Crimes Against the Fundamentals of National Security of Ukraine: Concept and System
Authors: Kovalchuk Olena 
Published: December 2024

Abstract. The article examines problematic issues of defining the concept and system of crimes against the foundations of national security of Ukraine. In particular, the issue of normative and legal regulation of the definition of national security of Ukraine at the constitutional, legislative and sub-legal levels was considered. A comparative analysis of different opinions of scientists regarding the definition of the concept and system of crimes against the foundations of national security of Ukraine was carried out.
It was concluded that in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the issue of criminal responsibility for crimes against the foundations of national security of Ukraine requires further thorough and detailed scientific research and the development and implementation of the necessary changes to the current criminal legislation of Ukraine.
Therefore, it seems appropriate, first of all, at the constitutional and legislative level to clearly define the objects of Ukraine's national security, since the current Law of Ukraine "On the National Security of Ukraine" distinguishes between national and state security and focuses attention on the control powers of the President of Ukraine, relevant state executive bodies authorities and local self-government bodies (which overloads the law, as it duplicates the relevant powers contained in the Constitution of Ukraine or special laws or those of them that could be provided for in them), the development of individual strategies, in particular the National Security Strategy of Ukraine and others and the development already on the basis of the by-law normative legal act of the Strategy for ensuring state security and other documents, however, there are no norms that would clearly define the objects of national security of Ukraine.
Attention is drawn to the fact that in the Law of Ukraine "On the Basics of National Security of Ukraine", which has expired, the objects of national security were: a person and a citizen (their constitutional rights and freedoms); society (its spiritual, moral-ethical, cultural, historical, intellectual and material values, informational and environmental environment and natural resources) and the state (its constitutional order, sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability) and there was a clear definition of the national security of Ukraine. It was possible to make appropriate changes to this law and obtain quality regulation at the legislative level of the issues of the foundations of Ukraine's national security. Instead, we have a large number of subordinate legal acts, but a lack of a comprehensive understanding of the concept of national security of Ukraine.
Accordingly, starting from the clearly defined concept of national security of Ukraine and objects of national security of Ukraine at the constitutional and legislative level, the legislator could define the objects of crimes against the foundations of national security of Ukraine, which today pose a real threat to the national security of Ukraine. It is proposed that each object of the national security of Ukraine correspond to the object of the crime in the Criminal Code of Ukraine, for which criminal liability should be established in Chapter I devoted to crimes against the foundations of the national security of Ukraine.
Keywords: national security; state security; criminal responsibility; constitutional system; state sovereigntу; territorial integrity; crime.