Buy data    Donate

Updates: 

On 2014-11-03, ISO 3166-2 updated its name for Crimea from "Respublika Krym" to "Avtonomna Respublika Krym."

A referendum was held in Crimea on 2014-03-16. The announced result was overwhelming approval for the proposal to split from Ukraine and join Russia. The vote presumably applied equally to Sevastopol' City. At present, Crimea and Sevastopol' are under Russian control, but are considered still part of Ukraine by the international community. They switched to Moscow time when the rest of Ukraine went on daylight saving, by setting their clocks ahead two hours instead of one.

The Donets'k and Luhans'k regions have each formed a separatist government. Referenda were held in them on 2014-05-11. The reported results were in favor of secession, and the Donets'k People's Republic and Luhans'k People's Republic were declared. On 2014-06-26, the two formed a federation called the Union of the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. The territories are still being claimed by Ukraine and armed conflict breaks out periodically. No other country has recognized their independence. Both republics have announced the intention to switch to Moscow time, which would put them on UTC+3 year round.

FIPS PUB 10-4 is the U.S. Federal standard for administrative divisions of countries. Change 1 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated December 1, 1998. One of the changes is to the status of one of the divisions of Ukraine. Crimea has been changed from a respublika (republic) to an avtonomna respublika (autonomous republic). ISO still lists Crimea as a republic.

Country overview: 

Short name	UKRAINE
ISO code	UA
FIPS code	UP
Language	Ukrainian (uk)
Time zone	+2~
Capital	Kiev

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, the bulk of modern Ukraine was in the Russian Empire; the rest was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the chaos of World War I and the Russian Revolution, the Russian part of Ukraine declared itself an independent republic. In 1922, it joined the U.S.S.R. as one of its constituent republics. In World War II, the Soviet Union made significant territorial gains, some of which were annexed to the Ukrainian S.S.R. Ukraine became independent once again in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Ukraine
2. Dutch: Oekraine, Oekraïne
3. Finnish: Ukraina
4. French: Ukraine f
5. German: Ukraine f
6. Icelandic: Úkraína
7. Italian: Ucraina f
8. Norwegian: Ukraina
9. Portuguese: Ucránia f, Ucrânia (Brazil)
10. Russian: Украина
11. Spanish: Ucrania f
12. Swedish: Ukraina
13. Turkish: Ukrayna
14. Ukrainian: Ukrayina (formal)

Origin of name: 

Russian u: near, krai: border, named when the Mongol invasion had reached that area

Primary subdivisions: 

Ukraine is divided into 24 oblastey (sing. oblast': region), two mista (sing. misto: independent city), and one avtonomna respublika (autonomous republic).

