Servant of the People consolidates its power by using military administrations as soldiers for the president

There are now many military administrations operating in Ukraine, but their leaders differ. One of the possible leaders may be the Minister of Defense of Ukraine. Also, military administrations can be headed by high-ranking officers or commanders of military units.

Military administrations are an important instrument for the administration of regions and communities during martial law. At the same time, they can pose a serious threat to local self-government, because they allow them to “replay” the results of local elections in favor of the presidential party.

Thus, according to the results of local elections, not a single representative of the Servant of the People became mayor of the regional center. However, now a third of the heads of military administrations in cities that are not occupied or on the territory of which hostilities are not ongoing are associated with this political force. In addition, ten heads of regional military administrations are representatives of the Servant of the People or affiliated with it.

Where military administrations were created, who heads them and how this allows the head of state to form his own vertical in the regions, the “Honestly” Movement looked into.

Where were military administrations created?

It is impossible to find an exhaustive list of military administrations with information about their leaders. There are only decrees on their creation on the website of the Office of the President. According to these documents, there are currently 183 military administrations of settlements in Ukraine, another 24 in the regions, and one in Kyiv. Also, military administrations were formed on the basis of existing regional state administrations.

The first military administration that was created after the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia (not counting those formed on the basis of state administrations) was Gostomel. President Vladimir Zelensky signed the corresponding decree on March 21, 2022. This is the only military administration of a settlement in the Kyiv region. All the rest are regional, such as Buchanskaya. The last to be created was the Sumy City Military Administration 31 - in October of this year.

The largest number of military administrations were created in the Kherson region - 50. In the Zaporozhye region - 37, and in Donetsk - 36. The creation of a military administration in Neteshyn, Khmelnitsky region, hundreds of kilometers from the combat zone, was quite unexpected. This happened on October 13, 2023, the anniversary of the start of attacks on critical infrastructure. It was headed by Grigory Olendra. It is in Neteshyn that the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant is located.

Military administrations now operate in 61 cities (including Kyiv), another 59 in towns, 64 in villages. At the same time, the work of almost half of the city’s military administrations is impossible due to the occupation of these settlements. Often such administrations work in other cities in the controlled territory.

Military administrations should be formed where local governments cannot fulfill their duties. This is true for a number of communities near the front line. Then a military administration is formed there, and its head actually governs the city independently. The head is appointed by Zelensky on the recommendation of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or the regional military administration. The transfer of powers to local bodies should be supported by the Verkhovna Rada.

City military administrations

The 2020 elections were not a resounding success for Servant of the People. Then the party was unable to obtain the mayor's seat in any of the regional centers. The “servants” also did not receive a majority in the regional or city councils.

But the creation of military administrations and the expansion of the powers of their leaders opened a window of opportunity for increasing the influence of the president.

Thus, the law “On the legal regime of martial law” stipulates that military administrations can exercise the powers of not only city, town or village councils, but also regional and district ones (Article 10).

Although the heads of military administrations are appointed by Zelensky, not all of them are representatives of the Servant of the People. Moreover, not all of them are politicians, because military men can also hold this position.

However, out of 30 military administrations in cities that are not occupied or in whose territory there are no active military operations, at least ten are headed by people associated with the Servant of the People. Half of them are in the Kharkov region.

Some ran from this party, and some were affiliated. For example, the Berislav city military administration in the Kherson region is headed by Alexander Alchiev. From 2010 to 2017, he was the village head of Razdolnoye in the Donetsk region, that is, in a completely different region. First he ran for the Party of Regions, then for the Petro Poroshenko Bloc.

However, according to the regional publication “Most”, he was appointed to the position of first deputy chairman of the Berislav regional military administration, and then head of the city administration, under the so-called people’s deputy quota from the “servants” of Sergei Kozyr.

The story is different in Mirnograd, Donetsk region: the military administration there is headed by Yuriy Klyuchka. In 2020, he unsuccessfully ran for the city council from the Servant of the People, but subsequently headed the Pokrovsky district state administration. In May, after the start of a full-scale invasion, he resigned and went into defense. He headed the military administration of the city already in September, when it was created.

Several more heads of city military administrations were associated with the “Opposition Bloc” banned in 2022 - all in the Donetsk region. Thus, the Slavic MBA is headed by Vadim Lyakh, who in 2020 was elected mayor of the city from the same party. And the head of the military administration in Druzhkovka became Sergei Boevsky, who had previously been deputy chairman of the Pokrovsky district council. In 2015, he ran in the local elections from the Opposition Bloc.

