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]

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: Kiev 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	Nataliya Popovych	26,100	1,966,801	75	Simferopol[6]	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.

Region	Area (km2)	Population (2010)	Pop. density	Administrative center	Raions/Districts	Cities of regional significance [nb 2]
Cherkasy Oblast	20,891	1,291,135	61.80	Cherkasy	20	6
Chernihiv Oblast	31,851.3	1,104,241	34.67	Chernihiv	22	3
Chernivtsi Oblast	8,093.6	903,782	111.67	Chernivtsi	11	2
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast	31,900.5	3,344,073	104.83	Dnipro	22	13
Donetsk Oblast	26,505.7	4,448,031	167.81	Donetsk	18	28
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast	13,894.0	1,380,770	99.38	Ivano-Frankivsk	14	6
Kharkiv Oblast	31,401.6	2,755,177	87.74	Kharkiv	27	7
Kherson Oblast	28,449	1,091,151	38.35	Kherson	18	3
Khmelnytskyi Oblast	20,636.2	1,331,534	64.52	Khmelnytskyi	20	6
Kiev Oblast	28,118.9	1,719,602	61.15	Kiev	25	13
Kirovohrad Oblast	24,577.5	1,014,809	41.29	Kropyvnytskyi	21	4
Luhansk Oblast	26,672.5	2,300,412	86.25	Luhansk	18	14
Lviv Oblast	21,823.7	2,545,634	116.65	Lviv	20	9
Mykolaiv Oblast	24,587.4	1,186,452	48.25	Mykolaiv	19	5
Odessa Oblast	33,295.9	2,387,636	71.71	Odessa	26	7
Poltava Oblast	28,735.8	1,493,668	51.98	Poltava	25	5
Rivne Oblast	20,038.5	1,152,576	57.52	Rivne	16	4
Sumy Oblast	23,823.9	1,166,765	48.97	Sumy	18	7
Ternopil Oblast	13,817.1	1,086,694	78.65	Ternopil	17	1
Vinnytsia Oblast	26,501.6	1,646,250	62.12	Vinnytsia	27	6
Volyn Oblast	20,135.3	1,038,223	51.56	Lutsk	16	4
Zakarpattia Oblast	12,771.5	1,246,323	97.59	Uzhhorod	13	5
Zaporizhia Oblast	27,168.5	1,805,431	66.45	Zaporizhia	20	5
Zhytomyr Oblast	29,819.2	1,283,201	43.03	Zhytomyr	23	5

Two cities carry special status: the city of Kiev 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 3]	Area	Population (2010)
Kiev	Vitali Klitschko[nb 4]	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 490 raions.

Kiev 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.[8] 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 Kiev 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 Kiev is somewhat more complex, and for further information see Legal status and local government of Kiev. 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.

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".[9]

On February 5, 2015, the law "On voluntary association of territorial communities" was adopted creating Amalgamated hromadas (communities) meaning settlement councils, rural councils and a city of district significance can create a new administrative unit.[10] 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.[11] New local elections in these united territorial communities were then held.[12] 226 will be holding elections in 2018 and 2019.[13] The first 252 were held in 2017.[14]

The Law "On Local Self-Government in Ukraine" stipulates that local budgets should have enough money to be administered by local self-government bodies.[15] Because many of the small rural councils and cities of district significance could never hope to do this the new administrative unit Amalgamated hromada (Ukrainian: Об'єднана територіальна громада, Obyednana terytorialʹna hromada) was created.[15]

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.

• Kiev 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