THE RELEVANCE OF SPACE ACTIVITIES UNDER MARTIAL LAW IN UKRAINE: A PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The article examines the relevance of Ukraine’s space activities under
martial law through the prism of contemporary approaches to public administration and
national security. It is substantiated that, under the conditions of full-scale armed
aggression, space activities are no longer exclusively a scientific and technological area
of public policy but acquire strategic importance for the functioning of public
administration, national defence, information resilience, territorial monitoring, critical
infrastructure protection, and evidence-based decision-making. It is determined that
modern space technologies provide access to information required for assessing the
condition of territories, identifying changes in infrastructure facilities, forecasting
emergency situations, evaluating the consequences of military operations, monitoring
critical infrastructure, and creating an information basis for strategic planning and
public policy development.
The article analyses the regulatory and institutional foundations of space
activities in Ukraine and identifies the principal challenges of their public administration
under martial law. These challenges include insufficient institutional capacity, limited
financial resources, the need to ensure sustainable access to space-based data,
insufficient integration of information resources, increasing cyber threats, the need to
protect critical information infrastructure, and the necessity to strengthen coordination
among public authorities, research institutions, space-sector entities, private companies,
and international partners. Particular attention is paid to the need to reconsider the role
of the state in shaping and implementing space policy in accordance with contemporary
security, technological, economic, and geopolitical challenges. 
The study substantiates the expediency of shifting from a predominantly
centralized model of space governance towards a flexible network-based model
combining strategic state regulation, interinstitutional coordination, public-private
partnerships, scientific and technological cooperation, and international interaction. The
potential of space-based data for public administration is identified, particularly in
territorial management, natural resource monitoring, critical infrastructure assessment,
damage evaluation, recovery planning, environmental monitoring, and crisis response.
It is demonstrated that the digital transformation of the space sector should be
accompanied by effective mechanisms for information exchange, analytical data
processing, cybersecurity, risk management, and institutional coordination.
The authors propose an approach to a security-oriented model of public
administration of space activities based on strategic planning, regulatory and legal
support, institutional coordination, resource provision, digital integration, international
cooperation, public-private interaction, and continuous performance monitoring. The
study establishes that the implementation of such an approach may contribute to
strengthening the technological capacity of the state, improving the efficiency of spacebased information use, enhancing Ukraine’s defence capabilities and information
resilience, and increasing the effectiveness of public decision-making. It is argued that,
in the long term, space activities should be considered an important component of
Ukraine’s post-war recovery, digital transformation, technological development, and
strategic autonomy. The development of national capabilities in the space sector,
combined with international cooperation and private-sector participation, can create
additional opportunities for strengthening the resilience of public administration and
ensuring the sustainable development of the state under conditions of persistent security
challenges.

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