Administrative divisions of Ukraine

The administrative divisions of Ukraine are subnational administrative divisions within the geographical areas of Ukraine under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Constitution. The first level of subdivision consists of 27 regions:

Ukraine is a unitary state with four tiers of sub-national government. In order of size, they are as follows: (1) oblasts, (2) rayons, (3) city councils and (4) rural councils. The first-level administrative division includes 24 oblasts, the autonomous Republic of Crimea and 2 cities with special status – Kyiv and Sevastopol.

Following the 2014 Crimean crisis, Crimea and Sevastopol came under the de facto administration of the Russian Federation, which claims them as the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol. Internationally, most states have not recognised the Russian claims.

Ukraine directly inherited its administrative divisions from the local republican administration of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and the overall structure did not change significantly from the middle of the 20th century until reforms of 2020; it was somewhat complex, as beside having several levels of a territorial subdivision it also had a classification for various populated places, particularly cities. The 2020 reforms, while retaining the oblasts and two cities with special status (of which Sevastopol is - like Crimea - de facto under Russian administration), the second-tier level was radically reduced in number from 490 to 136 districts (raions), with all the 118 former "cities of regional significance" having merged into the new districts.

Overview

See also: Local government in Ukraine

Simple organizational chart of administrative divisions of Ukraine

According to the Article 133 of 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." Note, that although certain types of subdivision are not mentioned in Constitution of Ukraine (i.e. rural settlements), they are mentioned for regional composition. Also, for disambiguation regular raions (districts) are sometimes denoted as rural to distinguish them from raions in city.

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 of Ukraine, the units divided into territorial units of prime level (cities w/o 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.

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. 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.

Table (before 2020)

Ukraine was divided into 3 main levels of administrative divisions: oblast (region), raion (district), and council (city, settlement, and village). Note, settlements such as cities did not necessary constitute the basic level of the Ukrainian administrative territorial system. For that purpose cities were categorized into own three categories that correspond to each level of subdivisions. Cities with special status and regional significance, beside being divided into special districts in those cities, may also have included smaller cities (of district significance), settlements, and/or villages. Please, note that the settlement's population size was not the only factor for its status. The final decision on status change was carried out by the Ukrainian parliament. The following table is based on the 2001 Ukrainian Census.

Level of division	Territory	Total	Corresponding settlements	Total	Total urban/rural
1 (regions)	autonomous republic	1	cities with special status	2	1,344
	oblasts	24
2 (regional subdivisions)	[rural] districts	490	cities of regional significance	178
	[urban] districts in cities	118
3 (communities)	city councils	454	cities of district significance	274
	settlement councils	783	individual urban-type settlements	890
	village councils	10,278	individual villages	27,190	28,621
			[rural] settlements	1,266

Table (after 2020)

Following the 2020 administrative reform all populated places in Ukraine (except for two cities with special status: Kyiv and Sevastopol) were resubordinated to raions (districts). The new figure of 136 raions includes 10 new raions (not presently functional) in the Crimean region, together with Sevastopol.

Level of subdivision	Territory	Total
First	autonomous republic	1
	cities with special status	2
	oblasts (regions)	24
Second	raions (districts)	136
Third	hromadas (municipalities)	1,469

List

The following numbers are based on the 2001 Ukrainian Census.

• Top level (Regions, 27):
  • Autonomous Republic of Crimea
  • Oblasts of Ukraine (24)
  • Cities with special status: Kyiv and Sevastopol
• Middle level (Regional subdivision, 786):
  • Raions (490)
  • Cities of oblast significance (178)
  • City districts (райони у містах) (118)
• Primary level (Local communities, 11,515):
  • Cities of raion significance (276)
  • Urban-type settlements (селища міського типу) (885)
  • Villages (села) (27,190)
  • Rural-type settlements (селища) (1,266)

Total cities: 454, an increase of 20 compared with the 1989 census.

History

Main articles: Administrative divisions development in Ukraine and Ukrainian historical regions

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 → council (rada) → community (hromada)

First-level administrative divisions

Sea of Azov

Black Sea

Dnieper

•

Chernihiv

Chernivtsi

Cherkasy

Dnipropetrovsk

Donetsk

Ivan.-Fr.

Kharkiv

Kherson

Kyiv

Kirovohrad

Khmel.

Luhansk

Lviv

Mykolaiv

Odessa

Poltava

Rivne

Sumy

Ternopil

Vinnytsia

Volyn

Zakarpattia

Zaporizhzhia

Zhytomyr

•Sevastopol

Crimea

Russia

Belarus

Poland

Slov.

Hung.

Romania

Moldova

Serb.

