Administrative divisions of Ukraine

Ukraine is divided into 3 main administrative divisions: oblast (region), raion (district), and council (city, settlement, and village). Note, settlements such as cities do not necessary constitute the basic level of the Ukrainian administrative territorial system. For that purpose cities are categorized into own three categories that correspond to each level of subdivisions. Cities with special status and regional significance beside being divided into special districts in city may also include smaller cities (district significance), settlements, and/or villages. Please, note that the settlement's population size is not the only factor for its status. The final decision on status change is carried out by the Ukrainian parliament. The following table is based on the 2001 Ukrainian Census.[5]

Following the 2020 administrative reform all populated places in Ukraine (except for cities with special status: Kyiv and Sevastopol) were resubordinated to raions (districts). [6]

The following numbers are based on the 2001 Ukrainian Census.[5]

• Top level (Regions, 27):[3]
  • Autonomous Republic of Crimea
  • Oblasts of Ukraine (24)
  • Cities with special status: Kyiv and Sevastopol
• Middle level (Regional subdivision, 786):
  • Raions (490)
  • Cities of oblast significance (178)
  • City districts (райони у містах) (118)
• Primary level (Local communities, 11,515):
  • Cities of raion significance (276)
  • Urban-type settlements (селища міського типу) (885)
  • Villages (села) (27,190)
  • Rural-type settlements (селища) (1,266)

Total cities: 454, an increase of 20 compared with the 1989 census.[5]

The Autonomous Republic of Crimea, formerly the Crimean Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR, 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 possesses its own constitution.

On March 16, 2014, after the occupation of Crimea by the Russian military, a referendum on joining the Russian Federation was conducted. A majority of votes supported the measure. On March 21, 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 March 27, 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.

Autonomous Republic of Crimea	Representatives of the President of Ukraine	Area (km2)	Population (2010)	Pop. density	Administrative centre	Raions/Districts	Cities of regional significance [nb 1]
Crimea	Anton Korynevych	26,100	1,966,801	75	Simferopol[7]	14	11

Oblasts are on the first (top) level of the administrative division of Ukraine.

Almost every oblast is named after its administrative center, except for four oblasts. Volyn' and Zakarpattia, whose respective capitals are Lutsk and Uzhhorod, are named after historic regions Volhynia and Transcarpathia. The administrative centers of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and the Kirovohrad Oblast were renamed to Dnipro and Kropyvnytskyi in 2016, however as of 2017 the oblasts still officially bear the old soviet names as their change must be reflected in an amendment to the Ukrainian Constitution.

The table below reflects changes made in 2020.

Region	Area (km2)	Population (2010)	Pop. density	Administrative center	Raions[lower-alpha 9]
Cherkasy Oblast	20,891	1,291,135	61.80	Cherkasy	4
Chernihiv Oblast	31,851.3	1,104,241	34.67	Chernihiv	5
Chernivtsi Oblast	8,093.6	903,782	111.67	Chernivtsi	3
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast	31,900.5	3,344,073	104.83	Dnipro	7
Donetsk Oblast	26,505.7	4,448,031	167.81	Donetsk	8
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast	13,894.0	1,380,770	99.38	Ivano-Frankivsk	6
Kharkiv Oblast	31,401.6	2,755,177	87.74	Kharkiv	7
Kherson Oblast	28,449	1,091,151	38.35	Kherson	5
Khmelnytskyi Oblast	20,636.2	1,331,534	64.52	Khmelnytskyi	3
Kyiv Oblast	28,118.9	1,719,602	61.15	Kyiv	7
Kirovohrad Oblast	24,577.5	1,014,809	41.29	Kropyvnytskyi	4
Luhansk Oblast	26,672.5	2,300,412	86.25	Luhansk	8
Lviv Oblast	21,823.7	2,545,634	116.65	Lviv	7
Mykolaiv Oblast	24,587.4	1,186,452	48.25	Mykolaiv	4
Odessa Oblast	33,295.9	2,387,636	71.71	Odessa	7
Poltava Oblast	28,735.8	1,493,668	51.98	Poltava	4
Rivne Oblast	20,038.5	1,152,576	57.52	Rivne	4
Sumy Oblast	23,823.9	1,166,765	48.97	Sumy	5
Ternopil Oblast	13,817.1	1,086,694	78.65	Ternopil	3
Vinnytsia Oblast	26,501.6	1,646,250	62.12	Vinnytsia	6
Volyn Oblast	20,135.3	1,038,223	51.56	Lutsk	4
Zakarpattia Oblast	12,771.5	1,246,323	97.59	Uzhhorod	6
Zaporizhzhia Oblast	27,168.5	1,805,431	66.45	Zaporizhzhia	6
Zhytomyr Oblast	29,819.2	1,283,201	43.03	Zhytomyr	4

Two cities carry special status: the city of Kyiv which is the capital of Ukraine and the city of Sevastopol. Following the 2014 Crimean crisis, Sevastopol is controlled by Russia and is incorporated as a federal subject of Russia. It is recognized as a part of Ukraine by most of the international community.

