Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (), is an

oblast An oblast ( or ) is a type of administrative division in Bulgaria and several post-Soviet states, including Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Historically, it was used in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. The term ''oblast'' is often translated i ...

(province) in simultaneously southern, eastern and central

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, the most important industrial region of the country. It was created on February 27, 1932. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast has a population of about approximately 80% of whom live centering on

administrative center An administrative centre 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 the administrative language, such as Belgiu ...

Dnipro Dnipro 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 River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

Kryvyi Rih Kryvyi Rih ( ; , ), also known as Krivoy Rog ( ), is a city in central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Kryvyi Rih Raion and its subordinate Kryvyi Rih urban hromada in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The city is part of the Kryvyi Rih Metropo ...

Kamianske Kamianske (, ; ), previously known as Dniprodzerzhynsk from 1936 to 2016, is an industrial city in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine, and a port on the Dnieper, Dnieper River. It serves as the administrative center of Kamianske Raion and Kamianske ...

, Nikopol and

Pavlohrad Pavlohrad (, ) is a city in eastern Ukraine, located within Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. It serves as the administrative center of Pavlohrad Raion. Its population is approximately The rivers of Vovcha (runs through the city towards the Samara Riv ...

. The

Dnieper River The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

runs through the oblast.

Geography

Most of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, including Dnipro Raion, is located in

eastern Ukraine Eastern Ukraine or East Ukraine (; ) is primarily the territory of Ukraine east of the Dnipro (or Dnieper) river, particularly Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts (provinces). Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts are often also regarded as ...

, though some parts are in central and

southern Ukraine Southern Ukraine (, ) refers, generally, to the territories in the South of Ukraine. The territory usually corresponds with the Soviet economical district, the Southern Economical District of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The region ...

, such as Kamianske Raion and Nikopol Raion, respectively. The area of the oblast (31,974 km²) comprises about 5.3% of the total area of the country. Its longitude from north to south is 130 km, from east to west – 300 km. The oblast borders the

Poltava Poltava (, ; , ) is a city located on the Vorskla, Vorskla River in Central Ukraine, Central Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Poltava Oblast as well as Poltava Raion within the oblast. It also hosts the administration of Po ...

and

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

oblasts on the north, the

Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its capital city, administrative centre is Donetsk, though d ...

on the east, the

Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia, formerly known as Aleksandrovsk or Oleksandrivsk until 1921, is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. It is the Capital city, administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia ...

and

Kherson Kherson (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and , , ) is a port city in southern Ukraine that serves as the administrative centre of Kherson Oblast. Located by the Black Sea and on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, Kherson is the home to a major ship-bui ...

oblasts on the south, and the

Mykolaiv Mykolaiv ( ), also known as Nikolaev ( ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and a hromada (municipality) in southern Ukraine. Mykolaiv is the Administrative centre, administrative center of Mykolaiv Raion (Raions of Ukraine, district) and Myk ...

and

Kirovohrad Kropyvnytskyi (, ) is a city in central Ukraine, situated on the Inhul River. It serves as the administrative center of Kirovohrad Oblast. Population: Over its history, Kropyvnytskyi has changed its name several times. The settlement was k ...

oblasts on the west. Historically, it is located in the region of

. The Black Sea Lowland covers about half of the territory of the oblast, where it lies only within the west bank of the Dnieper. In Terny, a Ternivsky meteorite crater is located. It is in diameter and its age is estimated at 280 ± 10 million years (

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years, from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.902 Mya. It is the s ...

). The crater is not exposed at the surface. The

Dnieper Upland The Dnieper Upland or Cisdnieper Upland () is a southeastern European plain occupying the territory between the Dnieper and the Southern Bug. It lies in central Ukraine, occupying the oblasts of Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad a ...

contains a number of minerals including

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

graphite Graphite () is a Crystallinity, crystalline allotrope (form) of the element carbon. It consists of many stacked Layered materials, layers of graphene, typically in excess of hundreds of layers. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable ...

brown coal Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, Combustion, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered ...

, and

kaolin Kaolinite ( ; also called kaolin) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina (). ...

Kryvbas :''Kryvbas'' ''may also refer to the FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih, the football team in Kryvyi Rih. See also Kryvbas (disambiguation)'' Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Basin (; ), commonly known by the portmanteau Kryvbas (; ), is an important economic and histor ...

is an important economic region, specializing in iron ore mining and the steel industry. It is arguably the main iron ore region of

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. Named after the city of

, the mining base of the region occupies the southwestern part of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, as well as the small neighboring parts of the

and

Kherson Oblast Kherson Oblast (, ; ), also known as Khersonshchyna (, ), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in southern Ukraine. It is located just north of Crimea. Its administrative center is Kherson, on the northern or right bank ...

s. The region possesses major deposits of iron ore and some other metallurgical ores. To exploit them, several large mining companies were founded here in the middle of the 20th century. Most of them are located in Kryvyi Rih itself, which is the longest city in Europe (roughly in a straight line from one end to another).

