On 28 January, the Parliament passed a law on amendments to Article 149 of the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine thus changing the rules of procedure for amending the Constitution.

Among other things, the law states as follows: "If a draft law on amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine (which law, in accordance with the opinion of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, complies with the requirements of Articles 157 and 158 of the Constitution of Ukraine) is previously approved by the Verkhovna Rada and is not considered at the next regular session after its prior approval, then such draft law shall be considered by the Verkhovna Rada at the next regular session following it.

"This decision will give us additional 5 to 6 months to discuss the amendments to the Constitution in terms of decentralization more thoroughly, without postponing that matter for an indefinite period of time. This is quite a responsible position of Ukrainian statesmen," wrote Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman on his official page on Facebook.

He also noted that, from the very beginning, the decentralization reform has been strongly opposed. Today, there are also appear absurd allegations, fake information is disseminated about special status of Donbas just to leave everything as it was.

“Just remember the discussions in the course of which the decision on financial decentralization was made, how many analysts were against the commencement of the process of communities consolidation. Now, all name it a success. The same thing will also happen when we secure the irreversibility of decentralization in the Constitution, and the process of life improvement picks up steam at the local level,” - Volodymyr Groysman is confident.

“I appeal to the ordinary rank-and-file citizens of usual cities, villages, towns. Irresponsible politicians want to steal your prosperous future. Don’t believe those speculations, don’t let populist politicians deprive you of the right to a normal life,” - wrote the Chairman of the Parliament.