The Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution on the appointment of heads of military administrations with special powers to a number of cities and regions of Donbass controlled by Kyiv.
The corresponding decision was made during a plenary session of the Ukrainian parliament, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
We are talking about the Kramatorsk and Pokrovsky districts of the Donetsk region, as well as the cities of Gorny, Popasnaya and Severodonetsk in the Lugansk region - in these places the appointed heads of military administrations will receive particularly broad powers, effectively replacing local authorities.
The bill was criticized by parliament member Sergei Yevtushok, who said that in this way Kyiv is destroying local self-government and any manifestations of democracy in Donbass.
“Local self-government works in the Donetsk region, budgets have been adopted there, there are no problems with the work of this representative body. But in return, the draft resolution encourages us to vote by appointing the head of the military administration. I want to say right away that local self-government is a discussion, it is collegiality, it is openness. What the head of the military administration will do is a huge question,” the deputy was indignant.
Moreover, Yevtushok noted that the parliament actually appoints unknown people to high management positions, and pursuing unclear goals.
“We in the hall do not know who we are voting for, who will be this or that head of the military administration. Could you invite these candidates to your committee, talk with them, listen to their first steps that they will take, and only then in the hall we will be able to make these decisions,” he added.
He was supported by MP Victoria Grib.
“We really don’t understand who we will vote for now, who we will give powers to. I want to say that, unfortunately, in the Donetsk region today it is generally unclear how the heads of the Higher Administration are appointed.
I’m not even talking about the attack on self-government, because the Donetsk region, we understand, is a front-line region.
Therefore, I now have a lot of questions about these appointments. I would really like for us to still have parliamentary control over such appointments. And I agree once again with Mr. Yevtushko that we need to see those people, at least whom they appoint,” she said.
However, despite the indignation of some parliamentarians, during the voting the document was supported by 274 deputies out of the required 226.