PROSPECTS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MILITARY POLICE IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article deals with urgent matter, namely, the prospects for the establishment of the Military Police in Ukraine. The issues of military discipline, the powers of the Military Law and Order Service and the possibility of creating a Military Police as part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on its base were considered. Previous attempts to solve this problem in our country have been analyzed. A general description of the two models of the organization of military law enforcement structures available in the world – the Military Police and the Gendarmerie – was carried out. The author has emphasized that the perspective of creating the Military Police on the basis of the already functioning Military Law and Order Service as part of the Armed Forces, given the existing shortcomings and potential risks, cannot be considered an optimal step. Another model of a military law enforcement body in the form of the Osavul Service (gendarmerie), which has a flexible dualistic subordination of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, taking into account the realities of today's Ukraine, is a more acceptable option. The main arguments of this approach are as follows: full and comprehensive use of the relevant potentials of the above-mentioned power institutes of the defense and law enforcement direction (on the part of the Ministry of Defense, this is the VSP, the Ministry of Internal Affairs – NGU, investigative and operative employees); a high probability of better law enforcement support of the functioning of all defense structures – the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Service for Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine, the State Special Transport Service and other military formations built according to the laws of Ukraine; lack of monopoly control by a separate law enforcement agency over the new law enforcement institution, which will contribute to reducing cases of undue pressure on the leadership of the new military law enforcement institution; the dualistic status stipulated by the legislation allows not to reduce a significant part of the personnel of the aforementioned law enforcement structure in the post-war period, but to redirect its activities to the performance of mainly peacetime police functions; the possibility of legislative consolidation of the powers of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine regarding the coordination of the activities of the new military law enforcement body (the practice of the current French Republic), which will contribute to the strengthening of the corresponding civilian control.