Geology

Much of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast is located within the boundaries of the Ukrainian Shield and only the northern regions and the extreme eastern part of the territory are confined to the south-eastern side of the Dnipro-Donets depression. In the geological structure of the region, the breeds come from the archaea, the

Proterozoic The Proterozoic ( ) is the third of the four geologic eons of Earth's history, spanning the time interval from 2500 to 538.8 Mya, and is the longest eon of Earth's geologic time scale. It is preceded by the Archean and followed by the Phanerozo ...

, the

Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...

, the

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...

and the

Cenozoic The Cenozoic Era ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, insects, birds and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three g ...

History

In the 6th to 8th centuries AD the first settlements of Slavs appeared on the banks of the Dnieper within the region. During the period of

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

(9th to 12th centuries AD) the Dnieper River functioned as one of the main trade corridors of medieval Eastern Europe, part of the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks", which connected the Baltic Sea region with the

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

and with the capital of

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion () was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' continued to be used as a n ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

. The Dnieper also served as a major route for transporting the armies of Kyiv princes on their way to the Byzantine coastal cities in the early 9th and late 9th centuries. At the beginning of the 15th century,

Tatar Tatar may refer to: Peoples * Tatars, an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" * Volga Tatars, a people from the Volga-Ural region of western Russia * Crimean Tatars, a people from the Crimea peninsula by the B ...

tribes inhabiting the right bank of the Dnieper were driven away by the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

. However, by the mid-15th century, the Nogai (who lived north of the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...

) and the

Crimean Khanate The Crimean Khanate, self-defined as the Throne of Crimea and Desht-i Kipchak, and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary, was a Crimean Tatars, Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441 to 1783, the longest-lived of th ...

invaded these lands. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crimean Khanate agreed to a border along the Dnieper, and farther east along the Samara River, i.e. through what is today the city of Dnipro. At this time there appeared a new force, the

Cossacks The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic languages, East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borde ...

- armed free men not subject to any feudal lord - who soon came to dominate the region. They later became known as

Zaporozhian Cossacks The Zaporozhian Cossacks (in Latin ''Cossacorum Zaporoviensis''), also known as the Zaporozhian Cossack Army or the Zaporozhian Host (), were Cossacks who lived beyond (that is, downstream from) the Dnieper Rapids. Along with Registered Cossa ...

, from

, the lands south of

Naddniprianshchyna The term Dnieper Ukraine (), usually refers to territory on either side of the middle course of the Dnieper River. The Ukrainian name derives from ''nad‑'' (prefix: "above, over") + ''Dnipró'' ("Dnieper") + ''‑shchyna'' (suffix denoting a ge ...

(Zaporizhzhia translates to "the Land Beyond the

Rapids Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep stream gradient, gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Flow, gradient, constriction, and obstacles are four factors that are needed for a rapid t ...

"). This period of raids and fighting caused considerable devastation and

depopulation Population decline, also known as depopulation, is a reduction in a human population size. Throughout history, Earth's total human population has continued to grow but projections suggest this long-term trend may be coming to an end. From ant ...

in the

Pontic steppe Pontic, from the Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to: The Black Sea Places * The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores * Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores * The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands stretching from n ...

; the area became known as the "Wilderness" or the "

Wild Fields The Wild Fields is a historical term used in the Polish–Lithuanian documents of the 16th to 18th centuries to refer to the Pontic steppe in the territory of present-day Eastern and Southern Ukraine and Western Russia, north of the Black Sea ...

