The President of Ukraine as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The Constitution of Ukraine grants the President of Ukraine the status of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This status provides for the authority of the President of Ukraine to exercise supreme strategic leadership over the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations provided for by law. The Supreme Strategic Leadership of the Defense Forces by the President of Ukraine is a key constitutional guarantee of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.The Constitution of Ukraine does not enshrine a holistic system of powers of the President of Ukraine as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, does not define the functional boundaries of the leadership of the defense forces by the President of Ukraine, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and does not regulate the mechanism of interaction of these officials in the process of leadership of the defense forces. The Russian full-scale military invasion clearly demonstrated the need to create a holistic and effective legal mechanism for the implementation of the constitutional status of the President of Ukraine as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the context of Russian military aggression, a clear normative definition of the algorithm of actions of senior officials of the security and defense sector of Ukraine regarding the adoption of decisions on the use of defense forces, in particular the procedure for the implementation of the powers of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in interaction with the Minister of Defense of Ukraine and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is of paramount importance.