Parliament passed constitutional changes that give more power and authority to regional and local governments. The adopted bill also fulfills a key obligation toward implementing the Minsk II peace agreement that was brokered in February. Under the deal, Russian-occupied parts of Luhansk and Donetsk were to be given special legal status.
Broader autonomy for Donbas was envisioned in the Minsk truce, but the measures that were passed only stipulate that a separate law, not requiring approval by the Constitutional Court, will outline the details of local governance there.
Pending approval by the Constitutional Court, a minimum of 300 subsequent votes in parliament, the measures liquidate heads of local administrations, previously appointed by the president. Their powers will be transferred to district and city executive committees formed by councils.
It also creates the position of prefect, who will ensure that local authorities act within the limits of their powers.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland observed the bill’s adoption, which was championed by the pro-presidential camp in parliament.
Perhaps the biggest stumbling to approving the measure again in parliament is the scope of status that Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts will receive in the separate law as foreseen in the current measure. This leaves the fate of the bill in the air.
The initial version of the bill stipulated that the status of the two easternmost oblasts would be determined in the actual decentralization law, the wording of the bill was revised when Nuland arrived in Kyiv on July 15, according to deputy parliamentary speaker Oksana Syroyid.
Pro-presidential lawmakers subsequently started a campaign to ensure that the decentralization law contained nothing that would finally determine the status of two problematic regions.
A day before voting, the following constitutional provision was included: “The particularities of self-governance in certain regions of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts will be envisaged by the law.”
Theoretically, the “law” leaves the door wide open for any provisions that lawmakers choose.
Some lawmakers tried calming fears referring to a law that was passed on the status of Donetsk and Luhansk on Sept. 16. First Deputy Chairman of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction, Ihor Kononeko, and pro-presidential lawmaker Volodymyr Ariev, reminded lawmakers of the specific measure.
It gives local authorities, for a period of three years, immunity from criminal persecution, the right to choose an official language, and the right to form local courts, prosecutor offices, and police units.
However, the law was never enforced, said Ariev. “And it will not be enforced while these territories are occupied,” he said.
Some lawmakers said they had been pressured to vote for the decentralization law.
Syroyid of the Samopomich party wrote on her Facebook page on July 15 that members of parliament were under extreme pressure from the international community to give the occupied territories “special status in our constitution.”
The main reason for this, according to Syroyid, is that the international community wants to transform Russia’s war against Ukraine into a local conflict. She said they’re tired of the war, but such “pressure is a denial of Ukraine’s right to self-determination.”
People’s Front lawmaker Leonid Yemets was more circumspect, saying “it depends on what you understand by ‘under pressure.’”
“I was invited to a meeting with Victoria Nuland (on July 15), at which we discussed all these issues – the U.S. position and the upcoming parliamentary vote… (Nuland) insisted (the law, including its new amendments), had to be approved,” Yemets told Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda on July 16.
Nuland met with all the parliamentary faction during her visit.
“She presented her arguments, and we presented ours,” Yemets said. “We explained the logic of the Minsk agreements: first – the end of hostilities, the removal of artillery, the exchange of hostages, and only then elections and constitutional amendments.”
In the end, it fell to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to ensure the bill gets past the first stage of the legislative process. Appearing in parliament on July 16, Poroshenko called on lawmakers to approve the bill, while denying that they had been under any kind of outside pressure.
“Ukraine was, is, and will remain a unitary state,” Poroshenko said. “The bill does not envisage a special status for Donbas – only a special status of local self-governance in the Donbas.”
While he said that Ukraine’s “U.S. and European partners show justified interest in the stabilization of situation in the east,” he called upon parliament “not to leave Ukraine facing the aggressor (alone).”
“I understand how difficult it is to vote for such a provision. It will be difficult to sign it as well, but we have to do it for Ukraine. We have to get used to taking uncomfortable decisions, and taking responsibility… Otherwise, Ukraine will pay dearly,” he told lawmakers.
Meantime, Denys Pushilin, head of the Supreme Council of the Donetsk People’s Republic said both the law on local elections and decentralization reform have nothing to do with self-proclaimed republic. “They are off the Minsk process and have nothing to do with us,” Pushilin said.
“The local elections in DNR will take place as promised on Oct. 18,” he said.
Kyiv Post’s legal affairs reporter Mariana Antonovych can be reached at [email protected].