". In 1635, the

Polish government The government of Poland takes the form of a Unitary state, unitary semi-presidential republic, semi-presidential Representative democracy, representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Poland, president is the head of state and t ...

built the Kodak fortress above the Dnieper Rapids at ''Kodaky'', partly as a result of rivalry in the region between Poland,

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and the

, and partly to maintain control over Cossack activity (i.e. to suppress the Cossack raiders and to prevent peasants moving out of the area).Plokhy, Serhii, ''The Cossacks and Religion in Early Modern Ukraine'', pub Oxford University Press, 2001, , pages 26, 37, 40, 51, 60–1, 142, 245, and 268. On the night of 3 or 4 August 1635, the Cossacks of Ivan Sulyma captured the fort by surprise, burning it down and butchering the garrison of about 200 West European mercenaries under Jean Marion. The fort, rebuilt by French engineer

Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan Guillaume Levasseur de Beauplan ( – 6 December 1673) or William le Vasseur de Beauplan was a French-Polish cartographer, engineer and architect. Beauplan is best known for his maps of Ukraine (which he spelt as ''Ukranie'' or ''Vkranie'', wi ...

for the Polish government in 1638, had a mercenary garrison. ''Kodak'' was captured by

on 1 October 1648, and was garrisoned by the Cossacks until its demolition in accordance with the

Treaty of the Pruth The Treaty of the Pruth was signed on the banks of the river Prut between the Ottoman Empire and the Tsardom of Russia on 23 July 1711 ending the Russo-Turkish War of 1710–1713 with the assistance of Peter Shafirov. The treaty was a politic ...

in 1711.www.day.kyiv.ua ''Above Kodak, this year the unique fortress marks its 375th anniversary''
by Mykola Chaban, 2010. Under the

Treaty of Pereyaslav The Pereiaslav Agreement or Pereyaslav AgreementPereyaslav Agreement

of 1654, the territory came within the sphere of influence of the Moscow-based

Tsardom of Russia The Tsardom of Russia, also known as the Tsardom of Moscow, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of tsar by Ivan the Terrible, Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great in 1721. ...

. In 1774 Prince Grigori Potemkin was appointed governor of Novorossiysk Governorate, and after the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775, he started founding cities in the region and encouraging foreign settlers. The city of ''Yekaterinoslav'' (present-day Dnipro) was founded in 1776, not in its current location, but at the confluence of the River Samara with the River Kil'chen' at Loshakivka, north of the Dnieper. On May 8, 1775, after the end of the Russian-Turkish War of 1768 to 1774, Russian authorities opened a postal station and track which linked

Kremenchuk Kremenchuk (; , , also spelt Kremenchug, ) is an industrial city in central Ukraine which stands on the banks of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. The city serves as the administrative center of Kremenchuk Raion and Kremenchuk urban hromada within ...

city, the Kinburn foreland and

Ochakiv Ochakiv (, ), also known as Ochakov (; ; or, archaically, ) and Alektor (), is a small city in Mykolaiv Raion, Mykolaiv Oblast (region) of southern Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Ochakiv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. ...

, all locations of the Imperial Russian Army. In December 1796, Emperor Paul I re-established the Novorossiysk Governorate, mostly with land from the former

Yekaterinoslav Viceroyalty The Yekaterinoslav Viceroyalty was an administrative-territorial unit ('' namestnichestvo'') of the Russian Empire, which was created on 26 March 1783 by merging Novorossiya Governorate and Azov Governorate. On 31 December 1796, it was incorpor ...

. In 1802, this province was divided into the Nikolayev Governorate (known as the Kherson Governorate from 1803),

Yekaterinoslav Governorate Yekaterinoslav Governorate} was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Yekaterinoslav. Covering an area of , and being composed of a inhabitant of 2,113,674 by the census of 1897, it bordere ...

, and the

Taurida Governorate Taurida Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire. It included the territory of the Crimean Peninsula and the mainland between the lower Dnieper River with the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea o ...

. The capital of the Yekaterinoslav Governorate was the city of

Yekaterinoslav Dnipro 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 River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

(modern Dnipro). It was located within the former lands of the

Zaporizhian Sich The Zaporozhian Sich (, , ; also ) was a semi-autonomous polity and proto-state of Zaporozhian Cossacks that existed between the 16th to 18th centuries, for the latter part of that period as an autonomous stratocratic state within the Cossa ...

. The governorate bordered to the north with the

Kharkov Governorate Kharkov Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire founded in 1835. It embraced the historical region of Sloboda Ukraine. From 1765 to 1780 and from 1796 to 1835 the governorate was called Sloboda Uk ...

and

Poltava Governorate Poltava Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire. It was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Little Russia Governorate (1796–1802), Little Russia Governorate and had its capital in Polt ...

, to the west and southwest with the

Kherson Governorate Kherson Governorate, known until 1803 as Nikolayev Governorate, was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Kherson. It encompassed in area and had a population of 2,733,612 inhabitants. At t ...

, to the south with the

and

, and to the east with the

Don Host Oblast Don Host Oblast was a province (''oblast'') of the Russian Empire which consisted of the territory of the Don Cossacks, coinciding approximately with present-day Rostov Oblast in Russia. Its administrative center was Cherkassk, and later Nov ...