Among the heads of city military administrations there is also a politician associated with European Solidarity. We are talking about Sergei Dobryak, who heads the Pokrovsk administration. In 2020, he ran and was elected to the district council from this party.

Most of the heads of city military administrations were mayors before their appointment. Six of them were self-nominated candidates. However, if in front-line cities the administrations are mostly still headed by politicians or officials, then the situation with regional centers or the already mentioned Neteshin is somewhat different.

City military administrations now operate in Kherson, Sumy and Chernigov. Their leaders belong to military structures, and some appointments were accompanied by scandals. There is also a military administration in Kyiv, but this story is complicated by the special status of the city.

The case of Chernigov became especially famous. A year ago, Mayor Vladislav Atroshenko was removed from office. Already in February, Zelensky signed a decree on the creation of a military administration in the city, headed by Dmitry Brizhinsky.

In Sumy, the military administration is also headed by a military man - Alexey Drozdenko. With the beginning of a full-scale invasion, he joined the ranks of the TRO and participated in organizing the defense of the city. However, before that he was not a politician or official. and worked at the university.

Regional military administrations and Kyiv

Regional military administrations were formed on February 24, 2022 on the basis of the state administrations existing at that time. Basically they were led by the same people as before the full-scale war. Their powers have expanded, and their media presence has grown. Now ten regional state administrations are headed by the same people who previously headed state administrations.

Eight heads of regional military administrations are representatives of the Servant of the People or are associated with it. Thus, Maxim Kozitsky heads the Lvov regional cell of the party. In the last local elections, Lvov became perhaps the biggest defeat for the presidential force, but the increasing influence of the heads of military administrations makes it possible to change this. Thus, even at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, in May 2022, according to the sociological group “Rating”, the actions of the city mayor Andrei Sadovoy and Maxim Kozitsky were supported by almost the same number of people.

If Kozitsky headed the party cell even before the start of the great war and the creation of the military administration, then in the Chernigov region it is a different story. Its boss, Vyacheslav Chaus, had previously been the head of the Regional State Administration, but he headed the Servant of the People in the region only in 2023 by order of the party chairman Elena Shulyak. This happened at the end of January, a week before the formation of the Chernigov city military administration.

But the Chernivtsi region is now headed by Ruslan Zaparanyuk. In 2020, he ran for the local council from the United Alternative party, but lost the election then. And until his appointment to his current position in 2022, he headed the Chernivtsi branch of Oschadbank. This fall he also headed the regional Servant of the People cell. That is, a certain practice has developed: first appoint heads of administrations, and after that introduce them into the party structure.

Andrey Raikovich, who heads the Kirovograd region, has no official relation to the “servants”. In the last local elections, he ran for the position of mayor of Kropyvnytskyi from the Proposition. However, already this year, together with the chairman of the regional council from the “Servant of the People”, Drozd was spotted doing buckwheat farming - handing out laptops to teachers, purchased with sponsors’ money.

The only regional military administration that currently does not have a leader is Khmelnitsky. His duties have been performed by Deputy Chairman Sergei Tyurin since March of this year, after the dismissal of Sergei Gamaliya.

Perhaps the most fierce confrontation between the presidential vertical and local self-government is taking place in Kyiv. Logically, the Kiev City Military Administration should have been created on the basis of the already existing state administration, headed by Vitaliy Klitschko, the mayor of the capital. However, in fact, these two bodies exist in parallel.

The KGVA is now headed by Sergei Popko, a serviceman, Colonel General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who was appointed to the position in October 2022. Without being a politician or party member, he actually represents the central government in Kyiv.

The distinction between his responsibilities and Klitschko’s responsibilities, in fact, exists only in words. Therefore, the question of the appropriateness of the existence of a military administration in the capital is regularly raised. It is not clear to whom the district administrations in the city report, which is why, for example, situations arise with transfer of responsibility for the failure to prepare shelters, as a result of which people died. These issues should be regulated by a new law on the capital, the adoption of which the people's deputies are significantly delaying.

Now the number of heads of military administrations associated with the Servant of the People is significant. Sometimes it increases due to the fact that the heads of military administrations are also appointed to positions in the party. This has become quite a powerful tool, allowing “servants” to increase their influence on the ground.

The “Honestly” movement has already noted that the Verkhovna Rada should differentiate the powers of central and local authorities. Including creating clear criteria for the grounds for creating military administrations and determining where the boundaries of the president’s influence on their leaders lie. And the further we go, the more urgent the need for this becomes in order to preserve the achievements of decentralization.