“The Russian invaders gave the mayor of Izyum an ultimatum to surrender the city to them. Marchenko refused.. And this is not the first attempt by Russians to force the leaders of communities to take a generally symbolic step - to hand over the keys to the city to them.. Not broken, although temporarily occupied, Melitopol (the mayor of the city Ivan Fedorov was taken prisoner for refusing to cooperate with the occupiers), Kherson, Energodar, Bucha. Probably, the aggressor believes that the mayors in Ukraine, as in Russia, are the deputies of the central government, and their decisions automatically apply to all administrative structures deployed in the city.

This message alone already states the triumph of one of Ukraine's most important reforms.. Decentralization implies a clear division of powers between the executive, that is, state, power and self-government.. The protection of the city is the task of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while the self-government is responsible for the life support of the city, the work of public services to maintain public infrastructure. On the other hand, the appeal of the occupiers to the head of the city can be considered a recognition of his influence.. After all, success in waging war depends not only on the military, but also on the reliability of the rear. Warm housing for defenders, nutritious food, and other household issues - all this increases the motivation of fighters.

The president's decision to appoint a military man as the head of the Kyiv City State Administration, although it does not quite comply with the law, will most likely be recognized as constitutional if it is appealed to the Constitutional Court. The need to separate the powers of the mayor and the representative of state power in the capital, which both the Council of Europe and Ukrainian experts have been crying out for decades, found its indirect confirmation in the first days of the war.. The very fact that the enemy managed to break through almost to the center before being destroyed clearly demonstrates the vulnerability of the structure, when the mayor, even the beloved one, must be responsible not only for public utilities, but also for state affairs, which undoubtedly include defense..

Heads of communities temporarily under occupation are now in a difficult situation. On the one hand, it is necessary to ensure the life of the communal sector, on the other hand, pressure begins from the occupiers to publicly fix their loyalty and... remain in their positions. Attempts to establish an occupation administration are doomed to failure, since there are neither qualified specialists nor strong support for such an administration.. The forces of the National Guard are not enough, and they only have the skills to disperse rallies of frightened Russian oppositionists, but not the speeches of Ukrainian citizens with state flags.

However, the heads of communities should also not take unjustified risks of communicating with Russian soldiers.. Worthy of attention is the practice of remote management of utilities and not only them. With the loss of vertical control of the police structure and the DSNS, the mayor also actually coordinates. However, in order to have greater confidence in their readiness not only to carry out the functions of maintaining public order, but also to be centers of resistance forces, the prudent heads of the communities ensured the evacuation of their families in a timely manner.. The modern "

In the non-occupied territory, local governments have a huge range of tools to bring victory closer. Not constrained by strict legal requirements that state bodies should be guided by, the sessions of the Rada of Communities approve their programs to help the army, refugees. After all, thanks to fiscal decentralization, the financial resource for this, although limited, is still sufficient. Yes, and the Budget Code prudently left the opportunity to provide subventions to the state budget in the form of programs to ensure the country's defense. Associations of communities coordinate the flows of internally displaced persons.

The attempts of the enemy to create a " Again, doesn’t Mariupol’s heroic fortitude deserve to be granted the status of a regional center, which is now prohibited by the constitutional norm designed for the interests of local princes.

If the decentralization of power has shown its fruits even in such an unusual sphere for self-government as the defense of the country, then this cannot be fully said about the executive branch, where changes have so far been limited only to an attempt to create a new zoning, albeit an imperfect one.. There are shortcomings in the legislation, which, although it concerns the actions of the authorities in wartime, does not quite meet the challenges. The same territorial defense, according to the law, should have been created by local governments, but in practice this turned out to be a function of military registration and enlistment offices.

Again, the flows of those who want to protect, if not the country, then at least their native towns and villages found their expression in the creation of a number of paramilitary formations modeled on the Maidan, a vivid manifestation of which was the creation of spontaneous checkpoints, which significantly complicates the movement of flows fleeing the aggressor's bombs. Created on the basis of regional state administrations, military administrations are gradually mastering the situation, directing people's energy into a normative channel..

Although the legislative field is also not all right. The Law of Ukraine “On the Participation of Citizens in the Protection of Public Order and the State Border” is best adapted for the creation of local self-defense associations, which allows, by decisions of local governments, to create public formations for the protection of public order. But in itself, this law is valid only together with by-laws of the government, in particular, with the "

And, again, we need regulatory legal acts of district military administrations that would regulate relations between such public formations and other state structures.. After all, the main task of such formations is to protect public order and public infrastructure facilities, such as gas distribution units and electrical substations.. But since such formations cannot replace the police and territorial defense units, the greatest benefit from them lies in observation, identifying unusual phenomena, unknown people.

Also, the presence of observation groups in villages rather encourages men of military age from internally displaced persons to register with the military registration and enlistment office, especially since this does not require military enlistment offices to be taken by storm - in each community there is an official responsible for registration. Yes, and the elders received a new function - to be responsible for the activities of such voluntary public formations.

After the war, a detailed analysis of the actions of state and self-governing bodies will be made, the identification of institutionally untenable ones. However, even now we can say with confidence: the reform of local self-government and the territorial organization of executive power has made a significant contribution to our future victory..

Read more articles by Yuri Ganushchak at the link.