. Olexander Paul (1832–1890) discovered iron ore and initiated smelting, and this became the core of a developing a mining district. In 1874 Emperor Alexander II initiated the founding project of a railway, running . This enabled transportation directly to the nearest factories and greatly sped up the development of the region. On 1 August 1925, the Yekaterinoslav Governorate administration was discontinued, and in 1926 the city of Yekterinoslav was renamed Dnipropetrovsk after Ukrainian Soviet

leader Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

Grigory Petrovsky Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky (, ; 4 February 1878 – 10 January 1958) was a Ukrainian Soviet politician and Old Bolshevik. He participated in signing the Treaty on the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Treaty of Brest-L ...

. Before the introduction of oblasts in 1932, the

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

comprised 40 okrugs, which had replaced the former Russian Imperial ''guberniya'' (governorate) subdivisions. In 1932 the territory of the Ukrainian SSR was re-organized into oblasts. The first oblasts were

Vinnytsia Oblast Vinnytsia Oblast (, ), also referred to as Vinnychchyna (), is an oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in central Ukraine. Its capital city, administrative center is Vinnytsia. The oblast has a population of History Vinnytsia Oblast, first established on ...

Kyiv Oblast Kyiv Oblast (, ), also called Kyivshchyna (, ), is an Administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in central and northern Ukraine. It surrounds, but does not include, the city of Kyiv, which is administered as a city with special sta ...

Odesa Oblast Odesa Oblast (), also referred to as Odeshchyna (Одещина), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of southwestern Ukraine, located along the northern coast of the Black Sea. Its administrative centre is the city of Ode ...

Kharkiv Oblast Kharkiv Oblast (, ), also referred to as Kharkivshchyna (), is an oblast (province) in eastern Ukraine. Kharkiv borders Luhansk Oblast to the east, Donetsk Oblast to the southeast, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to the southwest, Poltava Oblast to the w ...

, and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Soon after that, in the summer of 1932,

was formed out of eastern parts of Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. During the

Holodomor The Holodomor, also known as the Ukrainian Famine, was a mass famine in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–193 ...

in the 1930s, more than 200

collective farm Collective farming and communal farming are various types of "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member-o ...

s in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast were put on "Blackboards" which implied a complete blockade of trade and food-aid to villages under-performing in fulfilling grain-procurement quotas; a number representing more than half of all such "Blackboards" throughout all of the Ukrainian SSR. During the 1991 referendum, 90.36% of votes in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast favored the

Declaration of Independence of Ukraine The Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine was adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR (''Verkhovna Rada'') on 24 August 1991.decommunization laws enacted a year earlier. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast was not renamed because it is mentioned by name in the

Constitution of Ukraine The Constitution of Ukraine (, ) is the fundamental law of Ukraine. The constitution was adopted and ratified at the 5th session of the ''Verkhovna Rada'', the parliament of Ukraine, on 28 June 1996. The constitution was passed with 315 ayes o ...

, and the oblast can only be renamed by a

constitutional amendment A constitutional amendment (or constitutional alteration) is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly alt ...

. In April 2018 a group of over a hundred deputies formally initiated a proposal in the

Ukrainian Parliament The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovna Rada building in Ukraine's capi ...

to change the name to ''Sicheslav Oblast''; in February 2019, the Verkhovna Rada voted to officially amend the Constitution, thus granting state sanction to the name change. Later that year the Constitutional Court officially approved the change. The oblast's administrative centre and largest city,

, had had the unofficial name "Sicheslav" (commemorating the

) in 1918–21 during the

Ukrainian War of Independence The Ukrainian War of Independence, also referred to as the Ukrainian–Soviet War in Ukraine, lasted from March 1917 to November 1921 and was part of the wider Russian Civil War. It saw the establishment and development of an independent Ukr ...

. Since then, the renaming process has stalled (), for reasons such as the 2019 presidential and

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

elections, the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

(2022 onwards). During the Russian invasion, the cities of

, and Nikopol, among other locations in the region, were bombed by Russia. It was also reported that Russian troops were pushed from areas near Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and Kherson Oblast, near the border. One village bordering Kherson Oblast, Hannivka, may have been occupied and liberated by Ukrainian forces by May 2022. Between 2022 and 2024, there was no further ground fighting and the oblast had remained completely under Ukrainian control. In June 2025, the

Institute for the Study of War The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is an American nonprofit research group and advocacy think tank founded in 2007 by military historian Kimberly Kagan and headquartered in Washington, D.C. ISW provides research and analysis of modern arm ...

confirmed that Russian troops entered Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

Administrative subdivisions

The following data incorporates the number of each type of administrative divisions of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast: * Administrative center – 1 (

) * Raions – 7; * City districts – 18 (Dnipro – 8, Kryvyi Rih – 7, Kamianske −3); * Settlements – 1504, including: **

Villages A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...

