Ukrainian decentralization under martial law: challenges for regional and local self-governance

Ukraine’s decentralization reform is widely depicted as a success story among post-Euromaidan reforms and an important driver of Ukraine’s resilience to Russia’s invasion. Our analysis goes beyond current accounts by zooming in on how the decentralized local self-governance system in Ukraine has adapted to prolonged application of martial law. We address this question through a two-step analysis. First, a legal review identifies how martial law has altered the regulatory framework governing local self-government. Second, we draw on stakeholder interviews conducted in the Chernihiv, Kherson, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions to examine how these changes have been implemented in practice, with a focus on interactions between local self-government bodies and military administrations across different levels. We find that Ukraine’s local self-government system has managed to sustain amidst the war, and centralization trends have largely been demand-driven. However, our analysis highlights two risks, stemming from the ongoing application of martial law. First, the broad and flexible legal provisions of martial law create space for potential political misuse of military authority, even though our interviews do not reveal concrete cases. Second, the centralization of recovery funds also poses a risk of unequal resource distribution, potentially undermining hromadas’ resilience and ownership of the reconstruction process.