Administrative divisions of Ukraine


is divided into several levels of territorial entities. On the first level there are 27 regions:
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 has not changed significantly since the middle of the 20th century. It is somewhat complex, as beside having several levels of a territorial subdivision it also has a classification for various populated places, particularly cities.

Overview

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, they are mentioned for regional composition. Also, for disambiguation regular raions are sometimes denoted as rural to distinguish them from raions in city.
Ukraine's administrative divisions are divided as follows:
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. Cities as a settlement always carry a special status within a region and have their own form of self-administration and some may consist of their own city's districts. City municipalities are governed by a mayor and a city council. 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 or a village council within the limits of the Constitution and the laws of Ukraine. Village councils may carry a combined jurisdiction which may include several villages and hamlets. Unlike villages, each town council always has a separate jurisdiction which may be part of bigger city's council. Hamlet is a non-governed rural locality and is governed by a village council of nearby village.

Table

Ukraine is divided into 3 main administrative divisions: oblast, raion, and council. Note, settlements such as cities do not necessary constitute the basic level of the Ukrainian administrative territorial system. For that purpose cities are 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 city may also include smaller cities, settlements, and/or villages. Please, note that the settlement's population size is not the only factor for its status. The final decision on status change is carried out by the Ukrainian parliament. The following table is based on the 2001 Ukrainian Census.
Level of divisionTerritoryTotalCorresponding settlementsTotalTotal urban/rural
1 autonomous republic1cities with special status21,344
1 oblasts24cities with special status21,344
2 districts136cities of regional significance1781,344
2 districts in cities118cities of regional significance1781,344
3 city councils454cities of district significance2741,344
3 settlement councils783individual urban-type settlements8901,344
3 village councils10,278individual villages27,19028,621
3 village councils10,278 settlements1,26628,621

List

The following numbers are based on the 2001 Ukrainian Census.
Total cities: 454, an increase of 20 compared with the 1989 census.

History

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

Autonomous republic

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 CrimeaRepresentatives of the President of UkraineArea Population Pop. densityAdministrative centreRaions/DistrictsCities of regional significance
Nataliya Popovych26,1001,966,80175Simferopol1411

Oblasts

Oblasts are on the first 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.
RegionArea Population Pop. densityAdministrative centerRaions/DistrictsCities of regional significance
20,8911,291,13561.80Cherkasy46
31,851.31,104,24134.67Chernihiv53
8,093.6903,782111.67Chernivtsi32
31,900.53,344,073104.83Dnipro713
26,505.74,448,031167.81Donetsk828
13,894.01,380,77099.38Ivano-Frankivsk66
31,401.62,755,17787.74Kharkiv77
28,4491,091,15138.35Kherson53
20,636.21,331,53464.52Khmelnytskyi36
28,118.91,719,60261.15Kiev713
24,577.51,014,80941.29Kropyvnytskyi44
26,672.52,300,41286.25Luhansk814
21,823.72,545,634116.65Lviv79
24,587.41,186,45248.25Mykolaiv45
33,295.92,387,63671.71Odessa77
28,735.81,493,66851.98Poltava45
20,038.51,152,57657.52Rivne44
23,823.91,166,76548.97Sumy57
13,817.11,086,69478.65Ternopil31
26,501.61,646,25062.12Vinnytsia66
20,135.31,038,22351.56Lutsk44
12,771.51,246,32397.59Uzhhorod65
27,168.51,805,43166.45Zaporizhia65
29,819.21,283,20143.03Zhytomyr45

Cities with special status

Two cities carry special status: the city of Kiev which is the capital of Ukraine and the city of Sevastopol. 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.
CityGovernorAreaPopulation
Vitali Klitschko2,782,016
vacant380,301

Second-level subdivision units

Cities of regional significance (regional cities)

Raions

are smaller territorial units of subdivision in Ukraine. There are 136 raions. According to December 2019 draft constitutional changes submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by President Volodymyr Zelensky united territorial communities are planned to replace the raions of Ukraine.

Urban districts

Councils

Ukraine has two types of settlements: rural and urban. Rural populated areas can be either a village or a rural settlement. Urban populated areas can be either a city or an urban-type settlement. 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. Please note that 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. 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

According to Ukrainian law a city 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 importance, and the rest of district importance. For example, the cities of Kiev 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 Kiev is somewhat more complex, and for further information see Legal status and local government of Kiev. The status of Sevastopol is also unique.
Almost every oblast has at least one city of regional subordination, which is the administrative center 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. Those are usually the administrative centers. Notice that not all raions have a city as their administrative center; however all the raion centers are at least urban-like. All administrative centers have their own form of self-administration. The municipalities of a raion subordination may administer several adjacent local councils, usually rural. If a raion has several cities of raion 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 municipality. For simplicity's sake, a silrada 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.

United territorial communities (UTC)

The united territorial communities are part of administrative reform that started in 2015. It is intended to replace all councils. 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 united territorial community 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 Kiev 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 Donbass, 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.
, located in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Dnipro's metropolitan area includes cities such as Kamianske and Novomoskovsk.
Currently, Ukraine has the following 3 enclaves:
Ukraine has five major agglomerated metropolitan areas. These conurbation areas are not officially recognized and remain to be administered according to official oblast-raion system of subdivision.
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.
The neighboring countries such as Russia, Poland, Hungary and Romania sometimes identify certain parts of Ukraine. For example, Russia has territorial claims to Ukraine stating that the Southeastern Ukraine is part of Russia, certain political or public figures in Poland lay territorial claims to western Ukraine identifying them as Borderlands or Kreis, the same goes for Hungary that calls Zakarpattia Oblast as Kárpátalja.