– 1438; ** Cities/Towns – 66, including: ***

Urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

s – 46; *** Cities – 20. * Village communities – 288. The local administration of the oblast is controlled by the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Rada. The governor of the oblast is the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Rada speaker, appointed by the

President of Ukraine The president of Ukraine (, ) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, conducts negotiations and concludes international treaties. ...

. Since July 2020, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast consists of the following seven raions: * Dnipro Raion; * Kamianske Raion; * Kryvyi Rih Raion; * Nikopol Raion; *

Pavlohrad Raion Pavlohrad Raion () is a raion (district) of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, southeastern-central Ukraine. Its administrative centre is located at the city of Pavlohrad. Population: On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the nu ...

; * Samar Raion; *

Synelnykove Raion Synelnykove Raion () is a Raions of Ukraine, raion (district) of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, southeastern-central Ukraine. Its administrative centre is located at Synelnykove. Population: On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukrai ...

Demographics

Its population in 2004 was 3,493,062, which constituted 5.3% of the overall Ukrainian population. At the 2001 census, the ethnic groups within the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast were: *

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

– 79.3%, *

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

– 17.6%, *

Belarusians Belarusians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Belarus. They natively speak Belarusian language, Belarusian, an East Slavic language. More than 9 million people proclaim Belarusian ethnicity worldwide. Nearly 7.99&n ...

– 0.8%, *

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

– 0.4%, *

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

– 0.3%, * Azeris – 0.2%, *

Moldovans Moldovans, sometimes referred to as Moldavians (, , ), are an ethnic group native to Moldova, who mostly speak the Romanian language, also referred to locally as Moldovan language, Moldovan. Moldovans form significant communities in Romania, It ...

– 0.12%, * Romanis – 0.11%, *

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

– 0.11%, *

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

– 0.11%, * Other – 0.95%; the groups by native language: * Ukrainian 67%, *

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

32%, * other languages 1%.

Age structure

: ''0–14 years:'' 14.1% (male 241,006/female 226,216) : ''15–64 years:'' 70.2% (male 1,100,602/female 1,219,668) : ''65 years and over:'' 15.7% (male 168,447/female 348,547) (2013 official)

Median age

: ''total:'' 40.3 years : ''male:'' 36.6 years : ''female:'' 43.9 years (2013 official)

Religion

A Pew survey of Dnipropetrovsk residents' religious self-identification showed the following distribution of affiliations:

Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), commonly referred to by the exonym Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), is an Eastern Orthodox church in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church was officially formed in 1990 in pla ...

47.5%,

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate Ukrainian may refer or relate to: * Ukraine, a country in Eastern Europe * Ukrainians, an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine * Demographics of Ukraine * Ukrainian culture, composed of the material and spiritual values of the Ukrainian peopl ...

10.7%,

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

1.3%,

Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC; (UAPTs)) was one of the three major Eastern Orthodox churches in Ukraine in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, together with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) ...

0.8%, Protestantism 32.3%. The oblast has one of the most balanced percentage of religious people in the nation mainly due to large number of ethnic groups. The Jewish community is centered in the Dnipro (Golden Rose Synagogue, Dnipro, Golden Rose Synagogue) and Kryvyi Rih area, and emerged during a wave of Jewish immigration.

Cities and towns

There are 20 cities and towns on the Dnieper River. Major population centers today result from historical factors — with the advent of the iron development took place predominantly along the

and

, a city located on the Dnieper. Kryvyi Rih is the center of a large metropolitan area called Kryvyi Rih Metropolitan Region. Ranked by population, the oblast's 13 largest municipalities are: # Coat of arms of Dnipro

(1,080,846) # Coat of Arms of Kryvyi Rih

(662,507) #

(262,704) # Nikopol (136,280) # Coat of arms of Pavlograd 1811

(118,816) # Coat of Arms of Novomoskovsk

Samar, Ukraine, Samar (72,439) # Coat of Arms of Zhovti Vody

Zhovti Vody (54,370) # Pokrov COA

Pokrov, Ukraine, Pokrov (46,532) # Marhanets (44,980) # Synelnykove (32,302) # Ternivka CoA

