Governors are appointed by Kyiv, city mayors are elected.
Decentralization was one of demands when the protests started back in November, and governors to be elected was one of the examples. The new government has been calling for the decentralization laws, but, alas, they’re still working on it in the Parliament. (I might have a post with their list of things to do, from before they came to power)
This Russian invasion came as an unwelcome distraction. Instead of analyzing and vetting every government appointment and policy, the attention turned to Crimea, Donbas and Ukraine’s military readiness. Many of these problems could be helped with new legislature, but the Parliament is dragging its feet. (By design, incompetence, pettiness, greed, etc?)
Federalization, the other dirty f-word, is de-facto break up of Ukraine so it’s little wonder Russia is pushing hard for it. But, if Ukraine was to go with Russian “federalization” model, where everything is decided in Moscow, leaving decisions like garbage pickup at the local level, then Kyiv has little to worry about in accepting it.
(Shockingly, when Yanukovich was running the whole country there was hardly a whisper from Donbas about federalization)