The administrative divisions of Ukraine ( uk, Адміністративний устрій України) are under the jurisdiction of 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

with three levels of administrative divisions: 27 regions (24

oblasts 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 Kingdom o ...

, 2

cities with special status City with special status ( uk, місто зі спеціальним статусом, misto zi spetsial'nym statusom), formerly "city of republican subordinance", is a type of first-level administrative division of Ukraine. Kyiv and Sevastopol ...

and 1

autonomous republic An autonomous republic is a type of administrative division similar to a province or state. A significant number of autonomous republics can be found within the successor states of the Soviet Union, but the majority are located within Russia. M ...

), 136

raion 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 c ...

s and 1469

hromada A hromada ( uk, територіальна громада, lit=territorial community, translit=terytorialna hromada) is a basic unit of administrative division in Ukraine, similar to a municipality. It was established by the Government of Ukra ...

s. The latest administrative reform of July 2020 merged most of the 490 raions and 118

cities of regional significance City of regional significance ( uk, місто обласного значення, ''misto oblasnoho znachennia'') in Ukraine was a type of second-level administrative division or municipality, the other type being raions (districts). In the fi ...

into 136 raions. The overall structure did not change significantly from the middle of the 20th century. The next level below raions are

s. Following the annexations of Crimea and southeastern Ukraine by the Russian Federation,

Autonomous Republic of Crimea The Autonomous Republic of Crimea, commonly known as Crimea, is a de jure autonomous republic of Ukraine encompassing most of Crimea that was annexed by Russia in 2014. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea occupies most of the peninsula,

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 ...

as well as portions 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 ...

Kherson Kherson (, ) is a port city of Ukraine that serves as the administrative centre of Kherson Oblast. Located on the Black Sea and on the Dnieper River, Kherson is the home of a major ship-building industry and is a regional economic centre. I ...

Luhansk Luhansk (, ; uk, Луганськ, ), also known as Lugansk (, ; russian: Луганск, ), is a city in what is internationally recognised as Ukraine, although it is administered by Russia as capital of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). A ...

and

Zaporizhzhia Oblast Zaporizhzhia Oblast ( uk, Запорі́зька о́бласть, translit=Zaporizka oblast), also referred to as Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запорі́жжя, links=no), is an oblast (province) of southeast Ukraine. Its capital is Zaporizhzhia. The ...

s came under the ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...

'' administration of the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. Internationally, most states have not recognized the Russian claims.

Overview

According to Article 133 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the system of administrative and territorial organization of Ukraine consists of: AR Crimea, oblasts, raions, cities, urban raions, towns and villages. In the 2020 administrative reform, all populated places in Ukraine (except for two cities with special status: Kyiv and Sevastopol) were resubordinated to raions. The new figure of 136 raions includes 10 in the AR Crimea (though they are not presently functional) and

First level

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

List

Autonomous republic

The Autonomous Republic of Crimea ( uk, Автоно́мна Респу́бліка Крим) geographically encompasses the major portion of the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine. Its capital is

Simferopol Simferopol () is the second-largest city in the Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, and is considered the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. However, it is ...

. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea is the only region within Ukraine that has its own constitution. On 16 March 2014, after the occupation of Crimea by the Russian military, a referendum on joining the Russian Federation was held. A majority of votes supported the measure. On 21 March 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 27 March, 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.

Oblasts

An oblast ( uk, о́бласть; ) is on the first level of the administrative division of Ukraine. Most oblasts are named after their administrative center. Volyn and Zakarpattia, whose respective capitals are Lutsk and Uzhhorod, are named after the historic regions

Volhynia Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. The ...

and Transcarpathia.

Cities with special status

Two cities have special status ( uk, міста́ зі спеціа́льним ста́тусом):

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

. Their special status puts them on the same administrative level as the oblasts, and thus under the direct supervision of the state via their respective local state administrations, which constitute the executive bodies of the cities. Following the

annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. The events in Kyiv t ...

, Sevastopol is controlled by Russia and is incorporated as a

federal subject of Russia The federal subjects of Russia, also referred to as the subjects of the Russian Federation (russian: субъекты Российской Федерации, subyekty Rossiyskoy Federatsii) or simply as the subjects of the federation (russian ...

Second level

Raions

Raions ( uk, райо́н; ) are smaller territorial units of subdivision in Ukraine. There are 136 raions. Following the December 2019 draft

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these prin ...

changes submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by President

Volodymyr Zelenskyy Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...

, 136 new raions have replaced the former 490 raions of Ukraine.

Urban raions

An urban raion is subordinate to the city administration.

Third level

Hromadas

The territorial hromadas ( uk, територіа́льна грома́да; lit. 'territorial community'), or simlply hromadas ( uk, грома́да) were established by the

Government of Ukraine The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine ( uk, Кабінет Міністрів України, translit=Kabinet Ministriv Ukrainy; shortened to CabMin), commonly referred to as the Government of Ukraine ( uk, Уряд України, ''Uriad Ukrai ...

on 12 June 2020 as a part of administrative reform that started in 2015. There are three types of hromadas: ''rural'' ( uk, сільська́ грома́да), ''settlement'' ( uk, се́лищна грома́да) and ''urban'' ( uk, міська́ грома́да). There are 1469 hromadas in total (as of January 1, 2022).

History

Before the introduction of oblasts in 1932, Soviet Ukraine comprised 40

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, which had replaced the former

Russian Imperial 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. The ...

governorate A governorate is an administrative division of a state. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states or provinces, the term ''governorate'' is often used in translation from ...

subdivisions. In 1932 the territory of the Ukrainian SSR was re-established based on oblasts. At the same time, most of the

Western Ukraine Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austr ...

at the time formed part of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

and shared in the Polish form of administrative division based on

voivodeships A voivodeship is the area administered by a voivode (Governor) in several countries of central and eastern Europe. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times and the area of extent of voivodeship resembles that of a duchy in western medieva ...

. * The top level: duchy (land) → palatinate (voivodeship) → regiments (polk) / palanka → governorate → okruha → oblast → TBD * The intermediate level: apanage duchy → county (povit) / eldership (starostvo) →

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

(sotnia) → raion → county (povit) * The local level: volost → kurin / community (hromada) → volost → city council (rada) → community (hromada)

References

External links

* * * * {{Authority control