizens and public
associations; thirdly, auxiliaries (which include
the judiciary, the Government, the Parliament, as
well as international institutions, etc.).
In general, agreeing with the view by the
abovementioned author, we note that citizens and
civil society actors are not well suited to be
classified as "subsystem" managed by the
President of Ukraine, taking into account the
very meaning of the concept of "management".
Besides, mixing international institutions and
actors of national law within the one group –
"subsystem" – is somewhat controversial. Thus,
taking into account the proposal by the author,
the rules of the current legislation, as well as the
outlined reservations regarding the
understanding of its content in terms of defining
the considered circle of actors, we will make the
following conclusions:
firstly, Art. 12 of the Law of Ukraine "On the
National Security of Ukraine" does not identify
the list of subjects of national security, but only
the security and defense sector, which is an
important element of this system of actors.
Secondly, the subjects of ensuring national
security actually constitute a complex system
that: a) covers two levels – international and
national ones; b) at the national level, it
encompases: the administering entity (Head of
State); managed subsystem – subjects that are
part of the security and defense sector in
accordance with Part 2, Art. 12 of the
abovementioned Law; auxiliary sub-system;
civil society actors (individual and collective).
To ensure legal certainty, the relevant system of
national security actors should also be reflected
also at the legislative level.
3. National security actors are included by the
legal and administrative regime of ensuring
national security. Under the concept of
administrative and legal regime in the sphere
of ensuring national security
V.M. Levkivska (2022, p. 87) understands
normatively established and
organizationally ensured procedure for
regulating the behavior of citizens and the
activities of State and non-state
organizations, their officials, aimed at clear
regulation of social relations in the area of
ensuring national security, prevention of
wrongful activities, which may prejudice
national security, as well as provides for the
possibility of applying special regime
measures, other special forms and methods
of authorized bodies activities, the nature of
which is due to the need to adequately
counter actual and potential threats to
national security.
Analyzing the definition of the specified
administrative and legal regime proposed by the
administrative lawyer, it becomes quite clear that
the actors of ensuring national security are an
integral element of the specified regime, being
74
www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
the subjects (all of them) not only complying
with its requirements, but also those shaping it,
providing it in a legal and regulatory manner
(those with law-making powers or involved in
the process of national security legal regulation)
or in other ways.
4. The actors of ensuring national security
pursue a specific goal in their activities,
thereby realizing the function of its ensuring.
This work is an extremely complex
administrative and legal activity both in the
context of the forms of expression and its
structure (conceptual and factual
organizational, practical procedural
content). In this regard, E.V. Kobko (2023,
p. 69) correctly notes that this process is as a
complex activity with its own goal, which
achievement requires solving a number of
important tasks. At the same time, it should
be emphasized that the goal and task of
ensuring national security and the aim and
mission of the actors are identical (in
general; if the types of actors are defined, the
objectives and tasks can be specified).
According to V.M. Pozdniakov and
Yu.S. Chabanenko (2020, p. 22) "the purpose of
the activity of all institutions in the field of
ensuring national security is to protect the
interests of the individual, society and the State
from internal and external threats". At the same
time, it is not possible to fully agree with the
above, because these activities are not only
focused on "protection of interests" and not only
appear to be the antithesis of various threats to
these interests.
We consider the approach to understanding the
goal of ensuring the national security of Ukraine
by E.V. Kobko (2022, p. 190) to be more correct;
he believes that it is expressed in the direction of
protecting and defending: firstly, human and
citizen’s rights, freedoms and interests; secondly,
State sovereignty, territorial integrity, as well as
the country’s interests in the international arena.
At the same time, it should be noted that the
activities of the national security actors are
generally connected with the creation, protection
and defense of conditions of a safe life of man,
society and the State. In fact, the same opinion is
held by M.P. Savchuk (2010, p. 132), indicating
that the main goal of ensuring national security
should be considered establishing balanced State
policy and effective implementation of a set of
coordinated measures to protect national interests
in the political, economic, social, military,
environmental, scientific and technological,
informational and other spheres. This approach
to understanding the goal of ensuring national
security can be considered sufficiently balanced,
because it stems from the following important
circumstances:
firstly, proper state of national security is
achieved within decision-making and
implementing a set of actions based on legal rules
and justified at the strategic level by the State
policy in the national security area;
secondly, practical significance of an effective
national security policy formation is reduced if it
is not accompanied by the functioning of the
administrative and legal mechanism for the
implementation of this policy, which is achieved
in the context of the activities of national security
entities.
