Decentralization in Ukraine: Implications and Challanges

Andreas Umland, Senior Nonresident Fellow of the Institute of International Relations, together with Valentyna Romanova, Senior Consultant at the Department of Regional Policy, published two Research Papers about decentralization in Ukrainian politics.

Before the protests in 2013 and 2014, Ukrainian state power was highly concentrated. However, the enormous imbalance between the power of the state and municipalities was a fundamental obstacle to the creation of the functioning state. The Euromaidan uprising in February 2014, Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and the subsequent two rounds of national elections in 2014 changed the composition of the ruling elites of Ukraine. The unexpected and severe threat to Ukraine’s territorial integrity demonstrated the vulnerability of the theretofore centralized yet regionally diverse state. This kind of disruption of territorial integrity can be described as „decentralization“.