An oblast ( uk, о́бласть; ) in

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

, often called a region or province, is the main type of first-level

administrative division Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...

of the country. Ukraine's territory is divided into 24 oblasts, as well as one autonomous republic,

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...

, and two cities with special status,

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

and

Sevastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

is a

unitary state A unitary state is a sovereign state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority. The central government may create (or abolish) administrative divisions (sub-national units). Such units exercise only th ...

, thus the

oblast An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdo ...

s do not have much legal scope of competence other than that which is established in the

Ukrainian Constitution The Constitution of Ukraine ( uk, Конституція України, translit=Konstytutsiia Ukrainy) is the fundamental law of Ukraine. The constitution was adopted and ratified at the 5th session of the '' Verkhovna Rada'', the parliamen ...

and by law. Articles 140–146 of Chapter XI of the constitution deal directly with local authorities and their competency. Oblasts are subdivided into

raions A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French (meaning 'honeycomb, department'), and is com ...

(

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

s), each oblast having from 3 to 10 raions following the July 2020 reform.

General characteristics

In Ukraine, the term ''

'' denotes a primary

. Under the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

and into the 1920s, Ukraine was divided between several governorates. The term ''oblast'' was introduced in 1932 by Soviet authorities when the Ukrainian SSR was divided into seven oblasts, replacing the previous subdivision system based on

okruha An okruha ( uk, округа) is an historical administrative division of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic that existed between 1923 and 1930. The system was intended as a transitional system between the Russian Imperial division of gove ...

s and encompassing 406 raions (districts). The first oblasts were

Vinnytsia Oblast Vinnytsia Oblast ( uk, Ві́нницька о́бласть, translit=Vinnytska oblast; ; also referred to as Vinnychchyna — uk, Ві́нниччина) is an oblast of western and southwestern Ukraine. Its administrative center is Vinnytsi ...

Kyiv Oblast Kyiv Oblast ( uk, Ки́ївська о́бласть, translit=Kyïvska oblast), also called Kyivshchyna ( uk, Ки́ївщина), is an oblast (province) in central and northern Ukraine. It surrounds, but does not include, the city of Kyiv, ...

, Odesa Oblast,

Kharkiv Oblast Kharkiv Oblast ( uk, Харківська́ о́бласть, translit=Kharkivska oblast), also referred to as Kharkivshchyna ( uk, Ха́рківщина), is an oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine. The oblast borders Russia to the north, Luh ...

, and

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Dnipropetrovsk Oblast ( uk, Дніпропетро́вська о́бласть, translit=Dnipropetrovska oblast), also referred to as Dnipropetrovshchyna ( uk, Дніпропетро́вщина), is an oblast (province) of central-eastern Ukr ...

. Soon after that, in the summer of 1932,

Donetsk Oblast The Donetsk Oblast ( ukr, Донецька область, Donetska oblast, ), also referred to as Donechchyna ( ukr, Донеччина, links=no), is an oblast of eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 mill ...

was formed out of eastern parts of Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts; in the fall of 1932

Chernihiv Oblast Chernihiv Oblast ( uk, Черні́гівська о́бласть, translit=Chernihivska oblast; also referred to as Chernihivshchyna, uk, Черні́гівщина, translit=Chernihivshchyna) is an oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. T ...

was formed on the border of Kyiv and Kharkiv oblasts. Between 1935 and 1938, there were several newly created and self-governed special border okrugs (okruhas) located along the western border of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in Ukraine and Belarus. Upon liquidation of the okrugs in 1937–1938, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Odesa, and Kharkiv oblasts were each split into four additional oblasts (

Zhytomyr Oblast Zhytomyr Oblast ( uk, Жито́мирська о́бласть, translit=Zhytomyrska oblast), also referred to as Zhytomyrshchyna ( uk, Жито́мирщина}) is an oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. The administrative center of the obla ...

, Kamianets-Podilsky Oblast (later Khmelnytskyi), Mykolaiv Oblast,

Poltava Oblast Poltava Oblast ( uk, Полта́вська о́бласть, translit=Poltavska oblast; also referred to as Poltavshchyna – uk, Полта́вщина, literally 'Poltava Country') is an oblast (province) of central Ukraine. The administrative ...

). Just before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the

was split into Stalino Oblast and Voroshylovhrad Oblast and the

Kirovohrad Oblast Kirovohrad Oblast ( uk, Кіровоградська область, translit=Kirovohradska oblast; also referred to as Kirovohradschyna — uk, Кіровоградщина) is an oblast (province) of Ukraine. The administrative center of the ...

was created out of portions of Kyiv, Mykolaiv and Odesa oblasts. During World War II, Ukraine added eight more oblasts of the West Ukraine and Bessarabia. Upon the occupation of Ukraine by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

the territory was split between

General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...

Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania ( ro, Regatul României) was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March ( O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian ...

and

Reichskommissariat Ukraine During World War II, (abbreviated as RKU) was the civilian occupation regime () of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern-day Belarus and pre-war Second Polish Republic). It was governed by the Reic ...

and carried out a completely different administrative division, see

. With the re-establishing of Soviet power in the state after the war, the administrative division by oblast resumed, adding one more oblast— Zakarpattia. In 1954, the Crimean Oblast was transferred from the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

to the Ukrainian SSR; parts of the surrounding oblasts were incorporated into the Cherkasy Oblast, while Izmail Oblast was absorbed by Odesa Oblast. In 1959, Drohobych Oblast was merged with

Lviv Oblast Lviv Oblast ( uk, Льві́вська о́бласть, translit=Lvivska oblast, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna ( uk, Льві́вщина, ), ). The name of each oblast is a relational adjective—in English translating to a noun adjunct w ...

. Most of Ukraine's oblasts are named after their respective

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

s, which are also the largest and most developed cities in the region. Oblast populations range from 904,000 in Chernivtsi Oblast to 4.4 million in the eastern oblast of

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; uk, Донецьк, translit=Donets'k ; russian: Донецк ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino (see also: cities' alternative names), is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine loc ...

. Each oblast is generally subdivided into about 20 raions (mean average, can range anywhere from 11 in Chernivtsi to 27 in

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.

and

s).

Original in 1932

* Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, centered in Dnipropetrovsk (subdivided into raions) * Kharkiv Oblast, centered in Kharkiv (subdivided into raions) * Kyiv Oblast, centered in Kyiv (subdivided into raions) * Odesa Oblast, centered in Odesa (subdivided into raions) * Vinnytsia Oblast, centered in Vinnytsia (subdivided into raions) * raions of republican subordination (directly to Kharkiv) ;Later there were added: * Donetsk Oblast, centered in Stalino (initially – Artemivsk) (created on 17 July 1932 out of raions of Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts and raions of republican subordination) * Chernihiv Oblast, centered in Chernihiv (created on 15 October 1932 out of raions of Kharkiv and Kyiv oblasts)

Further division in 1937–1938

* Kamianets-Podilsk Oblast, centered in Kamianets-Podilsk (out of raions of Vinnytsia Oblast) * Mykolaiv Oblast, centered in Mykolaiv (out of raions of Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts) * Poltava Oblast, centered in Poltava (out of raions of Kharkiv and Kyiv oblasts) * Zhytomyr Oblast, centered in Zhytomyr (out of raions of Vinnytsia and Kyiv oblasts) * Donetsk Oblast was split into Stalino Oblast, centered in Stalino, and Voroshylovhrad Oblast, centered in Voroshylovhrad

New creations and World War II territorial expansions in 1939–1940

* Kirovohrad Oblast, centered in Kirovohrad (out of raions of Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava and Mykolaiv oblasts) * Sumy Oblast, centered in Sumy (out of raions of Chernihiv, Poltava and Kharkiv oblasts) * Zaporizhzhia Oblast, centered in Zaporizhzhia (out of raions of Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv oblasts) * Drohobych Oblast, centered in Drohobych * Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, centered in Ivano-Frankivsk * Lviv Oblast, centered in Lviv * Volyn Oblast, centered in Lutsk * Rivne Oblast, centered in Rivne * Tarnopol Oblast, centered in Tarnopol * Chernivtsi Oblast, centered in Chernivtsi * Izmail Oblast, centered in Izmail

Postwar

* Kherson Oblast, centered in Kherson * Zakarpattia Oblast, centered in Uzhhorod * Cherkasy Oblast, centered in Cherkasy * Crimean Oblast, centered in Simferopol

Maps

File:Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic 1929—1930.svg, The okruhas of Ukraine in 1929–1930 File:Ukraine 1932-1937.png, After 1935; including recently created Donetsk and Chernihiv Oblasts and border okrugs File:Ukrainian SSR 1937—1938.svg, Border okrugs are liquidated and four additional oblasts created in 1937 File:Ukraine 1939-1940.png, Creation of additional oblasts just before

File:Ukraine 1946-1954.png, Post-war divisions of Ukraine

Constitutional provisions and authority

The Ukrainian constitution establishes Ukraine as a unitary state. The specific text of the constitution that refers to the territorial structure is as follows. Each of Ukraine's oblasts has its own legislative and executive authority, most of which is subordinate to the central government authorities in Kyiv. Each region is administered under laws passed by the Ukrainian government and the Constitution of Ukraine. Each region levies its own taxes and, in return, receives a portion of its budget from Kyiv, which gives them a portion of the taxes it levies. Executive power in each of the oblasts (as well as in other subdivisions of Ukraine) is exercised by local elected administrations. The heads of local administrations are in turn appointed and dismissed by the

President of Ukraine The president of Ukraine ( uk, Президент України, Prezydent Ukrainy) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, condu ...

upon nomination by the Cabinet of Ministers. Since Ukraine is a unitary state, there is little true political power and weight that these local administrations actually hold. Carrying out their authority, the heads of local administrations are accountable to the President and are subordinate to higher bodies of executive leadership. According to the Constitution the head of the heads of the local Oblast administrations should resign after a new President is elected. Legislative power in the oblast governments is exercised by their respective oblast councils, which in turn supervise the activities of local administrations. They also have considerable budgets managed by an oblast council ( uk, обласна рада) made up of people's deputies (representatives) voted into office in regional elections every four years, the last of which took place in 2020.

