Administrative divisions of Ukraine

According to Article 133 of the Constitution of Ukraine, "the system of the administrative and territorial structure of Ukraine is composed of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, oblasts, districts, cities, districts in city, settlements, and villages." Certain types of subdivision are not mentioned in the Constitution (i.e. rural settlements), but they are mentioned for regional composition. Also, regular raions (districts) are sometimes denoted as rural to distinguish them from raions in cities.[4]

Ukraine's administrative divisions are divided as follows:

• By geographical characteristics the units are divided on regions (such as autonomous republic, oblasts, districts, cities with special status) and places of settlement (cities, towns, villages).
• By their status they can be administrative-territorial units (oblasts and districts), self-governed territorial units (cities, towns, villages). Also the autonomous republic has a unique status of territorial autonomy, while districts in cities combine both characteristics of administrative territorial as well as self-governed territorial units.
• By position in the system of administrative division, the units divided into territorial units of prime level (cities without district division, districts in cities, towns, villages), of middle level (districts, cities with district division), and of higher level (autonomous republic, oblasts, cities with special status).
• Administrative division has changed because some territories are not under the control of the government. For example, Sievierodonetsk has become the new central regional center.

Sea of Azov

Black Sea

Dnieper

•

Chernihiv

Chernivtsi

Cherkasy

Dnipropetrovsk

Donetsk

Ivan.-Fr.

Kharkiv

Kherson

Kyiv

Kirovohrad

Khmel.

Luhansk

Lviv

Mykolaiv

Odesa

Poltava

Rivne

Sumy

Ternopil

Vinnytsia

Volyn

Zakarpattia

Zaporizhzhia

Zhytomyr

•Sevastopol

Crimea

Russia

Belarus

Poland

Slov.

Hung.

Romania

Moldova

Serb.

Regions, cities, districts are governed by a state administration, a chief of which is appointed by the president after a nomination by the cabinet of ministers.[5] Crimea has its own cabinet of ministers, however the state administration is represented by the office of the Presidential Representative of Ukraine. A basic and the lowest level of administrative division is a settlement that is governed by a local council (rada). Cities as a settlement always carry a special status within a region and have their own form of self-administration (municipality – vykonkom) and some may consist of their own city's districts (raions). City municipalities are governed by a mayor and a city council (miskrada). Some smaller cities, towns, and rural localities may be under control of city municipalities based on larger cities. Towns as well as villages are not controlled by state administration and are self-governed by either a town council (selyshchna rada) or a village council (silrada) within the limits of the Constitution and the laws of Ukraine (article 140 of the Constitution of Ukraine). Village councils may carry a combined jurisdiction which may include several villages and hamlets (selyshche). Unlike villages, each town council always has a separate jurisdiction which may be part of bigger city's council. Hamlet (selyshche) is a non-governed rural locality and is governed by a village council of nearby village.

Before the introduction of oblasts in 1932, Ukraine comprised 40 okruhas, which had replaced the former Russian Imperial guberniya (governorate) subdivisions.

In 1932 the territory of the Ukrainian SSR was re-established based on oblasts. Excluded in the administrative changes was Western Ukraine, which at that time formed part of the Second Polish Republic and shared in the Polish form of administrative division based on voivodeships.

In the post-World War II period, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic consisted of 25 oblasts and two cities with special status.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Crimea obtained the status of an autonomous republic with its own government instead of a regional state administration.

• The top level: duchy (land) → palatinate (voivodeship) → regiments (polk) / palanka → governorate → okruha → oblast → TBD
• The intermediate level: apanage duchy → county (povit) / eldership (starostvo) → hundred (sotnia) → raion → county (povit)
• The local level: volost → kurin / community (hromada) → volost → city council (rada) → community (hromada)

There are three types of first-level administrative divisions: 24 oblasts, 1 autonomous republic and 2 cities with special status.