City	Governor[nb 2]	Area	Population (2010)
Kyiv	Vitali Klitschko[nb 3]	839 km2 (323.9 sq mi)	2,782,016
Sevastopol	vacant	1,079 km2 (416.6 sq mi)	380,301

Raions are smaller territorial units of subdivision in Ukraine. There are 136 raions.[8] According to December 2019 draft constitutional changes submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by President Volodymyr Zelensky united territorial communities are planned to replace the raions of Ukraine.[9]

Kyiv Oblast for instance, has several regional city municipalities such as Pereiaslav, for example, that are under direct subordination to the regional authorities. They are officially known as cities of regional significance.

Drohobych, is a city of oblast subordinance, subordinate to the Lviv Oblast authorities rather than to the local Drohobych Raion administration.

According to Ukrainian law a city (місто) in Ukraine is a locality of at least 10,000 people.[11] Cities may carry various status. Some may be of national importance, others of regional (oblast) importance, and the rest of district (raion) importance. For example, the cities of Kyiv and of Sevastopol have special status of national significance and each is officially classified as a city with a special status, which administratively is equivalent to an oblast. Mayors of those cities, in general, as are governors of oblasts, are appointed by the President of Ukraine. However, the status of the mayor of Kyiv is somewhat more complex, and for further information see Legal status and local government of Kyiv. The status of Sevastopol is also unique.

Almost every oblast has at least one city of regional subordination (importance), which is the administrative center (capital) of that oblast. However, some other big cities within the oblast may have such status as well. The cities of oblast subordination have the same importance of a raion, and often are the administrative centers of such. In addition to regular raions, several Ukrainian cities with national or oblast status are further divided into city raions which may include other cities, towns, and/or villages. In 2010, Ukraine had 23 such cities with their own city raions.

Many raions also have city municipalities of its level of subordination (importance). Those are usually the administrative centers (capitals). Notice that not all raions have a city as their administrative center; however all the raion centers are at least urban-like (urbanized). All administrative centers have their own form of self-administration. The municipalities of a raion subordination may administer several adjacent local councils (municipalities), usually rural. If a raion has several cities of raion (district) level, they may share administrative power for the raion.

In addition to city municipalities, Ukraine has urban-like municipalities. The lowest form of self-administration are the rural municipalities and villages. A rural municipality may consist of a single village, usually big, or a combination of other rural villages or localities. Note that some villages also have some additional, very small settlements. Those settlements, together with the home village, combine a local (rural) municipality (silrada). For simplicity's sake, a silrada (rural municipality) is usually referred to as a village and is the lowest level of administrative division. The status of any settlement is granted by the Verkhovna Rada.

The smalgamated hromadas (Ukrainian: Об'єднана територіальна громада, Obyednana terytorialʹna hromada) are part of administrative reform that started in 2015. It is intended to replace all councils (local level territorial units). In his draft constitutional amendments of June 2014 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko proposed changing the administrative divisions of Ukraine, which should include regions, districts and "hromadas".[12]

On February 5, 2015, the law "On voluntary association of territorial communities" was adopted creating united territorial communities meaning settlement councils, rural councils and a city of district significance can create a new administrative unit.[13] Any amalgamated hromada with a city as an administrative centre is an urban hromada, any amalgamated hromada with an urban-type settlement as an administrative centre is a settlement hromada, and any amalgamated hromada with a village as an administrative centre is a rural hromada.[14] New local elections in these united territorial communities were then held.[15] 226 will be holding elections in 2018 and 2019.[16] The first 252 were held in 2017.[17]

The Law "On Local Self-Government in Ukraine" stipulates that local budgets should have enough money to be administered by local self-government bodies.[18] Because many of the small rural councils and cities of district significance could never hope to do this the new administrative unit amalgamated hromada was created.[18]

Ukraine has five major agglomerated metropolitan areas (conurbations). These conurbation areas are not officially recognized and remain to be administered according to official oblast-raion system of subdivision.

• Kyiv includes towns such as Irpin, Boryspil, and Fastiv
• Kharkiv includes towns such as Chuhuiv, Merefa, and numerous other settlements
• Donetsk includes towns such as Makiivka, Khartsyzk, and others
• Dnipro with Kamianske and Novomoskovsk
• Odessa with Chornomorsk and Ovidiopol