At the same time, it should also be recognized
that the presented approach is debatable,
because: firstly, it does not take into account the
fact that national security is not identical to
national security, and therefore is based on a
democratic balance of national and human
interests (through the prism of humanocentrism,
as well as from the «balance» of the interests of
an individual, society and the State, which will
serve the integrity of this system (Lipkan 2003,
p. 58)); secondly, it is unnecessarily broad, yet
without any indication of how exactly the
formation of a «balanced State policy» as well as
«effective implementation of a set of agreed
measures» to ensure the national security should
be done (that is, whether such actions are
concentrated only to protect public interests, or
to prevent, protect, restore, ensure the sustainable
development of society as well, etc.).
We consider these remarks to be important since
ensuring national security in the context of the
development of Ukraine as a legal, democratic
and social state with European integration
aspirations requires a change in the methodology
of national security policy. Regarding the
updated methodology, Iskiv (2023, p. 204) notes
that it should consistently move away from the
security imperative, built on the principle of
protection of the individual, society and the State
from external and internal threats to policies to
ensure their security through sustainable socio-
economic development, connected with a
pragmatic strategy for preventing hazards and
threats".
Therefore, comprehensively approaching the
issue under consideration, we note that the
activity of ensuring national security: firstly,
permits the continuation of threats to the interests
of the individual, society and the State if they are
1Volume 12- Issue 72
/ December 2023
75
http:// www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
permissible, controlled or cannot be eliminated;
secondly, it provides not only protection and
restoration of conditions for the safe existence of
a person, society and the state, but also creates
conditions for this being to be constantly
improved, there was predictability of the future,
as well as a gradual increase in their resource
capacity and in the capacity to address specific
threats to national security (primarily, by
ensuring sustainable development of society);
thirdly, it forms the conditions for preventing and
strengthening threats to national security, etc. In
this regard, the optimal approach to determining
the goal of ensuring national security can be
considered the one proposed by O.V. Nesterenko
(2018, p. 208), associating this aim with creating
all necessary conditions for achieving (or
restoring) and maintaining a state of protection of
the State sovereignty, territorial integrity,
democratic constitutional system, the right to
freedom of an individual and a citizen, and other
national interests of Ukraine from real and
potential threats, eliminating or minimizing their
destructive impact on the spheres of military,
foreign policy, economic, information,
environmental security, cyber security of
Ukraine, etc.
At the same time, the most comprehensive
purpose of the activities of national security
actors (in accordance with the modern
methodology of ensuring national security of
Ukraine) is set out in the analytical report of the
National Institute of Strategic Studies
«Conceptual framework for the development of
the national security system of Ukraine»
(Reznikova, 2015). In this report, the specified
goal is associated with "the organization of the
threat and risk management process, under which
state and non-state institutions and individuals
guarantee the preservation and strengthening of
national values, protection and progressive
development of national interests through timely
detection, prevention, localization,
neutralization, overcoming internal and external
threats, as well as ensuring efficient functioning
of the national security system itself and its
components.
5. National security entities carry out activities
characterized by specific content (directly or
indirectly related to the establishment,
protection and defense of the national
security), and based on the rules of the
current legislation. With regard to the
content of the activities of national security
actors, it is identical to the content of
ensuring this type of security, and therefore,
it is the basis for the development and legal
consolidation of the system of state agencies
and public organizations, whose operation is
aimed at implementing the tasks of ensuring
national security; determining the
competence of state bodies and public
organizations in the security area;
establishing the procedure and conditions
for the application of relevant
countermeasures against identified threats,
as well as the settlement of other problems
related to ensuring national security (Shteba,
2019, p. 418).
At the same time, I.M. Bazarko (2019, p. 119)
believes that the main content of ensuring
national security lies in maintaining legal and
institutional mechanisms, as well as the resource
capabilities of the State and society at a level that
corresponds to the national interests of Ukraine.
In turn, administrative lawyer Yu.O. Mykhailova
(2017, p. 153) claims that in terms of its content,
the activity of ensuring national security is
limited to creating and maintaining the readiness
of forces and means of ensuring national
security, developing doctrines, concepts,
strategies and programs in the field of national
security, planning and implementing specific
measures to counter and neutralize threats the
national interests of Ukraine, forming legal
framework for the effective functioning of the
national security system, improving its
organizational structure, performing planned and
operational activities to ensure national security,
etc.
Having analyzed various approaches to
understanding the content of national security
activities, we can conclude that it is most fully
outlined by the abovementioned author, because
she listed a number of tasks for its ensuring,
which actually determine the content of such
work. Thus, in our opinion, the content of the
activities of the national security actors as a
whole corresponds to the content of its tasks. At
the same time, the content of the activity of
specific subjects’ operation corresponds to at
least one or several tasks of ensuring national
security.
