On the essence of cyber defence as a type of military actions

The Constitution of Ukraine distinguishes between the sphere of national security (consequently, cyber security as its component!) and the sphere of defence. Therefore, the issue of the cyber defence of Ukraine and its theoretical foundations can be considered from the point of view that it is a component of the defence of the state. The analysis proved that in the totality of the current provisions of the legislation of Ukraine regarding defence, cyber defence is one of the functions performed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine together with other military formations (therefore, by the defence forces) in case of armed aggression against Ukraine. That is, it is not about the cyber defence of the state as a whole, but only about its component performed be the Armed Forces of Ukraine (defence forces) in the phase of repulsing armed aggression (conducting cyber defence) – this is cyber defence in the narrow sense of the concept of “defence”, which should be considered as a type of military actions. Meanwhile, such an aspect is not disclosed in the legislation of Ukraine and in known publications. This means that on the way to understanding the essence of the cyber defence of Ukraine, as a conceptually most important theoretical task, one should first of all decide on cyber defence as a type of military actions, which caused the purpose of the article. The in-depth examination of the issue of cyber defence from the standpoint of Ukrainian defence legislation, the role of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, cyber troops in their composition and other entities of the defence forces allowed to determine the essence of cyber defence as a type of military actions, as well as to outline the specifics of the implementation of the main measures and the structural and logical scheme of its organization in the course of repulsing an armed aggression against Ukraine.