Decentralization of Ukraine: One more region demands “special status”

Zaporozhye Governor Konstantin Bryl urges Kiev to provide Zaporozhye region a “special status” for settlement of its economic, social and other problems.

Speaking at a roundtable in the regional administration, Bryl said the “region lacks legal levers to settle everyday problems of the region’s residents.” He said environmental problems are among the most acute ones, as imperfect legislation and the moratorium on the planned inspections of enterprises “tie the hands” of the power representatives.

“For instance, we cannot understand why the industrial emissions have increased recently: either because the air cleaning systems have been switched off or because industrialists break their promises,” Bryl said.

EADaily reported earlier that on June 16, the people’s deputy Yevgeny Balitskiy submitted a bill looking to provide a special status to Zaporozhye region to the Supreme Rada. Earlier, deputies of the Odessa, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Zakarpattia and Kharkiv regional councils demanded special statuses for their regions.

The most large-scale demonstrations demanding autonomy and federalization of the country happened in the spring of 2014 in Donbass. After the Kiev authorities attempted to suppress the protests, an armed conflict broke out in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. According to UN data, the armed conflict has claimed 9.5 thousand lives already.