An important component of the state-building process in Ukraine is the government’s activities to ensure national security, which is an attribute of independence. The ruling political forces in Ukraine have created the necessary legal framework for national security (parliamentary resolutions, laws, decrees of the head of state). The process of ensuring the national security of Ukraine should be divided into stages: 1991−2014 (imitation) and after 2014 (essential). The peculiarities of the first stage were the wide involvement of Soviet approaches in the formation of the institutional basis for ensuring national security, the imitation of the defense activity of legitimate armed formations, and the development of the military organization of the state. It was considered that the proper level of military security of Ukraine is evidence of national security in general. At the beginning of 2014, the system of ensuring Ukraine's national security on the basis of imitation collapsed, which failed to counteract Russia's aggressive plans. Seeking to hinder the will of the Ukrainian people for a European future, Russia occupied part of Ukraine’s territory − the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, and unleashed military aggression in eastern Ukraine. The beginning of the essential stage of ensuring the national security of Ukraine is connected with the initiative involvement of civil society in the implementation of security and defense tasks. Evidence of this were: the rapid organization of the emergence of volunteer battalions and their practical application in eastern Ukraine; active formation of local self-defense forces; powerful volunteer movement; deployment of information resistance structures to the enemy’s propaganda influences; implementation of the values of patriotism in the spiritual and cultural life of the population, etc. The violent reaction of civil society to the threats and dangers that threaten the very existence of an independent and sovereign Ukraine has become a social reality. In Ukraine, there has been a fundamental shift in emphasis in the understanding of national security. The main subject of its ensuring is the security and defense sector, which combines state authorities, state armed formations and civil society structures interested in solving security and defense tasks. In Ukraine, which seeks to become democratic, security activities have been de-ethicized, which is not the case in authoritarian countries. If earlier national security was interpreted as a state of protection of national interests, now (at the request of civil society) − as a state of protection of national interests and values. The theory and practice of creating national security of Ukraine are developing dynamically. The subject of scientific research and public discussions are methodological, institutional, public administration, social compensation aspects of national security and defense. It is a matter of practical implementation of their results with the leading participation of constitutional state structures. Key words: national security, state-building, legal framework on national security, military organization of the state, security and defense sector, civil society, security, danger.
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