IMPLEMENTATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS BY THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE DURING THE FIRST STAGE OF REPELLING THE LARGE-SCALE MILITARY AGGRESSION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AGAINST UKRAINE (FEBRUARY 24 – APRIL 2, 2022)

Abstract

The article is devoted to analysis of the implementation by the President of Ukraine V. Zelensky of the constitutional powers of the President of Ukraine during the first stage of repelling the large-scale military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine (February 24 – April 2, 2022). The chronological limits of the study are determined by the strategic importance of the period from February 24 to April 2, 2022 as the first stage of the war in Ukraine, which lasted from the beginning of the large-scale invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine from the territory of the Russian Federation, Belarus and occupied Crimea and until the complete liberation of Kyiv region from the Russian occupiers. Despite the invasion and offensive of the Russians from two-thirds of the perimeter of the Ukrainian borders, the central and at the same time the most dramatic episode of this period was the battle for Kyiv. With the fall of Kyiv, Ukraine as a sovereign state would most likely cease to exist. That is why this stage of the war was decisive: there was a question about the existence of the Ukrainian state. The powers of the President of Ukraine are defined in Article 106, Article 107, as well as in Article 72, Article 77, Article 83, Article 85, Article 114, Article 118, Article 125, Article 128, Article 131, Art. 1311, Article 136, Article 137, Article 148, Article 150, Article 151, Article 154, Article 156 of the Constitution of Ukraine. Most of the constitutional powers of the President of Ukraine are exercised through legal acts of a sub-legal nature: decrees and orders of the President of Ukraine, which, according to Part 3 of Article 106 of the Constitution of Ukraine, are mandatory for implementation on the territory of Ukraine. During the first stage of the war, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, issued 141 decrees: 19 in five days in February, 116 in March, and 6 in the first two days of April. During the same time, 27 orders of the President of Ukraine were issued. All published decrees of the President of Ukraine for the specified period expressed the decisions of the President of Ukraine related to the state management of the country in the conditions of military aggression of the Russian Federation (the exception is Decree No. 118/2022 of March 9) and implemented the constitutional powers of the President of Ukraine. The analysis of the decrees issued by the President of Ukraine V. Zelensky during the first stage of repelling large-scale Russian armed aggression proved that these normative legal acts of various spheres of state administration – from decisions in the field of the country's defense to humanitarian issues and communications with society. This allows us to talk about the complex nature of the President of Ukraine's implementation of the powers granted to him by the Constitution and laws of Ukraine, and about the compliance of the head of state's management decisions with the challenges of the extremely difficult time of Ukraine's defense of its independence and territorial integrity.