Ternivka (29,253) # Coat of Arms of Pershotravensk

Shakhtarske, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Shakhtarske (29,140) # Coat of Arms of Vilnohirsk

Vilnohirsk (23,782)

Transport

There are eight over-Dnieper bridges and dozens of grade-separated intersections. Several new intersections are under construction. European route E105 cross Left-bank Dnipro from North to South. Highway M04 (Ukraine) and Highway M18 (Ukraine) cross River Dnieper and

from West to East, entering Kryvyi Rih. Overall, roads are in poor technical condition and maintained inadequately. Near-Dnipro Railway, Cisdnieper Railway (NDZ), headquartered in Dnipro, is a component part of the Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) company. CDR's route map includes all the railroads in the Dnipropetrovsk,

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. As of 2008, Cisdnieper rail system included of track, of which 93,3% were electrified. The CDR consists of five sections (directions), the Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, and Crimea directions. There are 244 railway stations in the NDR system. More than a dozen ''elektrichka'' stops are located within the city allowing residents of different neighborhoods to use the suburban trains. The cities of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih are served by a local sales-tax-funded bus, tram, metro and trolleybus systems. Dnipro International Airport and Kryvyi Rih International Airport are the only international airports. The airport of Dnipro serves as one of the hubs for Dniproavia. The airport has non-stop service to over 20 destinations throughout Ukraine and Turkey, as well as to Vienna and Tel Aviv. Kryvyi Rih International Airport provides limited commercial air service.

Environment

The oblast is situated in the steppe region. Forests in the oblast occupy about 3.9% of the oblast's total territory. The average temperature in the winter balances from −3 to −5 °C and in the summer from 22 to 24 °C. The average annual rainfall is 400–490 mm. During the summer, Dnipropetrovsk oblast is very warm (average day temperature in July is , even hot sometimes . Temperatures as high as have been recorded in May. Winter is not so cold (average day temperature in January is , but when there is no snow and the wind blows hard, it feels extremely cold. A mix of snow and rain happens usually in December. The tender climate, mineral sources, and the curative mud allow opportunities for rest and cure within the region. Here there are 21 health-centers and medicated pensions, 10 rest homes, recreation departments and rest camps for children. The Dnipropetrovsk Oblast has splendid flora and fauna. Here, there are more than 1700 kinds of vegetation, 7500 kinds of animals (including elk, wild boar, dappled deer, roe, hare, fox, wolf, etc.) There are also 114 park and nature objects, including 15 state reserves; 3 nature memorials, 24 local parks; 7 landscape parks; 3 park tracts, which altogether make up approximately 260 square kilometres. 217 rivers flow within the area, including 55 rivers which are longer than 25 km, the major one being the Dnieper, which crosses through the center of the oblast. Also flowing through the region are two major reservoirs, the Kamianske Reservoir, Kamianske and Dnieper Reservoir, Dnieper, while the former Kakhovka Reservoir was drained in 2023 following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam and the subsequent restoration of the Great Meadow, Ukraine, Great Meadow. A major channel in the region is the Dnieper-Kryvyi Rih Channel.

Economy

The Dnipropetrovsk Oblast has a high industry potential. There are 712 basic industrial organizations, including 20 different types of economic activity with about 473,4 thousand workers. The area also produces about 16.9% of the total industry production of Ukraine. This places the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast second in Ukraine (after the neighbouring

). Dnipro is a major industrial centre of Ukraine. It has several facilities devoted to heavy industry that produce a wide range of products, including cast-iron, rolled metal, pipes, machinery, different mining combines, agricultural equipment, tractors, trolleybuses, refrigerators, different chemicals and many others. The most famous and the oldest (founded in the 19th century) is the Metallurgical Plant named after Petrovsky. The city also has big food processing and light industry factories. Many sewing and dress-making factories work for France, Canada, Germany and Great Britain , using the most advanced technologies, materials and design. Dnipro also formerly dominated in the aerospace industry since the 1950s: engineering department Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and construction at PA Pivdenmash, Pivdenmash. PA Pivdenmash, Pivdenmash, the former Yuzhmash, is a manufacturer of space rockets, agricultural equipment, buses, trolley buses, trams, wind turbines, and satellites that was inherited from the Soviet Union. It is a large state-owned company located in

