Vitalii Bezgin, Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, expressed his views on the potential changes to its administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine.

The MP believes that the regional level should not change.

‘Our regions are the optimal units in terms of management and distances. There is obviously a depopulation problem in the temporarily occupied regions, the area of active hostilities, and the Chernihiv region. However, regions are not currently undergoing any changes. Once again, I would like to emphasise that the issue of statistical macro-regions is not the same as the consolidation of regions. Regional councils and regional state administrations exist and will continue to do so. The only possible change would be a small correction to the boundaries of regions where they border each other (except for the temporarily occupied territories and the zone of active hostilities),’ said Vitalii Bezgin.

There may also be some changes at the district level in the next three years. According to the MP, these changes could include the Verkhovyna district in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, for example, or depopulated areas near the border with the aggressor.

Regarding the basic level, the MP said that the vision and basic provisions on the prospects for consolidating territorial communities will be presented on 21 July.

‘But we should not expect a revolution here. The state’s policy will be to support the weakest communities with prospects and consolidate those that have not managed to organise service provision on their territory within five years,’ said Vitalii Bezgin.

He also said that the state will strive to have a comprehensive register of starosta districts by the end of this year, as well as to work on modelling this level in a recommendation format.