Flag	Coat of arms	No.	Name	Area (km²)	Population (2021 estimate)	Population density (people/km², 2021)	Capital	No. of raions	No. of hromadas	Geographic division	Location
		1	Autonomous Republic of Crimea (occupied by Russia)	26,081	1,967,259	75,43	Simferopol (de jure)	10	—	Southern
		2	Vinnytsia Oblast	26,513	1,529,123	57,67	Vinnytsia	6	63	Central
		3	Volyn Oblast	20,144	1,027,397	51,0	Lutsk	4	54	Western
		4	Dnipropetrovsk Oblast	31,974	3,142,035	98,27	Dnipro	7	86	Southern
		5	Donetsk Oblast (partially occupied by Russia)	26,517	4,100,280	154,63	Donetsk (de jure) Kramatorsk (de facto)	8	66	Eastern
		6	Zhytomyr Oblast	29,832	1,195,495	40,07	Zhytomyr	4	65	Central
		7	Zakarpattia Oblast	12,777	1,250,129	97,84	Uzhhorod	6	64	Western
		8	Zaporizhzhia Oblast (partially occupied by Russia)	27,180	1,666,515	61,31	Zaporizhzhia	5	67	Southern
		9	Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast	13,928	1,361,109	97,72	Ivano-Frankivsk	6	62	Western
		10	Kyiv Oblast	28,131	1,788,530	63,58	Kyiv	7	69	Central
		11	Kirovohrad Oblast	24,588	920,128	37,42	Kropyvnytskyi	4	49	Central
		12	Luhansk Oblast (partially occupied by Russia)	26,684	2,121,322	79,5	Luhansk (de jure) Bilohorivka (de facto)	8	37	Eastern
		13	Lviv Oblast	21,833	2,497,750	114,4	Lviv	7	73	Western
		14	Mykolaiv Oblast	24,598	1,108,394	45,06	Mykolaiv	4	52	Southern
		15	Odesa Oblast	33,310	2,368,107	71,09	Odesa	7	91	Southern
		16	Poltava Oblast	28,748	1,371,529	47,71	Poltava	4	61	Central
		17	Rivne Oblast	20,047	1,148,456	57,29	Rivne	4	64	Western
		18	Sumy Oblast	23,834	1,053,452	44,2	Sumy	5	51	Central
		19	Ternopil Oblast	13,823	1,030,562	74,55	Ternopil	3	55	Western
		20	Kharkiv Oblast	31,415	2,633,834	83,84	Kharkiv	7	56	Eastern
		21	Kherson Oblast (partially occupied by Russia)	28,461	1,016,707	35,72	Kherson	5	49	Southern
		22	Khmelnytskyi Oblast	20,645	1,243,787	60,25	Khmelnytskyi	3	60	Western
		23	Cherkasy Oblast	20,900	1,178,266	56,38	Cherkasy	4	66	Central
		24	Chernivtsi Oblast	8,097	896,566	110,73	Chernivtsi	3	52	Western
		25	Chernihiv Oblast	31,865	976,701	30,65	Chernihiv	5	57	Central
		26	Kyiv	839	2,962,180	3530,61	Kyiv	10	—	Central
		27	Sevastopol (occupied by Russia)	864	385,870	446,61	Sevastopol	4	—	Southern

The Dnieper River plays an important part in Ukrainian territorial division, with many large cities settled on its banks. Here, the capital city of Kyiv which was founded on the Dnieper's right bank but for now expanded over the river significantly.

Ukraine has two types of settlements: rural and urban. Rural populated areas (сільський населений пункт) can be either a village (село, selo) or a rural settlement (селище). Urban populated areas (міський населений пункт) can be either a city (містo) or an urban-type settlement (селище міського типу). For the sake of brevity, urbanized settlements are sometimes classified as towns in the English language.

Changes to a settlement's status can be made only by the Verkhovna Rada. The size of a settlement does not ultimately define its status, although is a major factor. For example, the city of Prypiat still retains its status, while having a population of zero, due to its infrastructure, including buildings, roads, and utility networks.

The typical Ukrainian misto ought to be considered a city, not a town (compare to City status in the United Kingdom). However, the city's subordination to either an oblast or raion also should be taken into account, especially in the political sense. Some of urbanized settlements may be cities of raion subordination, although it could seem confusing, a type of settlement should be considered first as its status is given for administrative purposes.

