Administrative divisions of Ukraine

Ukraine

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Ukraine

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Ukraine is subdivided into 24 oblasts (provinces), one autonomous republic, and two "cities with special status".

Overview

The system of Ukrainian subdivisions reflects country's status as a unitary state (as stated in the country's constitution) with unified legal and administrative regime for each unit. However, experts agree that the wide autonomy of Crimea, the cultural and historical differences between regions, combined with lack of clarity in separation of powers between the levels of government diminish the formal unity of Ukraine significantly. This has the effect of slowing integration and causing local underdevelopment. On top of all that the officials of the neighboring Russian Federation consistently proclaim of historical and cultural ties of the Crimean peninsula with Russia handing over Ukraine the so-called bear's favor to implement peace in the region. The issue of administrative reform are routinely brought up and several projects were proposed but failed to get significant traction. Some of the proposed steps include the integration of a few small oblasts, the broadening of oblast and city authority, clarifying the authority and eliminating the competition between the locally elected and centrally appointed bodies.

For an understanding of the cultural and socioeconomic differences within the country, a knowledge of the Ukrainian historical regions is crucial in studying the administrative structure.

General scope of administrative subdivision

Regional subdivision

There are three major administrative regional subdivisions: oblast (province), raion (district), and local councils either municipal or rural. Note that oblast and raion are often being translated into English as province and district respectively. Please, be aware that historically Ukraine used to have exactly such types of division that later were abandoned. Beside regional subdivisions there are also cities with a special status for each level of those subdivisions: a republican status, a oblast subordination, and a raion subordination.

For example, on a national level the city of Kiev and the city of Sevastopol have a republican status which is roughly equivalent to an oblast subdivision.

On the oblast level almost each have a city of oblast subordination (importance), usually it is the administrative center (capital) of that oblast, but also some other big cities have such status as well. Within the oblast such cities have the same importance of a whole raion and often are the administrative centers of such. Note that beside the regular raions there are several cities in Ukraine usually of republican (mentioned earlier) or oblast status that are subdivided into several municipal raions of their own, which sometimes include other municipal and rural administrations. There are 23 such cities with municipal raions.

A lot of raions, although with less frequency as oblasts, also have settlements of its level of importance. Notice that at this level the settlements are not always cities, but also could be urbanized settlements. The settlements of a raion subordination administer several other adjacent to them local councils, almost always rural. If raion has several settlements of the special they may share the administrative power for the raion.

Local councils

The last level of administrative division is local councils. They can be either urban or rural. Be aware that in Ukraine beside a village there is a rural type of settlement (селище - literally: settlement) which is part of a near adjacent village while being somewhat of an independent locality. Those settlements together with the home village combine a local (rural) council. For simplicity sake, usually a village is the last level of administrative division, but it may contain some extraterritorial localities.

Other nomenclatures for local councils that are now abandoned include khutir, workers' settlement etc.

Types of settlements

Ukraine has three major types of settlements: city, urbanized settlement, and village.

Rural populated areas (сільський населений пункт) can be either a village (село) or a rural settlement (селище). Urban populated areas (міський населений пункт) can be either a city (містo) or an urbanized settlement (селище міського типу). Urbanized settlements for a brevity sake often are classified as towns in the English language. The changes to a settlement status can be done only by the Verkhovna Rada. Please, note that the size of a settlement does not ultimately define its status. For example, the city of Prypiat in Ukraine still retains its status while having a population of zero (0) residents.

City vs. town in Ukraine

The typical misto may be considered to be a city, not a town (compare to City status in the United Kingdom). However, the city's subordination to either oblast or raion should be taken into account, especially in the political sense.

Notes

1. Romanized using Ukrainian National standard. Details at Romanization of Ukrainian.
2. Province is more precise because region may also refer to supranational geographic entity.
3. Region is ambiguous since it usually refers to larger national-level units; area is inaccurate.

• 4. Also may be referred as republican status.
• 5. City refers exclusively to the city administration (usually smaller cities), while some cities include other urban and rural administrations such collective administrations form city councils - municipalities.

Oblasts

Most of Ukraine's oblasts (provinces) are named after their capital cities, officially called "centers" (Ukrainian singular: обласний центр, oblasnyi tsentr). The name of each oblast is a relative adjective, formed by adding a feminine suffix to the name of respective center city. E.g. Poltava is a center of Poltavs'ka oblast' (Poltava Oblast).

Most of them are also sometimes referred to in a feminine noun form, following the convention of traditional regional place names, ending with the suffix "-shchyna". E.g. Poltava Oblast is also called Poltavshchyna.

Exceptions to this rule include:

• Two oblasts, Volyn and Zakarpattia, which retain the names of their respective historical regions, Volyn' (Volhynia) and Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia), whose respective capitals are Lutsk and Uzhhorod.

• Kiev, which is a municipality independent of the surrounding Kiev Oblast, but also the center of that oblast (administrative bodies of the oblast are situated inside the city).

An oblast center in Ukraine is usually the largest and most developed city in given province.

Please note that often historical regions (such as the actual provinces) today consist of few oblasts. For example, the Volyn historical region encompasses almost completely the Rivne Oblast beside the Volyn Oblast, while also include some territories in the Ternopil Oblast. See also List of etymologies of country subdivision names: "Ukraine".