Autonomous republic

Main article: Autonomous Republic of Crimea

The Autonomous Republic of Crimea, formerly the Crimean Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR, geographically encompasses the major portion of the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine. Its capital is Simferopol. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea is the only region within Ukraine that possesses its own constitution.

On March 16, 2014, after the occupation of Crimea by the Russian military, a referendum on joining the Russian Federation was conducted. A majority of votes supported the measure. On March 21, 2014, the Russian Duma voted to annex Crimea as a subject into the Russian Federation. The Ukrainian government does not recognize the referendum or annexation of Crimea as legitimate. On March 27, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 68/262 by 100 to 11 votes, recognizing the referendum as invalid and denying any legal change in the status of Crimea and Sevastopol.

Autonomous Republic of Crimea	Representatives of the President of Ukraine	Area (km2)	Population (2010)	Population density	Administrative centre	No. of Raions (Districts)	Cities of regional significance
Crimea	Anton Korynevych	26,100	1,966,801	75	Simferopol	14	11

Oblasts

Main article: Oblasts of Ukraine

Oblasts are on the first (top) level of the administrative division of Ukraine.

Almost every oblast is named after its administrative center, except for four oblasts. Volyn' and Zakarpattia, whose respective capitals are Lutsk and Uzhhorod, are named after historic regions Volhynia and Transcarpathia. The administrative centers of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and the Kirovohrad Oblast were renamed to Dnipro and Kropyvnytskyi in 2016, however as of 2017 the oblasts still officially bear the old soviet names as their change must be reflected in an amendment to the Ukrainian Constitution.

The table below reflects changes made in 2020.

Region	Area (in km2)	Population (2010 Census)	Population (2021 Estimate)	Population density (2021)	Administrative centre	No of Raions
Cherkasy Oblast	20,891.0	1,291,135	1,178,266	56.40	Cherkasy	4
Chernihiv Oblast	31,851.3	1,104,241	976,701	30.66	Chernihiv	5
Chernivtsi Oblast	8,093.6	903,782	896,566	110.77	Chernivtsi	3
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast	31,900.5	3,344,073	3,142,035	98.49	Dnipro	7
Donetsk Oblast	26,505.7	4,448,031	4,100,280	154.69	Donetsk	8
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast	13,894.0	1,380,770	1,361,109	97.96	Ivano-Frankivsk	6
Kharkiv Oblast	31,401.6	2,755,177	2,633,834	83.88	Kharkiv	7
Kherson Oblast	28,449.0	1,091,151	1,016,707	35.74	Kherson	5
Khmelnytskyi Oblast	20,636.2	1,331,534	1,243,787	60.27	Khmelnytskyi	3
Kyiv Oblast	28,118.9	1,719,602	1,788,530	63.61	Kyiv	7
Kirovohrad Oblast	24,577.5	1,014,809	920,128	37.44	Kropyvnytskyi	4
Luhansk Oblast	26,672.5	2,300,412	2,121,322	79.53	Luhansk	8
Lviv Oblast	21,823.7	2,545,634	2,497,750	114.45	Lviv	7
Mykolaiv Oblast	24,587.4	1,186,452	1,108,394	45.08	Mykolaiv	4
Odessa Oblast	33,295.9	2,387,636	2,368,107	71.12	Odessa	7
Poltava Oblast	28,735.8	1,493,668	1,371,529	47.73	Poltava	4
Rivne Oblast	20,038.5	1,152,576	1,148,456	57.31	Rivne	4
Sumy Oblast	23,823.9	1,166,765	1,053,452	44.22	Sumy	5
Ternopil Oblast	13,817.1	1,086,694	1,030,562	74.59	Ternopil	3
Vinnytsia Oblast	26,501.6	1,646,250	1,529,123	57.70	Vinnytsia	6
Volyn Oblast	20,135.3	1,038,223	1,027,397	51.02	Lutsk	4
Zakarpattia Oblast	12,771.5	1,246,323	1,250,129	97.88	Uzhhorod	6
Zaporizhzhia Oblast	27,168.5	1,805,431	1,666,515	61.34	Zaporizhzhia	6
Zhytomyr Oblast	29,819.2	1,283,201	1,195,495	40.09	Zhytomyr	4

Cities with special status

Main article: Cities with special status

Two cities carry special status: the city of Kyiv which is the capital of Ukraine and the city of Sevastopol. Their special status place both cities on the same administrative level as the country's oblasts, and thus under the direct supervision of the state via their respective local state administrations, which constitute the executive bodies of these cities.

