The administrative divisions of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Адміністративний устрій України, romanized: Administratyvnyi ustrii Ukrainy) are under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Constitution. Ukraine is a unitary state with three levels of administrative divisions: 27 regions (24 oblasts, two cities with special status and one autonomous republic), 136 raions (districts) and 1469 hromadas.[1][2]

The administrative reform of July 2020 merged most of the 490 legacy raions and 118 pre-2020 cities of regional significance into 136 reorganized raions, or districts of Ukraine. The next level below raions are hromadas.[3]

Following the annexations of Crimea and southeastern Ukraine by the Russian Federation, Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as well as portions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts came under the de facto administration of the Russian Federation. Internationally, most states have not recognized the Russian claims.[4]

Overview

According to Article 133 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the system of administrative and territorial organization of Ukraine consists of:

In the 2020 administrative reform of Ukraine, all populated places in the country (except for two cities with special status, Kyiv and Sevastopol) were resubordinated to raions.[6] The new figure of 136 raions includes 10 in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol; as of 2024 the Crimean raions are not functional.

Administrative divisions of Ukraine
Level of subdivisionTerritoryTotal
First autonomous republic 1
cities with special status 2
oblasts (regions) 24
Second raions, (districts) 136
Third hromadas, (territorial communities) 1469

First level

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

Colour Description
  24 oblasts
 An oblast in Ukraine, sometimes translated as region or province, is the main type of first-level administrative division of the country. Ukraine is a unitary state, thus the oblasts do not have much legal scope of competence other than that which is established in the Ukrainian Constitution and by law. Articles 140–146 of Chapter XI of the constitution deal directly with local authorities and their competency.
The administrative status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is recognized in the Ukrainian Constitution in Chapter X: Autonomous Republic of Crimea and is governed in accordance with laws passed by Ukraine's parliament. Following the 2014 Crimean crisis the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was illegally annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea.[7]
There are two cities with special status: Kyiv and Sevastopol (occupied since 2014). Their administrative status is recognized in the Ukrainian Constitution in Chapter IX: Territorial Structure of Ukraine.[8] Unlike the oblasts and the autonomous republic, the cities with special status only have urban raions and are not subdivided into hromadas.

List

Flag Coat of arms No. Name Area (km2) Population
(2021 estimate)		 Population density
(people/km2, 2021)		 Capital No. of raions No. of hromadas Location
1 Autonomous
Republic of Crimea		 26,081 1,967,259 75.43 Simferopol 10 —
2 Vinnytsia Oblast 26,513 1,529,123 57.67 Vinnytsia 6 63
3 Volyn Oblast 20,144 1,027,397 51.00 Lutsk 4 54
4 Dnipropetrovsk Oblast 31,974 3,142,035 98.27 Dnipro 7 86
5 Donetsk Oblast 26,517 4,100,280 154.63 Donetsk
(de jure)
Kramatorsk
(de facto)		 8 66
6 Zhytomyr Oblast 29,832 1,195,495 40.07 Zhytomyr 4 65
7 Zakarpattia Oblast 12,777 1,250,129 97.84 Uzhhorod 6 64
8 Zaporizhzhia Oblast 27,180 1,666,515 61.31 Zaporizhzhia 5 67
9 Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast 13,928 1,361,109 97.72 Ivano-Frankivsk 6 62
10 Kyiv Oblast 28,131 1,788,530 63.58 Kyiv 7 69
11 Kirovohrad Oblast 24,588 920,128 37.42 Kropyvnytskyi 4 49
12 Luhansk Oblast 26,684 2,121,322 79.50 Luhansk
(de jure)
Bilohorivka
(de facto)		 8 37
13 Lviv Oblast 21,833 2,497,750 114.40 Lviv 7 73
14 Mykolaiv Oblast 24,598 1,108,394 45.06 Mykolaiv 4 52
15 Odesa Oblast 33,310 2,368,107 71.09 Odesa 7 91
16 Poltava Oblast 28,748 1,371,529 47.71 Poltava 4 60
17 Rivne Oblast 20,047 1,148,456 57.29 Rivne 4 64
18 Sumy Oblast 23,834 1,053,452 44.20 Sumy 5 51
19 Ternopil Oblast 13,823 1,030,562 74.55 Ternopil 3 55
20 Kharkiv Oblast 31,415 2,633,834 83.84 Kharkiv 7 56
21 Kherson Oblast 28,461 1,016,707 35.72 Kherson 5 49
22 Khmelnytskyi Oblast 20,645 1,243,787 60.25 Khmelnytskyi 3 60
23 Cherkasy Oblast 20,900 1,178,266 56.38 Cherkasy 4 66
24 Chernivtsi Oblast 8,097 896,566 110.73 Chernivtsi 3 52
25 Chernihiv Oblast 31,865 976,701 30.65 Chernihiv 5 57
26 Kyiv 839 2,962,180 3530.61 Kyiv 10 —
27 Sevastopol 864 385,870 446.61 Sevastopol 4 —

Autonomous republic

The Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukrainian: Автоно́мна Респу́бліка Крим) geographically encompasses the major portion of the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine. Its capital is Simferopol. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea is the only region within Ukraine that 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 (Ukrainian: о́бласть; pl. о́бласті) 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 and Transcarpathia.

