Self-Government Reform in Ukraine

On 3 July, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine began an introductory debate on presidential amendments to the constitution concerning the decentralisation of power. In presenting the project, President Petro Poroshenko stressed the importance of decentralisation to bringing peace to the eastern part of the country. He also noted that the Ukrainian language will remain the only national one, but regional and local authorities will have the right to grant special status to the Russian language and other national minority languages. In view of the situation in the Donbas, self-government reform has become not only important for modernising the state but also politically.