The paper reveals modern problems of limiting, ensuring, and realizing human rights during crisis events in Ukraine. The unsatisfactory state of the social protection system of Ukraine in the pre-crisis period is revealed (including problems of unstructured legislation, excessive financial burden, etc.). The article analyzes the existing guarantees and standards of human rights during the pandemic (included in the selected international documents and the Constitution of Ukraine). Several negative factors faced by the most vulnerable social groups during the crisis were addressed (for IDPs – problems of displacement, residence, job search; for the older population – problems of social security, treatment of chronic diseases, movement restrictions, and relevant age-based discrimination; for the homeless – absolute insecurity from all manifestations of the COVIDfueled crisis; for the detained and imprisoned – problems of penitentiary medical care, postponement of amnesty and subsequent rehabilitation). The paper assesses the relevant normative documents regulating social relations during the pandemic in terms of their positive and negative impact on the above risk groups (facilitated with the analysis of additional financial aid and payments, legal restrictions, the impact of the increasing financial burden on state and local budgets due to quarantine, the unconstitutionality of certain provisions and the lack of adequate legal response from the Constitutional Court of Ukraine). Conclusions were drawn based on the analysis of the officially established strategy to combat COVID-19, supplemented by a prognosis of the long-term consequences of its implementation (the pros and cons of the selected strategy of simultaneous “hard” and “soft” quarantine measures, the lack of long-term care policy, unpreparedness for vaccination and the restoration of the pre-pandemic way of everyday life).