Kyiv owes its special status to being the administrative center of the country, which grants it both additional powers and responsibilities. Sevastopol special status was carried over from the Soviet era, and was due to the city being the historical headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet. Following the 2014 Crimean crisis, Sevastopol is controlled by Russia and is incorporated as a federal subject of Russia. It is recognized as a part of Ukraine by most of the international community.

City	Governor	Area (in km2)	Population (2010 Census)	Population (2021 Estimate)
Kyiv	Vitali Klitschko	839 km2 (323.9 sq mi)	2,782,016	2,962,180
Sevastopol	vacant	1,079 km2 (416.6 sq mi)	380,301	509,992

Second-level administrative units

Cities of regional significance (regional cities)

Following the 2020 administrative changes, all the former cities of regional significance have been absorbed into the revised system of 136 districts.

Main article: City of regional significance (Ukraine)

Raions

Main article: Raions of Ukraine

Raions are smaller territorial units of subdivision in Ukraine. There are 136 raions. Following the December 2019 draft constitutional changes submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by President Volodymyr Zelensky, united territorial communities (136 new raions) have replaced the former 490 raions of Ukraine.

Urban districts

Main article: Urban districts of Ukraine

Third-level administrative units

Further information: Populated places in Ukraine

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.

Status		Status (in Ukrainian)	Total Number (in 2006)
misto / city		місто	457
	municipality	місто зі спеціальним статусом	2
	misto оblastnoho znachennia	місто областного значення	176
	misto raionnoho znachennia	місто районного значення	279
selyshche miskoho typu / town		селище міського типу	886
selo / village		сільський населений пункт	28,552
	selysche	селище	1,364
	selo	село	27,188

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.

Drohobych, is a city of oblast subordinance, subordinate to the Lviv Oblast authorities rather than to the local Drohobych Raion administration.

According to Ukrainian law a city (місто) in Ukraine is a locality of at least 10,000 people. 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/or 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.

Other municipalities

In addition to city municipalities, Ukraine has urban-like municipalities. The lowest form of self-administration are the rural municipalities and villages. A rural municipality may consist of a single village, usually big, or a combination of other rural villages or localities. Note that some villages also have some additional, very small settlements. Those settlements, together with the home village, combine a local (rural) municipality (silrada). For simplicity's sake, a silrada (rural municipality) is usually referred to as a village and is the lowest level of administrative division. The status of any settlement is granted by the Verkhovna Rada.

Amalgamated hromadas

Main article: Amalgamated hromada

The amalgamated hromadas (Ukrainian: Об'єднана територіальна громада, Obyednana terytorialʹna hromada) are part of administrative reform that started in 2015. It is intended to replace all councils (local level territorial units). In his draft constitutional amendments of June 2014 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko proposed changing the administrative divisions of Ukraine, which should include regions, districts and "hromadas".

On February 5, 2015, the law "On voluntary association of territorial communities" was adopted creating united territorial communities meaning settlement councils, rural councils and a city of district significance can create a new administrative unit. Any amalgamated hromada with a city as an administrative centre is an urban hromada, any amalgamated hromada with an urban-type settlement as an administrative centre is a settlement hromada, and any amalgamated hromada with a village as an administrative centre is a rural hromada. New local elections in these united territorial communities were then held. 226 will be holding elections in 2018 and 2019. The first 252 were held in 2017.

The Law "On Local Self-Government in Ukraine" stipulates that local budgets should have enough money to be administered by local self-government bodies. Because many of the small rural councils and cities of district significance could never hope to do this the new administrative unit amalgamated hromada was created.

Other administrations

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.

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 War in Donbas, 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.

A mix of modern and old buildings in Dnipro, located in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Dnipro's metropolitan area includes cities such as Kamianske and Novomoskovsk.

Currently, Ukraine has the following 3 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, Odessa Oblast.
• The town of Kotsiubynske which is part of the Kyiv Oblast and is completely surrounded by the city of Kyiv.

Metropolitan areas

Ukraine has seven major agglomerated metropolitan areas (conurbations). These conurbation areas are not officially recognized and remain to be administered according to official oblast-raion system of subdivision. Some of them are:

• Kyiv includes towns such as Irpin, Boryspil, and Fastiv
• Kharkiv includes towns such as Chuhuiv, Merefa, and numerous other settlements
• Donetsk includes towns such as Makiivka, Khartsyzk, and others
• Dnipro with Kamianske and Novomoskovsk
• Odessa with Chornomorsk and Ovidiopol

The other 3 major areas are the metropolitan areas of such cities: Kryvyi Rih, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia.

Other divisions

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 4 to 6 geographic areas: Western Ukraine, Eastern Ukraine, Southern Ukraine, Central Ukraine, Northern Ukraine (occasionally used).

See also

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

External links

• "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.