Various problematic aspects of the ethnic development of Ukraine as well as features of its ethnic system in the aspect of public policy and public administration are considered. The categories apparatus of the study is clarified (the concepts of ,,ethnos”, ,,ethnic community”, ,,ethnicity”, ,,people”, ,,nation/ nationality”), Ukrainian legislation on ethnocultural development are analyzed. The approaches of Western science are summarized regarding the main features of national minorities, an ethnic territory as part of the earth’s space, which is characterized by a certain homogeneity of the ethnic composition of its permanent residents, the territory of the ethnic group. The article describes the diversity of ethnic processes that is ethnic disengagement and unity, assimilation and integration, ethnic revival (ethnic renaissance) and ethnic decline, the development of ethnic conflicts and the harmonization of ethnic relations, the result of which is the emergence of mono-and multi-ethnic states.