List of Ukrainian rulers


This is a list that encompasses and includes all reigning leaders/rulers in the history of Ukraine.
This page includes the titles of the Grand Prince of Kyiv, Grand Prince of Chernihiv, Grand Prince of Pereyaslavl, Grand Prince of Galicia–Volhynia, Hetman of Ukraine and President of Ukraine. The following list begins with the leaders who ruled over the territory of Ukraine during Antiquity and is followed by the princes who ruled the principalities that constituted Kyivan Rus and continues with the presidents of Ukraine.
Ukraine as the largest state entirely within the boundaries of Europe has been known by a plethora of names, it has been known historically as: Kyivan Rus, Rus', the Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia, the Zaporizhian Host and the Hetmanate. The sovereigns of these fluctuating political entities have accordingly been described in a variety of ways: knyaz, knyahenya, korol, hetman and president. Two of the earliest noble titles: knyaz and velyky knyaz translate into English as "Prince" and "Grand Prince" respectively, whilst korol translates into 'king'.

Antiquity (c. 500 BC – 16 BC)

Scythian kings[:uk:Скіфські царі]

was a loose state that originated as early as the 8th century BC. Little is known of them and their rulers. Most detailed description came down to modern historians from Herodotus.
The shores of Crimea were settled by Greeks since the 7th century BC. The kingdom was established around 480 BC. It was ruled by three consecutive dynasties: Archaenactidae, Spartocids, and Pontids. After Pontids the territory became a Roman client kingdom.
Pontids
In Eastern Europe the Great Migration Period kicked off with the descent of the Goths from the Baltic region into the territory of modern Ukraine, about AD 200. They either took over or assimilated with the local Slavic tribes. The Goths were in turn pushed out by aggressively encroaching Huns, about 375. The Goths went on to conquer Southern Europe and the Huns moved to the Balkans and created a Hunnic Empire which lasted for a hundred years. After splitting of the Empire, some of the Huns moved back north in the territories of modern Ukraine and formed Patria Onoguria, now known as Old Great Bulgaria. In the 7th century Onoguria largely defected to Khazaria – an expanding Turkic state centered in the North Caucuses which controlled the Eurasian steppe until the 9th century.

Gothic rulers

In 238, the Goths for the first time passed the Danube, and took to the Black Sea. The division of the Goths is first attested in 291.
Tervingi
The Balti dynasty, Balths, Baltungs, or Balthings, existed among the Tervingi, called later the Visigothi. The names of the Drevlyans and the Gothic Tervingi in Ukraine have often been adduced as parallels to agac-ari.
Greuthungi
The Amali dynasty, Amals, Amaler, or Amalings of the Greuthungi, called later the Ostrogothi.
According to Zakarius Rhetor and Priscus Rhetor, Patria Onoguria was a vulgar statelet in alliance with Byzantium established in 463 around Azov having been forced west upon the Akatziroi by the Sabirs who in turn were being attacked. Its 7th century period is commonly referred to as Old Great Bulgaria.
Khazar Khaganate controlled much of what is today southern and eastern Ukraine until the 10th century.

Legendary and historical rulers of Kyiv

[Rurik Dynasty]

The Rurikids were descendants of Rurik , a Varangian pagan konung or chieftain, who according to the Primary Chronicle was invited to rule Novgorod in 862 and who came to become the ruler of the Northern Slavic tribes of the as well as the Finnish tribes. Later his son or grandson, Prince Ihor, became the Prince of separate Kyivan territories to the south beginning the rule of the Riurykide dynasty of Kyivan Rus. The existence of Rurik is a point of contention for historians, P. Kovaletsky and Omeljan Pritsak believe that Rurik was the same person as Hroereckr, the 9th century Norse king of Jutland and Frisia and that pervasive myths and legends about him formed the basis for the primary chroniclers. Alternatively, Alexsei Shakmatov accepts the Primary Chronicle's account as factual and Rurik is a historic being.

Table of rulers

Kings and Princes of Galicia-Volhynia (1199–1349)

was a Ruthenian state in Galicia and Volhynia. Depending on the title of the ruler it was called either principality or kingdom. The first king, Coloman of Galicia-Lodomeria, was crowned in 1215, although the first nominal king of Galicia was Andrew II of Hungary, the son of Béla III of Hungary, who reigned from 1188 to 1190.
PortraitNameBorn-DiedRuled FromRuled Until
Roman II the Great, Prince of Novgorod, Prince of Volhynia, Prince of Halych, and Grand Prince of Kiev fl.1160–120511991205
Coloman of Galicia-Lodomeria, Hungarian prince Kálmán, Prince of Halych, became the first anointed and crowned and King of Galicia-Volhynia in 12151208–124112141219
Daniel I of Galicia, held many titles since early childhood culminating with the crowning by a papal legate, archbishop Opizo, in Dorohychyn in 1253, King of Rus', Grand Prince of Kiev1201–126412051264
Lev I, King of Rus', Prince of Belz, Prince of Peremyshl and Halych who moved the capital of Galicia from Kholm to Lviv in 1272, Grand Prince of Kiev 1228–130112931301
Yuri I, King of Rus', Prince of Belz fl.1252–130813011308
Andrew II and Lev II, Kings of Rus', princes, joint rule, the last members of the Rurikid dynasty to rule Ukraine?–132313081323
Yuri II-Boleslaw, natus dux et dominus Russiae, a member of the Piast dynasty 1308–134013251340
Liubartas, prince, a member of the Gediminid dynasty, the last Ruthenian-Lithuanian ruler of Galicia-Volhynia, Prince of Volhynia c. 1300–138413401349

In 1349, Liubartas lost all territories, except for eastern Volhynia, to Casimir III of Poland. In 1366, a Polish-Lithuanian treaty was signed: eastern Volhynia with Lutsk retained under Liubartas' rule, while Galicia, western Volhynia, and western Podolia were annexed by the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.

