Law enforcement in Ukraine

Law enforcement in Ukraine is a set of activities carried out by a system of dedicated government bodies, aimed at maintaining public order and internal security, ensuring integrity of the law and inevitability of punishment for breaking the law, guarding the national security as well as safety of people and their property. Most of law enforcement operations are carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, but also by a number of independent agencies and agencies from other ministries.

The primary law enforcement agency in the country is the National Police of Ukraine, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Other prominent agencies include Security Service of Ukraine (an independent agency, responsible for national security, anti-terrorism, counter-intelligence and fighting organized crime), National Guard of Ukraine (part of MIA, the national gendarmerie) and State Bureau of Investigation (an independent agency, investigating misdemeanors and crimes committed by other law enforcement officers, judges, and high-ranking officials).

Due to the fact that Ukraine is a unitary state, the law enforcement is centralized at the national-level and is carried out by national level bodies. All law enforcement officers, although usually attached to a certain territory and working primarily inside that territory, retain their powers anywhere in the country. Local governments do not have their own forces, except municipal guard forces, which have limited scopes and powers. The law framework in Ukraine is also national level only, territorial subdivisions do not have their own legislation, unlike in federated states. However, local governments can issue limited scope decrees that are enforced by the law enforcement bodies, for example for regulation of alcohol or usage of fireworks.

There is a dedicated system for corruption crimes which is separate from the rest of law enforcement. The military used to have their own justice system as well, but it was shut down in the beginning of the 2010s, and now there are discussions about bringing it back.

Some of the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies are also military formations, in particular National Guard of Ukraine, State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Security Service of Ukraine and State Security Administration, which apart from their law enforcement activities are also tasked with purely military activities, and they are considered to be an integral part of the defence forces of Ukraine.

As of end of 2010s-start of 2020s, Ukraine had roughly 300 000 active law enforcement personnel, servicing the population of approximately 40 million: 135 thousand in the National Police, 60 thousand in the National Guard, 53 thousand in the Border Guard, 27 thousand in the Security Security, and around several thousand in each of the remaining law enforcement bodies. However, not all of them execute law enforcement duties, some of them are only active in the field of national defence.

Each law enforcement body tends to have its own special tactical team for such sensitive tasks as hostage rescue or apprehending well-armed criminals. For example, DOZOR in the Border Guard, KORD in the National Police, Alpha in the Security Service or Omega in the National Guard.

Ukraine inherited its law enforcement and justice systems from the Soviet Union (with militsiya being its core part), which were plagued by politisation, corruption, brutality and even fusing with the crime world. But after the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, the public demand for reforms drove the large-scale law enforcement and judicial reforms in Ukraine, which significantly improved transparency and integrity of law enforcement and judiciary, gradually making them more alike those in the other European countries and less post-Soviet. This article describes the law enforcement in Ukraine how it was from 2014 onward. Before 2014 the system of law enforcement was very different.