The Counterterrorism Centre was created in December 1998 by the Decree of the President of Ukraine. It is a permanent body of the Security Service of Ukraine, which coordinates activities of combating terrorist actors. The legal basis for the Centre’s activities is the Constitution of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine “On Combating Terrorism”, the Statute “On the Antiterrorist Centre and its coordination groups at the SSU regional offices” and other regulatory acts.

Since 2016 the unified state system of prevention, reaction and termination of terrorist acts and the minimisation of their consequences (resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of February 18, 2016 №92) has operated in Ukraine.

The system determines markers of terrorist threats: «GRAY», «BLUE», «YELLOW» and «RED».

As of today, the following levels of terrorist threat have been assessed in Ukraine:

«RED» (real threat) – Donetsk and Luhansk regions, AR of Crimea 

«YELLOW» (projected threat) – Zaporizzhya, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and Chernihiv regions

«BLUE» (potential threat) – Kyiv city, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zakarpattia, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy and Chernivtsi regions. 

«GREY» (possible threat) – Vinnytsia, Volyn, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kirovohrad, Lviv, Poltava and Ternopil regions.

Levels of terrorist threat are established for all counter-terrorism actors.

The Counterterrorism Centre organises and conducts command-and-staff and special tactical training exercises to ensure its readiness to respond to terrorist attacks. Over 600 such exercises were conducted in 2020.