Nomenclature

The name of each oblast is a relative

adjective In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...

, formed by adding a feminine

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...

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. The capital cities of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and Kirovohrad Oblast were renamed to

Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

and Kropyvnytskyi in 2016 as part of a process of replacing Soviet toponyms. As the names of the oblasts are mentioned in the Ukrainian Constitution changing them requires a complicated and lengthy process, thus as of 2017 the two oblasts still formally retain their Soviet names.

List

} , - , , CK , 20,891 , 1,198,000 , 61.80 , Cherkasy , 4 , 6 , - , , CH , 31,851.3 , 994,000 , 34.67 , Chernihiv , 5 , 3 , - , , CV , 8,093.6 , 897,000 , 111.67 , Chernivtsi , 3 , 2 , - , , DP , 31,900.5 , 3,214,000 , 104.83 ,

, 7 , 13 , - , , DT , 26,505.7 , 4,157,000 , 167.81 ,

( Kramatorsk) , 8 , 28 , - , , IF , 13,894.0 , 1,382,000 , 99.38 , Ivano-Frankivsk , 6 , 5 , - , , KK , 31,401.6 , 2,683,000 , 87.74 ,

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.

, 7 , 7 , - , , KS , 28,449 , 1,026,000 , 38.35 , Kherson , 5 , 3 , - , , KM , 20,636.2 , 1,274,000 , 64.52 , Khmelnytskyi , 3 , 6 , - , , KV , 28,118.9 , 1,775,000 , 61.15 ,

, 7 , 13 , - , , KH , 24,577.5 , 958,000 , 41.29 , Kropyvnytskyi , 4 , 4 , - , , LH , 26,672.5 , 2,145,000 , 86.25 , Luhansk ( Sieverodonetsk) , 8 , 14 , - , , LV , 21,823.7 , 2,515,000 , 116.65 ,

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

, 7 , 9 , - , , MY , 24,587.4 , 1,126,000 , 48.25 , Mykolaiv , 4 , 5 , - , , OD , 33,295.9 , 2,395,000 , 71.71 ,

Odesa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrati ...

, 7 , 7 , - , , PL , 28,735.8 , 1,392,000 , 51.98 , Poltava , 4 , 5 , - , , RV , 20,038.5 , 1,146,000 , 57.52 ,

Rivne Rivne (; uk, Рівне ),) also known as Rovno (Russian: Ровно; Polish: Równe; Yiddish: ראָוונע), is a city in western Ukraine. The city is the administrative center of Rivne Oblast ( province), as well as the surrounding Rivne ...

, 4 , 4 , - , , SM , 23,823.9 , 1,094,000 , 48.97 , Sumy , 5 , 7 , - , , TP , 13,817.1 , 1,035,000 , 78.65 ,

Ternopil Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Terno ...

, 3 , 1 , - , , VI , 26,501.6 , 1,566,000 , 62.12 , Vinnytsia , 6 , 6 , - , , VO , 20,135.3 , 1,046,000 , 51.56 , Lutsk , 4 , 4 , - , , ZK , 12,771.5 , 1,247,000 , 97.59 , Uzhhorod , 6 , 5 , - , , ZP , 27,168.5 , 1,699,000 , 66.45 ,

Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a populat ...

, 5 , 5 , - , , ZT , 29,819.2 , 1,213,000 , 43.03 , Zhytomyr , 4 , 5 Ukraine 1946-1954

Former

* Izmail Oblast (initially as Akkerman Oblast) existed in 1940–41 and 1944–54 (under Romanian occupation, later was added to Odesa Oblast) * Drohobych Oblast existed from 1939–1941 and 1944–1959 (under German occupation, it was merged into Lviv Oblast) * Crimean Oblast (1954–1991) was transformed into Crimean ASSR

Renamed

* Stalino Oblast was the name of Donetsk Oblast 1938-41 and 1943-61 (created out of the united Donetsk Oblast 1932–38, German occupation 1941–43) * Akkerman Oblast was the name of Izmail Oblast 1940 * Stanislav Oblast was the name of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast 1939–41 and 1944–62 (German occupation 1941–44) * Kamianetsk-Podilska Oblast was the name of Khmelnytskyi Oblast 1937-41 and 1944-54 (German occupation 1941–44, later transfer of administrative center to Khmelnytskyi) * Voroshylovhrad Oblast was the name of Luhansk Oblast 1938–42, 1943–58 and 1970–90 (German occupation 1942–43) * Tarnopil Oblast was the name of Ternopil Oblast 1939–41 (renamed soon after World War II) The Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and Kirovohrad Oblast are pending renaming following the renaming of their capital cities to Dnipro and Kropyvnytskyi.

Government

Governors and legislatures

Notes

References

External links

* * *
Handbook on history of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union
{{authority control Subdivisions of Ukraine

Ukraine 1 Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...

Regions, Ukraine