In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1362–1569) and Kingdom of Poland (1569–1667/1793)

Princes of Kiev
In the early 1320s, a Lithuanian army led by Gediminas defeated a Slavic army led by Stanislav of Kiev at the Battle on the Irpen' River, and conquered the city. The Tatars, who also claimed Kiev, retaliated in 1324–1325, so while Kiev was ruled by a Lithuanian prince, it had to pay a tribute to the Golden Horde. Finally, as a result of the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362, Kiev and surrounding areas were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania.
Voivodes of Kiev
When the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed by the Union of Lublin in 1569, Kiev and surrounding areas, Podolia, Volhynia, and Podlaskie, as the Kiev Voivodeship, Bratslav Voivodeship, Volhynian Voivodeship, and Podlaskie Voivodeship, were transferred from Lithuania to Poland.

Crimean khans (1441–1783)

were not of the Ukrainian ethnos. Their Crimean Khanate ruled a large part of modern Ukraine, with a capital at Bakhchisaray.
and Turkish sultan Bayezid II

Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks (1506–1775)

A Hetman was a military and civil leader, democratically elected by the Cossacks.

Hetmans and commanders of Ukrainian Cossacks

Several Cossack regiments were operating in Ukraine at this time that were largely independent of each other, so some of the Hetmans' tenures overlap.

Hetmans of the Cossack state

Following the Khmelnytsky uprising a new Cossack republic, the Hetmanate, was formed.

Hetmans during the Ruin

was a time in Ukrainian history when the country fell into disarray and chaos. Afterwards, the Cossack state emerged as a vassal of the Russian Empire. During this period a number of hetmans stayed in power for short periods of time and often controlled only parts of the country. Moreover, the Treaty of Andrusovo split the Cossack Hetmanate along the Dnieper River into Left-bank Ukraine, which enjoyed a degree of autonomy within the Tsardom of Russia; and Right-bank Ukraine which remained part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and at times part of the Ottoman Empire.

In the Russian Empire (1667/1793–1917), in the [Habsburg Monarchy], [Austrian Empire] and Austria-Hungary (1526/1772–1918)

After the dissolution of the Cossack Hetmanate, a new Malorossiyan collegium was established in 1764, and the Zaporozhian Host was disbanded in 1775. As a result of the second and third Partitions of Poland in 1793 and 1795, eastern and central parts of the territory of present-day Ukraine were incorporated directly into the Russian Empire. The western part became part of the Habsburg Monarchy earlier, in the following order: Carpathian Ruthenia, Galicia, and Bukovina.

[King]s and [tsar]s of the Kingdom">Congress Poland">Kingdom Poland

Kings and queens of Galicia and Lodomeria">Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria">Kings and queens of Galicia and Lodomeria (Galicja)

The Russian Empire existed until 1917, and the Dual Monarchy, Austria–Hungary, existed until 1918.

Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1921)

The Ukrainian People's Republic was formed after the Russian Revolution of 1917, and lasted until the Peace of Riga between Poland and Soviet Russia in March 1921. The leadership title varied and, despite a rather widespread misconception, none of them had the official title of president.

Chairmen of the Central Council

The Central Council was the representative body governing the UNR.

Hetman of the Ukrainian State

A very short lived Hetmanate was established by Pavlo Skoropadskyi in 1918.

Chairmen of the Directory

The Directorate of Ukraine was a provisional council of the UNR formed after Skoropadskyi's Hetmanate fell apart. On 22 January 1919, the Act of Unification of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic was passed. The text of the universal was made by the members of the Directory.

West Ukrainian People's Republic (1918–1919)

The government of the West Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed on 19 October 1918. WUNR was united with the Ukrainian People's Republic on 22 January 1919, although it was mostly a symbolic act while the western Ukrainians retained their own Ukrainian Galician Army and government structure. After the Polish-Ukrainian War, Poland took over most of territory of the West Ukrainian People's Republic by July 1919. Since November 1919, the government of the WUNR was in exile.

President of the Ukrainian National Republic

President of the [Carpatho-Ukraine]

Ukrainian State (1941)

Prime Minister of the Ukrainian State">Declaration of Ukrainian State Act">Ukrainian State

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1918/1919–1991)

Ukraine was incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on 30 December 1922.
Secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
First Secretary of the Central Committee
Executive Secretary of the Central Committee
First Secretaries of the Communist Party
General Secretaries of the Central Committee
First Secretaries of the Central Committee
On 5 July 1991, the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR passed a law establishing the post of the President of the Ukrainian SSR. The title was changed to the President of Ukraine upon the proclamation of independence. The first election of the President of Ukraine was held on 1 December 1991.

Presidents