Ukraine needs to complete ATO in the Donbass and move to a new format of defense of the country.

This was stated by the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov.

- Military operations continue in the east of our country for three years and have outgrown both in duration and in scale ATO format. At the same time, it should be noted that the antiterrorist operation has accomplished many important tasks. It was within the framework of the ATU that we stopped the aggressor, were able to hold presidential, parliamentary and local elections, and also liberated a significant part of the occupied territory of Ukraine. At the same time, it's time to move on to a new format for protecting the country, "he said..

According to him, the current Ukrainian legislation provides for two main cases in which the combat use of the Armed Forces is permitted: the declaration of war and an anti-terrorist operation.

- Despite the widespread opinion, according to our legislation, the introduction of martial law presupposes only the presence of a special legal regime in the country or in certain regions and does not provide an automatic right to use APU and other military formations. Legislation was formed on the basis of the twentieth century's ideas about the classical war and does not take into account the need to resist the hybrid aggression being waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine. It's time not just to recognize occupied some regions of Donetsk and Lugansk regions, but clearly, at the legislative level, to determine the basis of the state policy for their liberation. An effective technology of defense of the country is needed, and for this it is necessary to give the president the right to apply the APU and other military formations against the hybrid aggression on the part of the Russian Federation,.

He also noted that it is necessary to create an operational headquarters permanently operating in the zone of confrontation with broad powers for the integrated management of the APU, all power structures, as well as civil-military administrations.

"Such an approach will only strengthen the foundation of the Minsk agreements, since their implementation is impossible without resolving security issues and without the liberation of the occupied Ukrainian territory. This is a very serious issue, requiring discussion in a professional expert environment. The updated draft law "On the restoration of the state sovereignty of Ukraine over the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions" will be submitted to the president, after which I hope he will be promptly introduced to the Verkhovna Rada, "he said..