Cities

See also: List of cities in Ukraine

Kyiv Oblast for instance, has several regional city municipalities such as Pereiaslav, for example, that are under direct subordination to the regional authorities. They are officially known as cities of regional significance.

According to Ukrainian law a city (Ukrainian: мі́сто, tr. misto; plural: міста́, tr. mista) in Ukraine is a locality of at least 10,000 people.[11] Cities may carry various status. Some may be of national importance, others of regional (oblast) importance, and the rest of district (raion) importance. For example, the cities of Kyiv and of Sevastopol have special status of national significance and each is officially classified as a city with a special status, which administratively is equivalent to an oblast. Mayors of those cities, in general, as are governors of oblasts, are appointed by the President of Ukraine. However, the status of the mayor of Kyiv is somewhat more complex, and for further information see Legal status and local government of Kyiv. The status of Sevastopol is also unique.

Almost every oblast has at least one city of regional subordination (importance), which is the administrative center (capital) of that oblast. However, some other big cities within the oblast may have such status as well. The cities of oblast subordination have the same importance of a raion, and often are the administrative centers of such. In addition to regular raions, several Ukrainian cities with national or oblast status are further divided into city raions which may include other cities, towns and villages. In 2010, Ukraine had 23 such cities with their own city raions.

Many raions also have city municipalities of its level of subordination (importance). Those are usually the administrative centers (capitals). Notice that not all raions have a city as their administrative center; however all the raion centers are at least urban-like (urbanized). All administrative centers have their own form of self-administration. The municipalities of a raion subordination may administer several adjacent local councils (municipalities), usually rural. If a raion has several cities of raion (district) level, they may share administrative power for the raion.

Hromadas

See also: Hromada

The territorial hromadas (Ukrainian: територіа́льна грома́да, tr. terytorialna hromada; lit. 'territorial community'), or simlply hromadas (Ukrainian: грома́да, tr. hromada; plural: грома́ди, tr. hromady) were established by the Government of Ukraine on 12 June 2020 as a part of administrative reform that started in 2015.[12]

Hromadas of Ukraine

There are 1,469 hromadas in total.

Ukraine also has several settlements known as viiskove mistechko which were former military installations. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the secrecy of such settlements has been unveiled, however, the towns are subordinated directly to the Ministry of Defense and do not have their own civil administrations. Such military installations are like ghost towns that are not even identified on a map. One of them, on the border of the Kyiv and Zhytomyr Oblasts is Makarov-1.[13]

A special territory known as the zone of alienation falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Emergencies and was the most severely affected territory by the Chernobyl disaster. Additionally, various restricted nature preserves known as Zapovednik fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Ecology.

Due to the Russo-Ukrainian War, the status of civil–military administrations was created in territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts where the respective local government units cannot exercise their constitutionally guaranteed powers.[14]

Currently, Ukraine has the following three enclaves:

• The city of Slavutych which is administratively subordinated directly to Kyiv Oblast while being completely surrounded by neighboring Chernihiv Oblast.
• The settlement of Bile which is located on Snake Island and is fully surrounded by the Black Sea was established in 2007 and is part of the Vylkove urban hromada, Odesa Oblast.[15]
• The town of Kotsiubynske which is part of the Kyiv Oblast and is completely surrounded by the city of Kyiv.

Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) geographic division of Ukraine used in their polls.

Beside the administrative divisions, geographical divisions are at times used for reference or statistical purposes. The division splits Ukraine into four to six geographic areas: Western Ukraine, Eastern Ukraine, Southern Ukraine, Central Ukraine, Northern Ukraine (occasionally used).

• Geography of Ukraine
• ISO 3166-2:UA
• List of places in Ukraine named after people
• Local government in Ukraine

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Atlas of Ukraine.

• "Regions of Ukraine and their composition". Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 26 December 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
• "Ukraine Raions". Statoids. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
• "Ukrainian cities and regions in alphabetical order". UkraineTrek. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
• "Administrative territorial composition of Ukraine" (PDF). Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, and Communal Living. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 August 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2015.