Consequently, through the prism of the
requirements of the Main Law of Ukraine, these
tasks should be reflected in legislation (at the
same time, national security tasks performed by
citizens civil society actors on a voluntary basis
may stem from moral standards, sense of
patriotism, etc.).
To date, scientists have already paid attention to
outlining the list of key tasks of ensuring the
76
www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
national security of Ukraine, although in some
cases the views of individual scholars in this
regard reflect a long-term trend of considering
these objectives exclusively from the standpoint
of involving the force component and mainly in
the context of countering external threats (Iskiv,
2023, p. 204).
6. National security actors perform an
important public meta function – ensuring
national security, which is objectified
through the implementation of a set of target
functions. Ukrainian scientist V.M.
Levkivska (2022, p. 87) notes in this regard
that administrative and legal provision of
national security is aimed at implementing
one of the most important functions of the
modern state – the function of ensuring
national security. According to O.V. Lemak
(2016, p. 67), the function of the state to
ensure national security is inseparable from
the main directions of state activity and lies
in ensuring security of the relevant national
interests (values) in the military,
environmental, economic, political,
informational spheres or objects of
protection in territorial, ecological,
economic, political and informational areas,
provided that there are negative tendencies
to create potential or real threats to national
interests.
This should be accepted with the reservation that
the function of ensuring national security appears
as a special public meta function that should be
implemented by all subjects of law, guided (in
addition to patriotic beliefs) by aspiration to self-
preservation, based on the fundamental
prospective (perspective) legal responsibility, as
well as national solidarity. That is why it is
advisable to interpret this function as a special
public meta function. Meanwhile, the above
should not be interpreted as an argument for
diluting State responsibility for ensuring national
security – it is the State that owns the resources,
by implementing which the state of national
security can be comprehensively formed and
protected.
By implementing the indicated public meta
function, the actors of ensuring national security
perform the target functions of its
implementation, which are consistent with the
directions of ensuring national security. Taking
into account the views of scientists regarding the
content and structure of these functions
(Shevchenko, 2014), we come to the conclusion
that their implementation is typical for the
national security actors: law-making, protective,
guarding, defense, control, coordination,
ideological and educational (propaganda).
7. National security actors carry out the
activities that are consistent with the
principles of ensuring national security and
meet the requirements of current legislation
(are subordinate to the law). As is known,
the system of ensuring national security of
Ukraine is created and developed in
accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine
and other legal instruments regulating public
relations in the sphere of national security
(Lipkan, 2003, p. 58), and therefore is a
subordinate activity. This means that the
relevant circle of administrative law actors
should be constrained in the implementation
of their functions by the regulatory and legal
support of their activities. Thus, considering
the regulatory framework for national
security actors, we can currently talk about
such groups of normative legal acts at the
national level (except, clearly, the codified
laws of Ukraine on criminal responsibility,
on administrative responsibility, and other
codes containing norms, the implementation
of which provides for ensuring national
security of Ukraine):
− firstly, the rules of the Constitution of
Ukraine;
− secondly, the rules of legislative acts
determining:
1) principles of ensuring national security and
special legal regimes of ensuring national
security;
2) administrative and legal status of the
national security actors, as well as the forms,
methods and means of its implementation;
3) regimes directly or indirectly related to
ensuring national security of Ukraine;
− thirdly, by-laws specifying the provisions of
legislative acts on ensuring national security,
contributing to their effective
implementation. Such acts should include
the results of the rule-making activities of
various types of entities ensuring national
security of Ukraine, in particular decrees of
the President of Ukraine, Decisions of the
National Security and Defense Council of
Ukraine, resolutions and orders of the
Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, orders of
the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, orders
of the Security Council of Ukraine,
resolutions of the Central Election
Commission, etc.
1Volume 12- Issue 72
/ December 2023
77
http:// www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
Besides the fact that the national security actors
are subject to the influence of the administrative
and legal regime of national security to the extent
that their activities should be subordinate to the
law, it should also be emphasized that this
regime, as an important element of the legal
order, also requires that these entities act in
conformity with the law (did not undermine law
and order, contribute to the rule of law). This fact
helps to ensure that the whole mechanism of
activities of these actors is a harmonious element
of law and order. This means that creation and
operation of the relevant entities circle should be
based on the requirements of the principles of
ensuring the national security of Ukraine.
For example, O.O. Vovok (2013, p. 14) believes
that, in a narrow sense, the principles of ensuring
national security are fundamental and most
weighty ideas characterized by universality and
imperativeness, aimed at the fulfillment of
national goals and socio-political tasks. In turn,
E.V. Kobko (2023, p. 321) states that the
principles of ensuring the national security of
Ukraine are original points, starting ideas, which
create the basis for the legal regulation of the
relevant activity. The specified principles form
not just the ideological basis of this provision, but
vectors of the state policy development in the
corresponding direction.
