Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada National Security and Defense Committee Ivan Vinnyk (BPP) says the head of the Anti-Terrorist Center under the SBU Security Service of Ukraine is to take a decision on the completion of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO), while president of Ukraine – on the launch of measures to ensure national security, aimed at changing the format of a military operation in Donbas.
"In order to complete the ATO, we need the relevant decision of the first deputy of the SBU responsible for counterterrorism. To announce measures to ensure national security, a relevant decision should be taken by President, and later the General Staff creates a vertical management headed by the chief of the Joint Operational Staff, tasked with general correlation of troops in the relevant area and ensuring Ukraine's national security," Vinnyk told 112 Ukraine TV channel.
Read alsoUkraine's Gen. Staff says ATO over, new Operation in Donbas kicking offHe specified that the General Staff and Commander-in-Chief will top the vertical of the military administration. He added that, according to the current Constitution, the president of Ukraine is Commander-in-Chief.
Answering the question on who else will join the joint forces' staff, he said: "Article 8 of the law contains an exhaustive list of those who can be involved in measures to ensure national security, and this is the entire list of our military formations... It is possible to involve others. Doctors can be involved, too, if they are part of a relevant mission. They will be considered combatants and enjoy a full-fledged social protection, same as servicemen receive."
Today, Feb 23, Law "On the peculiarities of state policy regarding the provision of state sovereignty of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions," commonly known as the Donbas reintegration law, was published in the Ukrainian parliament's official newspaper, Holos Ukrainy. The law will come into force Feb 24.
