Strategy for combating illegal armed formations: content, components, evolution
Authors:   Lviv Polytechnic National University, Hunko Leonid 
Published: January 2024

The issue of determining the need to develop a strategy for combating illegal armed formations is considered, the content and components of the strategy are defined and how the development of individual components changes approaches to the strategy itself is shown. The emphasis is placed on the complexity of formulating a strategy in the field of national security as a result of uncertainty of the concept of strategic legal acts, their hierarchy and content in the Ukrainian legislation. The determination of the content of a strategic document in the field of national security is closely related to the already adopted and approved relevant regulatory and legal acts, strategic documents. Formulation of the problem. The activities of the occupation administrations of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as well as the illegal armed formations formed by them, are of a separate nature, terrorist acts are carried out, partisan tactics of combating illegal armed formations are used instead of using foreign experience in dealing with such formations. The experience of counter-guerrilla warfare used by the USA (in Iraq and Afghanistan) and the USSR (in Afghanistan) showed that both were defeated. The main reasons were the unwillingness to fight the enemy that used partisan tactics and a lack of a strategy for combating illegal armed formations. The improvement of the situation and the reduction of casualties among servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan took place only after the adoption of appropriate strategic decisions. Therefore, the key reason for ensuring an effective fight against illegal armed formations is the presence of an appropriate strategy for combating illegal armed formations. The analysis of recent research and publications. Issues related to the activity of illegal armed formations in the east of Ukraine and the adoption of appropriate decisions to combat them have been considered by individual scientists. In particular, O.Fedenko and Panasiuk consider illegal armed formations as a tool of a hybrid war in the eastern part of Ukraine. The structure, development and evolution of the forms and methods of conducting hostilities of illegal armed formations have been studied by V.M.Servatiuk, M.M.Polishchuk, V.A.Kobko who have examined the issue of organizing the fight against illegal armed formations and emphasized the need to develop an appropriate strategy. The experience of the USA and the USSR in the fight against illegal armed formations and the importance of having an effective strategy have been investigated by Ye.A.Bukhtoiarov, O.V.Valetskyi and V.M.Neiolov. Theoretical questions related to the content and hierarchy of strategic legal acts have been considered in the research by H.P.Sytnyk and N.P.Kharchenko. Highlighting previously unsolved parts of the problem under analysis. The contribution of the researchers listed above is important, but it is necessary to pay attention to the need for further research in this field. The purpose of the given research is the analysis and formation of the content, components of the strategy of combating illegal armed formations and the determination of the influence of the experience of combating illegal armed formations on the development of the strategy and trends in changing the nature of armed conflicts. Presenting the main material. In connection with Ukraine's choice of joining the EU and NATO, the adoption of strategic legal acts began to play an important role. At present there are no unified approaches to defining the concept of such acts, their features and role in the system of normative and legal regulation, their place in the hierarchy of legal acts. There is no scientifically agreed legal definition of a strategic legal act which leads to various names of such acts as: strategy, doctrine, concept, program, etc. Strategic legal acts are often characterized by the inconsistency of the name of the strategic legal document with the content of the legal norms contained in it. Strategic legal acts are most often adopted in the field of national security, approved by the Presidential Decree and the content of the strategic act is determined in accordance with the Law of Ukraine «On National Security». The main trends of changing the nature of war in the 21st century foresee the evolution of the conventional war into low-intensity military conflicts, stabilization operations, asymmetric wars, the fight against illegal armed formations, etc. F.Khoffman and P. Harrett include the following to these trends: 1) from simplicity to complexity; 2) from cooperation in the military sphere to a complex approach; 3) the military should be characterized by mobility, coordination and awareness; 4) from dominating the enemy, surpassing him cognitively; 5) from hierarchies to fuzzy sets, etc. The experience of combating illegal armed formations shows that the armed forces are not ready for: 1) a new type of conflicts; 2) a different combat environment; 3) other conflict conditions. This lack of readiness requires taking into account characteristic threats when adopting a strategy, namely: 1) inconsistency of participants and change in conflict methods; 2) hybridity, blurring of threats; 3) complexity of causes and consequences in conflicts.