It looks like Ukraine's war-torn eastern regions won't have martial law. Instead, a new hybrid form of governance will be set up there.
President Petro Poroshenko has ordered on March 5 A creation of
military-civilian administrations in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, a new form of
governance in the towns and villages, where elected councils
and appointed executive bodies have self-dissolved, cannot or do not want to
function for any reason.
There will be also regional military-civilian administrations, formed on
the basis of regional administrations of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts and headed
by the regional governors Oleksandr Kikhtenko and Hennadiy Moskal, presidential
decree said.
Poroshenko also ordered to create the hybrid administrations in Volnovakha
and Mariyinka districts of Donetsk Oblast and in Novoaidar, Popasna and
Stanychno-Luhansky districts of Luhansk Oblast.
Denys Vasyliyev, the national security expert at public initiative the
Reanimation Package of Reforms, believes that these administrations should be
created all over Ukraine-controlled Donbas. “Let’s start with regionals
councils – they don’t function in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts and they are the
key bodies there,” he said.
Vasyliyev added that the military and civil administration would be a good
response to wartime and they should be in charge of security and
counter-terrorism operations while Russia-sponsored hostilities continue.
This new form of governance was set up by a new law, which was approved and
then enacted by the president at the end of last month. It’s a very soft form
of martial law, which allows to preserve such vital elements of civil life as
elections and referendums. It also prevents Ukraine’s military commandment to
take over full power, which they are ill-equipped to handle.
The new administration will handle taxes and property issues, as well as be
responsible for evacuations, curfews and manning checkpoints, as well as
defending strategic sites.
At the same time, military commanders will be heavily involved in new
government, but the exact mechanism for setting up these administrations is yet
to be spelled out by the Anti-Terrorist Operations headquarters, headed by
Colonel General Vasyl Hrytsak.
Both Kikhtenko, the head of Donetsk regional administration, which is
currently based in Kramatorsk, not occupied Donetsk, and Moskal, governor of
Luhansk Oblast, whose office is located in Severodonetsk, previously addressed
to the president with proposals to establish military-civil administrations in
a set of town and villages, located along the frontline.
According to Poroshenko’s order, these administrations will be formed in the
cities of Avdiyivka, Vuhledar and Krasnohorivka in Donetsk Oblast. In Luhanks
Oblast they will be formed in the villages of Krymske, Triohizbenka, Kriakivka,
Lobacheve, Lopaskyne, Orikhove-Donetske, Novotoshkivske, Zholobok, Troitske and
Novozvanivka.
Valentyna Romanova, an expert on regional politics at New Ukraine think
tank, said that the defense issues will be the priority for military and civil
administrations, while the local and municipal problems will be sidelined.
“The local functions of these bodies will be financed from the
cash-strapped local budgets while the defense functions – from the state
budget, which shows, what kind of task they will be doing first of all” she
said.
President Poroshenko said the military and civil administrations will
function until the local elections are held. These elections are scheduled to
take place at the end of October.
Romanova of New Ukraine think tank believes that the merger of local and
municipal functions at military – civil administrations could serve as a
test-drive for local governance with very broad responsibilities.
Ukraine plans to reform its national governance system, passing many powers
to local authorities, as part of its Constitutional and recentralization reform
this year.
The new administrations, creation of which was recommended by the National
Security and Defense Council, will be able to address a major problem in
eastern Ukraine, where some regional and local governments don’t function at
all.
