The article emphasizes the relevance of the issue of protecting the national interests of states in the context of various armed conflicts that are currently gaining momentum in the world, and especially the Russian-Ukrainian war, which has been going on for more than ten years. Currently, we are witnessing the destruction or transformation of previously created security blocs and alliances, attempts to create new ones, and the search for new means of ensuring peace in different regions. The growing trends in conducting hybrid wars, which include economic, informational, political and military intervention in the development of states, also cause concern for the democratic world. Such changes require the improvement of the security policy of all states of the world – purposeful activities of authorized entities to create mechanisms for protecting national interests.

This requires understanding first of all the theoretical foundations of EU membership as one of the mechanisms for ensuring national security, which is the purpose of our study.

It has been substantiated that the existence of any sovereign and independent state in the modern world of deep geopolitical transformations is determined by the policy in the sphere of national security and defense and is one of the most urgent directions of international and regional – European cooperation. Gaining membership in the EU or other security blocs and alliances through cooperation in the security environment allows states to ensure national security and receive protection from external threats, jointly counter and respond to military, economic, information threats, ensure the stability of socio-economic and political development. At the same time, the relationship and interdependence between collective and national security is direct.

The author argues that there are doctrinal, institutional and legal foundations for ensuring national security in Ukraine. At this, the realities of the current geopolitical development and the political and legal situation of Ukraine in the conditions of the legal regime of martial law and the threat to state sovereignty more than ever exacerbated the importance of taking into account military and non-military factors, a comprehensive and systematic approach to ensuring national security, conducting a balanced and consistent legal policy of the state in this area in the future.

However, unlike the EU member states, and according to the current legal acts between Ukraine and the EU, cooperation in the field of security does not provide for collective security guarantees. Therefore, the prospect of EU membership is considered by Ukraine, including as one of the international mechanisms for ensuring national security. Accordingly, within the existing legal framework, it is now necessary to strengthen national security and cooperation with the EU in the political and military planes, at the level of relevant state institutions, in cooperation with international security organizations.

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