The article reveals the importance of the National Guard of Ukraine as one of the bodies that ensure the protection of the human civil rights and freedoms, law enforcement, preventing and fighting against crime, natural disasters, various kinds of accidents, disasters, explosions, epidemics and epizootics, epiphytotic, pollution, biological or bacteriological infection of a certain territory or objects. The article deals with tasks and functions focused on warning, prevention and response to emergency situations of war, social, technological and natural disasters. There are two main groups identified among them, they are: general (public safety, public order, fight against crime) and special (rescue of people, property, protection of life and health). The attention is paid to the management efficiency of chiefs and commanders, their headquarters and staff, aimed at the timely and full implementation of measures to step up the protection of public order, ensure the public security, consolidate the legality and prevent crime. In addition, the attention is devoted to special operations, namely, a set of operational, regime, military and other measures and actions carried out by law enforcement entities independently or interacting with other units under the consolidated guidance and with the shared objective. Thus, the objective is to stabilize the situation, to localize and remove the effects of the emergency situation of a certain type, to protect the objects of the national security: to ensure both human civil rights and freedoms and the legitimate interests of society and the state; to carry out special operations in the legal boundaries, in defined territory and time period; to establish the interaction with the population in order to provide its security, effective and fast normalization of the current operational environment, localization and removal of the effects of the emergency situation; to observe the requirements of the current legislation of Ukraine, morals and legal culture strictly and obligatory; to explain the basic methods, forms, measures and actions carried out by law enforcement entities. Besides the specified basic tasks, the additional ones are indicated as follows: the protection of the site of the special operation carrying out; criminal investigative, combat, informational, logistic and moral-psychological support of the special operations; the provision of the first emergency care to victims and their delivery to medical institutions and others.