The period of voluntary amalgamation of hromadas will last approximately until February 2020, said Alyona Babak, Minister of Development of Communities and Territories, in Satuday’s Interview programme at Radio Svoboda.

“We want to maximise the duration of our voluntary amalgamation. I think, by February. And then we will see whether there is a need to establish by law configurations of hromadas that have not yet been amalgamation, according to perspective plans. That is, we now encourage the continuation of the voluntary amalgamation process as much as possible. And then, not waiting another 100 years for people to live in poverty and without outpatient clinics, schools etc., to help them amalgamate through the legislative mechanism,” said Alyona Babak.

According to the Minister, more than 6,000 hromadas in Ukraine have not yet been amalgamated.

“But we understand that there may be optimally about 1400 hromadas,” Mrs Babak added.