Volyn

Rivne

Zhytomyr

Kiev

Khmelnytsky

Ternopil

Ivano-Frankivsk

Zakarpattia

Chernivtsi

Vinnytsia

Cherkasy

Kirovohrad

Mykolaiv

Poltava

Chernihiv

Sumy

Kharkiv

Dnipropetrovsk

Odessa

Kherson

Zaporizhia

Donetsk

Crimea

Luhansk

Azov Sea

Black Sea

Russia

Belarus

Poland

Romania

Moldova

Lviv

•

•

Dnieper

Autonomous Republic of Crimea

The Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukrainian: Автономна Республіка Крим, Avtonomna Respublika Krym, Crimean Tatar: Qırım Muhtar Cumhuriyeti), formerly Crimea Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR, is geographically the main part of Crimean peninsula in the south of Ukraine. Its capital is Simferopol.

Municipalities

Municipalities, (i.e. cities with special status, subordinated to Ukraine's central government) include Kiev (the capital of the country) and Sevastopol. They retain their status from the administrative subdivision of Ukrainian SSR. The exact legal status of each city is determined by special laws.

Raions

Raions are small territorial units of subdivision of Ukraine. There are 490 raions in 24 oblasts and Crimea autonomous republic of Ukraine. An average area of Ukrainian raion is 1,200 km² (463 sq mi), an average population of raions is 52,000 people.

Raions (districts) of Ukraine.

Metro Areas

Ukraine has five major agglomerated metropolitan areas (conurbations).

• Kiev includes cities such as Irpin, Boryspil, Fastiv among others
• Kharkiv includes cities such as Chuhuiv, Merefa, and numerous other settlements
• Donetsk includes cities such as Makiivka, Khartsyzk, and others
• Dnipropetrovsk with Dniprodzerzhynsk and Novomoskovsk
• Odessa with Illichivsk and Ovidiopol

Other minor metro areas are:

• Kryvyi Rih and Zhovti Vody
• Lviv with Vynnyky and Pustomyty
• Horlivka and Yenakieve
• Zaporizhia with Vilniansk
• Mykolaiv with Voskresenske
• Luhansk with Oleksandrivsk and Schastia
• Mariupol with Staryi Krym

These conurbation areas are not officially recognized and remain to be administered according to official oblast-raion system of subdivision.

Regions of Ukraine

Sometimes more Oblasts can be referred to as "Eastern Ukraine":
     Orange - West Ukraine     Yellow - Central Ukraine     Blue - East Ukraine

Due to geopolitical, historical, and cultural factors, there are semi-official nominations to a certain region. The map right shows the broad sense of particular regions. The terms, West, East, South and Central Ukraine are often used. There is no clear description on what includes/excludes one region or another, but rather a general reference. Here is a list of what constitutes such nominations:

• Western Ukraine, may mean either the historic region of Galicia, or may also include Volhynia, Podolia, Transcarpathia, and/or Bukovina.
• Eastern Ukraine may mean either the Don basin, Sloboda Ukraine, continental Taurida regions etc.
• South Ukraine is often includes the whole Taurida, the Kryvyi Rih basin, and the regions of Mykolayiv and Odessa oblasts. Alternatively it may include the Don basin, in particularly the adjacent land to the Azov Sea.
• Central Ukraine is more vague term and often denotes what is not included in Western or South-Eastern definitions.

Other terms are rarely used such as South-West Ukraine, which can denote either Transcarpathia, or Budjak. Sometimes the term South-Eastern Ukraine is used to define both regions of the Southern and Eastern Ukraine. Due to the shape of the country, in narrow definition, term Northern Ukraine is often used to denote either the bulge of Chernihiv/Sumy Oblasts or, in broader terms, the whole of Polesia. North-western Ukraine almost exclusively refers to the historic region of Volhynia. This makes the term North-Eastern Ukraine rarest of them all, and is either used as synonym for the narrow definition of Northern Ukraine, or as synonym for Sloboda Ukraine (particularly the Sumy Oblast).

The Western Ukraine	The Eastern Ukraine	The Central Ukraine	The Southern Ukraine
The Northern Ukraine	The historical regions

See also

• Geography of Ukraine
• Historical regions of Ukraine
• ISO 3166-2:UA

External links

• (Ukrainian) Subdivisions of Ukraine – Verhovna Rada site
• (English) List of raions – sub-subdivisions of oblasts

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Administrative divisions of Ukraine Capital: Kiev Oblasts Cherkasy · Chernihiv · Chernivtsi · Dnipropetrovsk · Donetsk · Ivano-Frankivsk · Kharkiv · Kherson · Khmelnytskyi · Kiev · Kirovohrad · Luhansk · Lviv · Mykolaiv · Odessa · Poltava · Rivne · Sumy · Ternopil · Vinnytsia · Volyn · Zakarpattia · Zaporizhia · Zhytomyr Cities with special status City of Kiev · City of Sevastopol Autonomous Republic Autonomous Republic of Crimea Administrative centers Cherkasy · Chernihiv · Chernivtsi · Dnipropetrovsk · Donetsk · Ivano-Frankivsk · Kharkiv · Kherson · Khmelnytskyi · Kiev · Kirovohrad · Luhansk · Lutsk · Lviv · Mykolaiv · Odessa · Poltava · Rivne · Sevastopol · Simferopol · Sumy · Ternopil · Uzhhorod · Vinnytsia · Zaporizhia · Zhytomyr