. Dniproavia, an airline, has its head office on the grounds of Dnipropetrovsk International Airport. The region possesses major deposits of iron ore and some other metallurgical ores. To exploit them, several large mining companies were founded here in the middle of the 20th century. Most of them are located in Kryvyi Rih itself, which is the longest city in Europe. Steel companies of the region (except Mittal Steel-owned Kryvorizhstal) are controlled by either the Privat Group or the SCM Holdings, SCM. From the 1990s until 2004, these once united and state-owned industries went through a hard and scandal-ridden process of privatization. Being a business oligarch entity, Privat Group controls some prominent Ukrainian media, maintains close relations with politicians and sponsors professional sports. Key businesses of the group (including the PrivatBank itself) are based in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, which is regarded as its "homeland". Group's founding owners are natives of Dnipropetrovsk and made their entire career there. ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, owned by ArcelorMittal since 2005 is the largest private company by revenue in Ukraine, producing over 7 million tonnes of crude steel, and mined over 17 million tonnes of iron ore. As of 2011, the company employed about 37,000 people. 4 Iron Ore Enrichment Works of Metinvest are a large contributors to the UA's balance of payments. The third giant – Evraz mining company.

Education

Colleges and universities

The oblast has several colleges and universities: # Dnipro State Medical University # Alfred Nobel University # Oles Honchar Dnipro National University # Dnipro Polytechnic # State Chemical Technology University of Ukraine # Dnipro State Technical University of Railway Transport # Prednieper State Academy of Construction and Architecture # Dnipro State University of Internal Affairs # National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine # Dnipro Medical Institute of Conventional and Alternative Medicine # Dniprovskyi State Technical University # Kryvyi Rih National University # Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University # Kryvyi Rih State University of Economics and Technology

Sport

Region houses the Ukrainian Premier League football (soccer), football club, FC Dnipro. This club, commonly seen as representing the Dnipro, city at large, holds a record for being the only Soviet team to win the USSR Federation Cup twice; since independence they have gone on to win the Ukrainian Premier League, Ukrainian Championship once and the Ukrainian League Cup three times. Kryvyi Rih was home to the Football (soccer), football team FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih (1959–2013), Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih. FC Hirnyk Kryvyi Rih is a club based in Kryvyi Rih. The club currently competes in the Ukrainian First League. It is part of the Sports Club Hirnyk which combines several other sections. The club's owner is the Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Combine (KZRK), the biggest subterranean mining public company in Ukraine. SC Kryvbas is a professional basketball club. Achievements of the team are winning the Ukrainian Basketball League in 2009, and winning the Higher League in 2003 and 2004. Since 2010 the team is active in the Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague. Recently built Dnipro-Arena has a capacity of 31,003 people. The Dnipro-Arena hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification game between Ukraine national football team, Ukraine and England national football team, England on 10 October 2009. The Dnipro Arena was initially chosen as one of the Ukrainian venues for their joint Euro 2012 bid with Poland. However, it was dropped from the list in May 2009 as the capacity fell short of the minimum 33,000 seats required by UEFA. Dnipropetrovsk has a regional federation within Ukrainian bandy and Rink bandy, Rink Bandy Federation.

Culture

Historically, Dnieper Ukraine comprised territory that roughly corresponded to the area of Ukraine within the expanding Russian Empire. Ukrainians sometimes call it Great Ukraine (Velyka Ukraina). Historically, this region is tightly entwined with the history of Ukraine and is considered the heart of the country. Ukrainian (67,0%) and

(31,9%) language are both used, with Russian being more common in cities, while Ukrainian is the dominant language in rural communities. These details result in a significant difference across different survey results, as even a small restating of a question switches responses of a significant group of people. The speaking of Surzhyk instead of Russian or Ukrainian is wide and viewed negatively by nationalist language activists. Because it is neither the one nor the other, they regard Surzhyk as a threat to the uniqueness of Ukrainian culture. Petrovskiy GI Soc Kiev 1937 01 p10bis

Petrykivka painting, originating from the village of Petrykivka, is known for its distinctive features such as patterns, unusual technique and white background. It was included to the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukraine, UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Notable people from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

* Helena Blavatsky – Russian occultist, philosopher, and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society * Leonid Brezhnev – General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union * Marharyta Dorozhon – Ukrainian/Israeli Olympic javelin thrower * Ihor Kolomoyskyi * Tihon Konstantinov – Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, Moldavian SSR and Moldavian ASSR politician * Leonid Kuchma – second President of independent Ukraine * Yulia Tymoshenko – politician and businesswoman * Pavlo Lazarenko – former Prime Minister of Ukraine * Viktor Pinchuk * Mykola Malyshko – sculptor and artist * Mikhail Nekrich * Oksana Baiul – figure skater; 1993 World champion and 1994 Olympic champion in ladies' singles * Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, The Lubavitcher Rebbe – Orthodox rabbi, and third Rebbe (spiritual leader) of the Chabad Lubavitch chasidic movement * Samuel Seidlin – endocrinologist and nuclear medicine pioneer * Dmytro Yavornytsky * Valeriy Lobanovskyi * Oleksandr Oksanchenko – fighter pilot killed in the Battle of Kyiv (2022), Battle of Kyiv in 2022 * Oles Honchar * Olexander Paul * Volodymyr Zelensky – current

