Current agenda for the development of the legal framework of state cultural policy in Ukraine

Abstract

The article analyzes the main directions of development of the regulatory and legal framework of cultural policy in Ukraine in 2025–early 2026. Strategic documents are considered, in particular, the Strategy for the Development of Culture until 2030 and the operational plan for its implementation, which establish culture as a component of the national security system and determine the mechanisms for strengthening civic identity through cultural practices.

Emphasis is placed on the institutionalization of the policy of national memory and the development of language policy as instruments of cultural decolonization, on strengthening the economic foundations of the functioning of the cultural sphere through mechanisms of patronage, state support for cinematography and the expansion of micro-grant programs for creative industries.

The steps of Ukraine on the path of European integration of the cultural sphere are highlighted, in particular, the expansion of participation in the Creative Europe program, as well as the creation of the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Fund as an international platform for coordinating financial assistance for the restoration of cultural objects damaged as a result of military aggression.

Attention is focused on the issues of digitization of the museum sector, the launch of the Register of the Museum Fund of Ukraine, and improving the procedure for evacuating museum objects from frontline territories.

The article also reveals the significance of the ratification of the Nicosia Convention as an instrument of international legal protection of cultural heritage and criminalization of crimes against cultural values, which becomes particularly relevant in war conditions.

The selection of regulatory and legal acts for analysis was carried out according to the criteria of their relevance for the development of state cultural policy, their significance for the formation of sustainable cultural institutions, as well as their impact on the mechanisms of state cultural management. The analyzed documents are classified by functional purpose into strategic program acts, acts of institutional support for cultural policy, regulatory decisions on the protection of cultural heritage and documents aimed at the development of creative industries and international cultural cooperation. The methodological basis of the study is general scientific and special methods of analyzing regulatory and legal acts, in particular, systemic, comparative legal and structural-functional approaches, which made it possible to identify the main trends in the development of legal support for cultural policy.

It is concluded that the specified complex of regulatory and legal initiatives forms a systemic model of the development of culture as a strategic resource of the state, aimed at strengthening the national identity, humanitarian security, and international subjectivity of Ukraine.