Based on this, we note that a set of principles to
ensure the national security of Ukraine are:
firstly, general legal principles, namely the
principle of the rule of law, the principle of
legality, the principle of anthropocentrism, the
principle of equality, the principle of justice;
secondly, the sectoral principles of
administrative law applied to public servants (to
a certain extent to those national security actors
who do not have the status of civil servants), in
particular, the principle of patriotism, the
principle of integrity, the principle of efficiency,
the principle of equal access to professional
public service, the principle of political
impartiality, the principle of transparency, the
principle of stability;
thirdly, specific principles of the administrative
and legal regime of ensuring national security,
first of all, the principle of competence
separation, the principle of timeliness and
promptness (anticipation of threats to national
security), the principle of political responsibility
of the national security actors, the principle of
using the mechanisms of international collective
security.
Conclusions
To date, the national security actors in the context
of the current development of the national
security doctrine of Ukraine appear as subjects of
administrative law, which are characterized by
certain key features. Firstly, the indicated circle
of entities constitutes a subjective subsystem
(subjective element) of the system of ensuring
national security, being, in this context, a
relatively autonomous network consisting of
actors, for which general administrative and legal
status of the security provider is inherent.
Secondly, the structure of this scheme, as a (so
far) theoretical administrative and legal
construction of real practical importance, follows
from the norms of the current legislation.
Thirdly, national security actors are covered by
the administrative and legal regime in force in
Ukraine. Fourthly, the circle of entities,
characterized by the presence of a common
(general) administrative and legal status of
national security actors, pursue specific
objectives, thus fulfilling national security
function. Fifthly, national security subjects
perform activities with specific content (directly
or indirectly refers to the establishment,
protection and defense of the state of national
security), and therefore (based on the
requirements of Article 19 of the Basic Law of
Ukraine) should be based on the rules of the
current legislation. Sixthly, these actors perform
an important public meta function – the function
of ensuring national security, which is actually
manifested through the implementation of a set
of target functions. Seventhly, these entities
perform activities that are sub-legal and
harmonized with general legal, sectoral
(administrative) and specialized (basic ideas of
the administrative and legal regime of ensuring
national security) principles.
Consequently, it was found that, firstly, national
security actors are part of the security
management system, and that their existence is
fundamental to guarantee the security of the
State. The importance of having a well-defined
and articulated system of actors, with an
adequate legal framework that regulates its
operation, is highlighted.
Secondly, four types of national security actors
were identified:
The Head of State – the President of Ukraine,
who exercises leadership in the spheres of
national security and defense.
78
www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
The security and defense sector: the security and
defense forces, the defense industrial complex,
and citizens and public associations that
voluntarily participate in national security.
The auxiliary subsystem: the judiciary, the
Government, Parliament, and international
institutions.
Therefore, national security actors are a complex
issue that requires further, in-depth and
comprehensive research. Thus, promising in this
sense arise the following issues requiring
detailed scientific research: the concept and
content of the administrative and legal status of
subjects of national security; prospects for the
systematization of national security entities; legal
and organizational principles of activities of
national security entities; directions, tasks and
functions of their activities; regulatory and legal
support for their, etc.
Bibliographic references
Abedi, F., Zeleznikow, J., & Brien, C. (2019).
Developing regulatory standards for the
concept of security in online dispute
resolution systems. Computer Law &
Security Review, 35(5), 105328.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2019.05.003
Baldwin, D.A. (2018). The concept of security.
National and International Security. London:
Routledge.
Bazarko, I.M. (2019). Current state-management
approaches to improving the implementation
of Ukraine’s national security strategy.
Scientific notes of Taurida National V.I.
Vernadsky University, Series «Public
Management and Administration», 30, 1(69),
118-122.
https://www.pubadm.vernadskyjournals.in.u
a/journals/2019/1_2019/23.pdf
Cizre, Ü. (2003). Demythologyzing the national
security concept: the case of Turkey. The
Middle East Journal, 57(2), 213-229.
https://acortar.link/mPex18
Cohen, E.A., & Room, J.J. (1993). Defining
National Security: The Nonmilitary Aspects.
Foreign Affairs, 72(3), 197.
https://doi.org/10.2307/20045642
Hellman, M. (2019). Rethinking National
Security: Special Report. Washington, DC:
FAS.
Hoijtink, M., Mühlenhoff, H.L., & Welfens, N.