* Dnepropetrovsk maniacs, Dnipropetrovsk Maniacs – serial killers

Landmarks

The following historical-cultural sites were nominated to the Seven Wonders of Ukraine. * Tomb of kosh otaman Sirko * Troitsk Cathedral (Novomoskovsk), Troitsk Cathedral * Church of Virgin Mary Birth * The walls of Ukrainian defensive line * Kurgan stelae or Balbals are anthropomorphic stone stelae, images cut from stone, installed atop, within or around kurgans (i.e. tumuli), in kurgan cemeteries, or in a double line extending from a kurgan. The stelae are also described as "obelisks" or "statue menhir, statue menhirs". Spanning more than three millennia, they are clearly the product of various cultures. The earliest are associated with the Pit Grave culture of the Pontic–Caspian steppe (and therefore with the Proto-Indo-Europeans according to the mainstream Kurgan hypothesis). There are Iron Age specimens are identified with the Scythians and Middle Ages, medieval examples with Turkic peoples. Such stelae are found in large numbers in Dnipropetrovsk oblast, Dnipro,

and Nikolaev oblast, Nikolaev. * Kodak fortress was a fort built in 1635 by the order of Poland, Polish king Władysław IV Vasa and the Sejm over the Dnieper River, near what was to become the town of Stari Kodaky (by modern day:

). It was constructed by Stanisław Koniecpolski to control Cossacks of

, prevent Ukrainians, Ukrainian peasants from joining forces with the Cossacks and guard the southeastern corner of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Poles tried to establish order in that area, and commissioned France, French military cartographer and engineer William le Vasseur de Beauplan to construct it. The fortress cost around 100,000 Polish zlotys. The dragoon garrison was commanded by the French officer Jean de Marion. Soviet government attempted to destroy the remnants of the fortress in order to eradicate traces of Polish influences on Ukraine by setting a quarry on that site in 1944. The quarry was closed in 1994, but at that time two-thirds of the fortress had been destroyed. Today the site is just ruins, but it is a popular tourist attraction. * Transfiguration Cathedral, Dnipro, The Saviour's Transfiguration Cathedral (Ukrainian: Спасо-Преображенський кафедральний собор) is the main Orthodox church of Dnipro, Ukraine. The foundation stone was laid in 1786 by Catherine II of Russia and Emperor Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II. The event is described in the memoirs of comte de Ségur. Prince Grigory Potemkin envisioned the church as one of the spiritual centres of New Russia. Ivan Starov submitted to Potemkin his designs for a Roman-style basilica, but construction was postponed until the end of the Russo-Turkish War.

Symbols

A Cossack with a musket was an emblem of the Zaporizhian Host and later the state emblem of the Hetmanate and the Ukrainian State. The origin of the emblem is uncertain, while its first records date back to 1592. On the initiative of Pyotr Rumyantsev the emblem was phased out and replaced by the Russian double-headed eagle in 1767. A Cossack with a rifle was restored by the Hetman of Ukraine Pavlo Skoropadsky in 1918. However, later the emblem disappeared again until in 2005 it reappeared on the proposed Great Seal of Ukraine. In 2002 was adopted flag and identical coat of arms of Oblast, which consists of cossack with musket and nine yellow eight-pointed stars. Stars represent coat of arms of

which also consisted of imperial monogram of Catherine the Great. The official plants are wheat, Acanthus (plant), acanthus and oak. The motto of the oblast is Ad astra, Per aspera ad astra.

Gallery

Palast der Kultur in Schowti Wody Haupteingang.JPG, Palace of Culture in Zhovti Vody File:Одиноке дерево.JPG, Family allotments File:Dnipropetrovsk - Aug 2013 - 005.jpg, Dnieper river File:Мine in Kryvyi Rih.JPG, Pokrovska mine in Kryvyi Rih File:Будівля Дніпропетровської обладміністрації.JPG, Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration

References

External links

*
Official site of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Administration

Information Card of the Region
Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine {{Authority control Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Oblasts of Ukraine States and territories established in 1946 Soviet toponymy in Ukraine 1946 establishments in Ukraine