On June 19, Verkhovna Rada amended the Concept of Ukraine’s National Security (Fundamentals of the National Security Policy), with 319 of the 439 deputies present supporting this decision. The concept details a list of Ukraine’s national priorities such as guaranteeing constitutional rights and liberties of the person and citizen, protecting state sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of the state border, preventing interference by foreign states in Ukraine’s internal affairs, creating a competitive and socially-oriented market economy, and ensuring a sustainable growth of living standards and welfare.
The concept also outlines the threats to Ukraine’s national security and interests. In particular, these are military and political instability in the world, regional and local armed conflicts in various parts of the world and above all near Ukrainian borders, structural and functional imbalance of the political system, and inability of some social strata to adequately respond to threats to national security. According to Interfax-Ukraine, further threats include gross liabilities of the state; critical size of the national and foreign state debts; the shadow economy; outflow of scholars, specialists, and skilled labor from Ukraine; along with computer crime and terrorism.
The main directions of the national security policy pursued by the state are participation in international peacekeeping efforts under the aegis of the UN, OSCE, and other organizations in the sphere of security; adapting Ukrainian legislation to that of the EU; ensuring interfaith stability, as well as preventing religious conflicts and confrontations stemming from the competition among various churches for spheres of influence on Ukrainian territory.
