If councils of voluntarily amalgamated territorial hromadas did not have to worry about the format of starosta districts being formed, as unchanged territories of the relative village and settlement councils automatically became new hromada councils (except for the council of the central settlement), following the local elections held in October of 2020 the issue of starosta districts formation faced several difficulties, caused by, on the one hand, a legislative gap in terms of hromada council authorities to establish starosta districts, and on the other hand, by appearing within territorial hromadas, established by the Cabinet of Ministers, of towns that are not their administrative centres.

Thus, the newly formed hromada councils have faced a complicated challenge – to determine the territorial basis for exercising the authorities of starostas, whose being in office is confirmed. It is highlighted by Oleksandr Vrublevskyi, expert in starosta activities and territorial hromadas cooperation, in the material.