(2023). Whose (in) security? Gender, race
and coloniality in European security policies:
Introduction to the Special Issue. European
Security, 32(3), 335-346.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2023.2235
286
Horiunova, Y., Shemchuk, V., Lysianskyi, P.,
Vykhovanets, Z., & Gerasymova, E. (2022).
Foreign policy strategy of Ukraine in the
context of the Russia-Ukraine war. Amazonia
Investiga, 11(60), 75-89.
https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.60.12.8
Iskiv, I.Ya. (2023). Analysis of the system of
implementation of the State policy to ensure
the national security of Ukraine. Current
issues in modern science, 9(15), 199-205.
https://doi.org/10.52058/2786-6300-2023-
9(15)-199-205
Kobko, E.V. (2023). Administrative and legal
mechanism for ensuring national security of
the State. (Doctoral Dissertation). Kharkiv
National University of Internal Affairs,
Kharkiv, Ukraine.
https://dspace.univd.edu.ua/items/4dddaf50-
5501-4302-86db-17ee0b8b658f
Kobko, E.V. (2022). The purpose and task of
ensuring national security of the State.
Pravo.ua, 1, 190-195.
https://doi.org/10.32782/LAW.UA.2022.29
Law No. 2469-VIII. On the National Security of
Ukraine. Bulletin of the Verkhovna Rada of
Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, 21 June, 2018.
Retrieved from
https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2469-
19#Text
Law of Ukraine No. 964-IV. On the
Fundamentals of National Security of
Ukraine. Bulletin of the Verkhovna Rada of
Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, 19 June, 2003.
Retrieved from
https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/964-
15#Text
Lemak, O.V. (2016). Ensuring national security
as a function of the State. Scientific Bulletin
of the Uzhhorod National University, Series:
Law, 2(38), 64-67. http://surl.li/pkhmn
Levkivska, V.M. (2022). Administrative and
legal provision of national security. Kyiv Law
Review, (4), 83-88.
https://doi.org/10.32782/klj/2022.4.12
Lipkan, V.A. (2003). The concept of the national
security system of Ukraine. Law and security,
2(4), 57-60. http://surl.li/pkcor
Mykhailova, Yu.O. (2017). The role and place of
the State Border Service in the system of
actors of ensuring national security of
Ukraine. Law forum, 4, 152-158.
https://acortar.link/JLTxZN
Nesterenko, O. V. (2020). System of subjects
ensuring national security and defence of
Ukraine. Law and Safety, 77(2), 33-39. doi:
10.32631/pb.2020.2.04
1Volume 12- Issue 72
/ December 2023
79
http:// www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
Nesterenko, O.V. (2018). The purpose and task
of ensuring national security and defense of
Ukraine. Pravo.ua, 3, 205-209.
https://acortar.link/NMi5jX
Ponomaryov, S.P. (2018). Administrative and
Legal Provision of the Activities of the
Security and Defense Sector of Ukraine.
(Doctoral Dissertation Abstract).
Dnipropetrovsk State University of Internal
Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of
Ukraine. Dnipro, Ukraine.
https://acortar.link/Xa9vqf
Pozdniakov, V.M., & Chabanenko, Yu.S.
(2020). State administration in the sphere of
ensuring national security of Ukraine// In the
collection: Prospective fields of scientific
research: dynamics and trends of the
International scientific conference
(pp. 19-22). Sumy: Youth Scientific League.
https://doi.org/10.36074/16.10.2020.v3.01
Reznikova, O. O. (2015). Conceptual
foundations for the development of the
national security system of Ukraine:
analytical report. Kyiv: National Institute for
Strategic Studies.
https://niss.gov.ua/sites/default/files/2015-
07/nac_bezp-182c8.pdf
Savchuk, M.P. (2010). The essence of combating
corruption in law enforcement agencies:
foreign experience and its application in
Ukraine. Investments: practice and
experience, 24, 132-135.
http://www.investplan.com.ua/pdf/24_2010/
35.pdf
Shevchenko, M.M. (2014). Functions and tasks
of the national security system of Ukraine in
modern conditions. Scientific and
information Bulletin of the Academy of
National Security, (3-4), 14-24.
http://surl.li/pkhoj
Shteba, R. (2019). Theoretical fundamentals of
state policy in the sphere of national security.
Bulletin of the NUTSZ of Ukraine, Series:
Public administration, 1(10), 415-422.
http://repositsc.nuczu.edu.ua/bitstream/1234
56789/13751/1/Shtreba119.pdf
Vovok, O.O. (2013). Theoretical and legal view
on the principles of ensuring national
security. Our Law, 9, 13-19.
https://cutt.ly/twKn47eI