Territorial communities in the conditions of martial law in Ukraine: administrative and legal support and peculiarities of functioning

Abstract

The article examines theoretical and legal approaches to defining the concept and features of territorial communities in Ukraine, as a set of residents united by permanent residence within a certain village, town or city, which are independent administrative and territorial units or a voluntary association of residents of several villages. which have a single administrative center. It is noted that there is an urgent need for decentralization in Ukraine, which involves the transfer of a wide range of powers, as well as finances, from the state power to united territorial communities and local self-government bodies created by them. The first stage of the reform (2018-2019), which provided for the voluntary unification of settlements into one UTG (united territorial community), showed that residents formed about 40% of UTGs across the entire territory of the state on their own initiative. Therefore, in 2020, the organization of new OTG took place centrally. The introduction of martial law in Ukraine changed the functioning and development of the OTG, a large part of which ended up in the war zone. It is noted that according to the current legislation, during the period of martial law, military administrations exercise the powers of local self-government bodies in united territorial communities.
 Despite the steps taken in the direction of reforming the territorial organization of the authorities, the system of the OTG and the functioning of the newly elected representative bodies in them require both legal and institutional support. However, in the conditions of martial law, the implementation of the tasks of the decentralization reform is quite limited. At the same time, the created OTG and their representative bodies must ensure the provision of a basic package of social and administrative services to the residents of communities. Taking into account that military actions are being conducted in Ukraine and in order to ensure the provision of necessary assistance to the citizens of Ukraine, it is proposed to provide emergency (crisis) social services (if it is impossible to apply the general order of organization and provision of social services). Existing problems in the field of administrative and legal regulation of OTG in Ukraine require further scientific analysis, research, generalization and solution.