Cities with special status

Two cities have special status (Ukrainian: міста́ зі спеціа́льним ста́тусом): Kyiv and Sevastopol. 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, Sevastopol is controlled by Russia and is incorporated as a federal subject of Russia.[9][10]

Second level

Raions

Raions (Ukrainian: райо́н; pl. райо́ни) are smaller territorial units of subdivision in Ukraine. There are 136 raions.[11] Following the December 2019 draft constitutional changes submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, 136 new raions have replaced the former 490 raions of Ukraine.[12]

Urban raions

An urban raion is subordinate to the city administration.[13]

Third level

Hromadas

The territorial hromadas (Ukrainian: територіа́льна грома́да; lit. 'territorial community'), or simlply hromadas (Ukrainian: грома́да) were established by the Government of Ukraine on 12 June 2020 as a part of administrative reform that started in 2015.[14]

There are three types of hromadas: rural (Ukrainian: сільська́ грома́да), settlement (Ukrainian: се́лищна грома́да) and urban (Ukrainian: міська́ грома́да). There are 1469 hromadas in total (as of November 1, 2023).[15]

History

Cossack Hetmanate

The Cossack Hetmanate was divided into military-administrative districts known as regimental districts (polks) whose number fluctuated with the size of the Hetmanate's territory. In 1649, when the Hetmanate controlled both the right and left banks, it included 16 such districts. After the loss of Right-bank Ukraine, this number was reduced to ten. The regimental districts were further divided into companies (sotnias), which were administered by captains (sotnyk).[16] The lowest division was the kurin.

Ukrainian People's Republic

According to the Constitution of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the country was divided into zemlias (lands), volosts and hromadas (communities). This law was not fully implemented as on 29 April 1918 there was the anti-socialist coup in Kyiv, after which Pavlo Skoropadskyi reverted the reform back to the governorate-type administration.[17]

Soviet Ukraine

Before the introduction of oblasts in 1932, Soviet Ukraine comprised 40 okruhas, which had replaced the former Russian Imperial governorate subdivisions.[18][19]

In 1932 the territory of the Soviet Ukraine was re-established based on oblasts. At the same time, most of the Western Ukraine at the time formed part of the Second Polish Republic and shared in the Polish form of administrative division based on voivodeships.[20]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Regions of Ukraine and their composition Archived 2011-12-26 at the Wayback Machine. Verkhovna Rada website.
  2. ↑ Paul D'Anieri, Robert Kravchuk, and Taras Kuzio (1999). Politics and society in Ukraine. Westview Press. p. 292. ISBN 0-8133-3538-8
  3. ↑ LiWebRadaAdmin (22 May 2015). "Реформа територіального устрою України". Silrada.org (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  4. ↑ "Putin signs documents to illegally annex four Ukrainian regions, in drastic escalation of Russia's war". The Globe and Mail. 30 September 2022. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  5. ↑ "Конституція України | від 28.06.1996 № 254к/96-ВР (Сторінка 3 з 4)". 2 April 2019. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  6. ↑ "Офіційний портал Верховної Ради України". static.rada.gov.ua. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  7. ↑ "Putin signs Crimea treaty as Ukraine serviceman dies in attack". Reuters. 18 March 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  8. ↑ "Конституція України". Законодавство України (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  9. ↑ "About the capital of Ukraine – the hero city of Kyiv (Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy (VVR), 1999, № 11, p. 79)". GOV.UA. Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  10. ↑ "Russia's annexation of Crimea". Kyiv Independent. 14 December 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  11. ↑ "The council reduced the number of districts in Ukraine: 136 instead of 490". Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 17 July 2020.
  12. ↑ "Zelensky's decentralization: without features of Donbas, but with districts and prefects". BBC Ukrainian (in Ukrainian). 16 December 2019.
  13. ↑ "Конституція України". Офіційний вебпортал парламенту України (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  14. ↑ Автор. "Те, чого ніколи не було в Україні: Уряд затвердив адмінтерустрій базового рівня, що забезпечить повсюдність місцевого самоврядування". decentralization.gov.ua. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  15. ↑ Автор. "Децентралізація в Україні". decentralization.gov.ua. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  16. ↑ Magocsi, Paul Robert (2010). "The Cossack State, 1648–1711". History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples (2nd ed.). Toronto: U of Toronto. p. 235. ISBN 978-1442610217. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  17. ↑ "Конституція Української Народньої Республіки (Статут про державний устрій, права і вільності УНР)". Офіційний вебпортал парламенту України (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 13 November 2023.
  18. ↑ "Адміністративно-територіальний устрій України". ВУЕ (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  19. ↑ "Збірник законів та розпоряджень робітничо-селянського уряду України (1935–1936)". 17 January 2020. Archived from the original on 17 January 2020. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  20. ↑ "Ustawa Konstytucyjna z dnia 15 lipca 1920 r. zawierająca statut organiczny Województwa Śląskiego". isap.sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
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