Region	Typ	HASC	ISO	FIPS	Post	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Alternate name	Capital
Cherkasy	o	UA.CK	71	UP01	18-20	1,402,969	20,034	7,735	Cherkas'ka Oblast'	Cherkasy
Chernihiv	o	UA.CH	74	UP02	14-17	1,245,260	31,865	12,303	Chernihivs'ka Oblast'	Chernihiv
Chernivtsi	o	UA.CV	77	UP03	58-60	922,817	7,359	2,841	Chernivets'ka Oblast'	Chernivtsi
Crimea	a	UA.KR	43	UP11	95-98	2,033,736	26,081	10,070	Autonomous Republic of Krym	Simferopol'
Dnipropetrovs'k	o	UA.DP	12	UP04	49-53	3,567,567	31,974	12,345	Dnipropetrovs'ka Oblast'	Dnipropetrovs'k
Donets'k	o	UA.DT	14	UP05	83-87	4,841,074	26,517	10,238	Donets'ka Oblast'	Donets'k
Ivano-Frankivs'k	o	UA.IF	26	UP06	76-78	1,409,760	13,928	5,378	Ivano-Frankivs'ka Oblast'	Ivano-Frankivs'k
Kharkiv	o	UA.KK	63	UP07	61-64	2,914,212	31,415	12,129	Kharkivs'ka Oblast'	Kharkiv
Kherson	o	UA.KS	65	UP08	73-75	1,175,122	28,461	10,989	Khersons'ka Oblast'	Kherson
Khmel'nyts'kyy	o	UA.KM	68	UP09	29-32	1,430,775	20,645	7,971	Khmel'nyts'ka Oblast'	Khmel'nyts'kyy
Kiev	o	UA.KV	32	UP13	07-09	1,827,894	28,131	10,861	Kyïvs'ka Oblast'	Kiev
Kiev City	i	UA.KC	30	UP12	01-06	2,611,327	839	324	Kyïvs'ka mis'ka rada	Kiev
Kirovohrad	o	UA.KH	35	UP10	26-28	1,133,052	24,588	9,493	Kirovohrads'ka Oblast'	Kirovohrad
Luhans'k	o	UA.LH	09	UP14	91-94	2,546,178	26,684	10,303	Luhans'ka Oblast'	Luhans'k
L'viv	o	UA.LV	46	UP15	79-82	2,626,543	21,831	8,429	L'vivs'ka Oblast'	L'viv
Mykolayiv	o	UA.MY	48	UP16	54-57	1,264,743	24,598	9,497	Mykolaïvs'ka Oblast'	Mykolayiv
Odessa	o	UA.OD	51	UP17	65-68	2,469,057	33,310	12,861	Odes'ka Oblast'	Odessa
Poltava	o	UA.PL	53	UP18	36-39	1,630,092	28,748	11,100	Poltavs'ka Oblast'	Poltava
Rivne	o	UA.RV	56	UP19	33-35	1,173,304	20,047	7,740	Rivnens'ka Oblast'	Rivne
Sevastopol' City	i	UA.SC	40	UP20	99	379,492	864	334	Sevastopol's'ka mis'ka rada	Sevastopol'
Sumy	o	UA.SM	59	UP21	40-42	1,299,746	23,834	9,202	Sums'ka Oblast'	Sumy
Ternopil'	o	UA.TP	61	UP22	46-48	1,142,416	13,823	5,337	Ternopil's'ka Oblast'	Ternopil'
Transcarpathia	o	UA.ZK	21	UP25	88-90	1,258,264	12,777	4,933	Zakarpats'ka Oblast'	Uzhhorod
Vinnytsya	o	UA.VI	05	UP23	21-24	1,772,371	26,513	10,237	Vinnyts'ka Oblast'	Vinnytsya
Volyn	o	UA.VO	07	UP24	44-45	1,060,694	20,144	7,778	Volyns'ka Oblast'	Luts'k
Zaporizhzhya	o	UA.ZP	23	UP26	69-72	1,929,171	27,180	10,494	Zaporiz'ka Oblast'	Zaporizhzhya
Zhytomyr	o	UA.ZT	18	UP27	10-13	1,389,466	29,832	11,518	Zhytomyrs'ka Oblast'	Zhytomyr
27 divisions						48,457,102	602,022	232,442
Typ: o = oblast', i = independent city, a = autonomous republic. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Post: Range of postal codes in this division. Population: 2001-12-05 census Alternate name: based on Ukrainian name

Postal codes: 

Ukraine used to use six-digit postal codes under the Soviet system, all of which fell in the range 24xxxx-34xxxx. Since then it has adopted a set of five-digit postal codes, in which the first two digits determine the region, and the first three digits determine the district.

Further subdivisions:

See the Raions of Ukraine page.

The regions are divided into rayony (districts).

Territorial extent: 

Crimea includes Kosa Tuzla, an island in the Strait of Kerch.

Kherson includes the barrier islands of Tendrivs'ka Kosa and Dzharylhach; the northern end of the long promontory Kosa Arabats'ka Strilka; and some islands in "Lake" Syvash, the bay enclosed by that promontory, such as Chut'uk Island.

The UN LOCODE page  for Ukraine lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

1. Crimea: Greek kremnoi: escarpments
2. Dnepropetrovs'k: Dniepr (River) + (Grigoriy Ivanovich) Petrovskiy, Soviet politician
3. Kharkiv: possibly from Tatar karak: bandit, the city of bandits
4. Khmel'nyts'kyy: probably after Bogdan Khmel'nyts'kyy (1593-1657), Ukrainian warlord
5. Kirovohrad: after Sergei Mironovich Kirov (1886-1934), Russian politician
6. Transcarpathia: Latin trans: beyond + Carpathian (Mountains), as seen from Kiev

Change history: 

At the turn of the century, nine guberniy (governments) of Russia approximately matched the eastern and central parts of present-day Ukraine: Chernigov, Kharkov, Kherson, Kiev, Podolia, Poltava, Taurida, Volhynia, and Yekaterinoslav (see Russia for more details). The governments were divided into uyezdi (counties), which were subdivided into volosti (districts). The western parts of Ukraine were in the Austrian provinces of Galicia and Bukovina, and the Hungarian counties of Bereg, Máramaros, Ugocsa, and Ung (see Hungary for more details).

1. 1918-01: Russian part of Ukraine declared independence. Later that year, Ukrainians in East Galicia formed their own republic in federation with Ukraine.
2. 1918-03-03: By the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia acknowledged the independence of Ukraine. The region of Chelm was transferred from Poland to Ukraine.
3. 1919: Paris Peace Conference made East Galicia a protectorate of Poland. Russia and Germany had both renounced the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
4. 1919-12: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic established.
5. 1921-03-18: Poland and Russia signed the Riga Treaty, ending the Russo-Polish War. Poland gained the western part of Volhynia from Ukraine.
6. 1921: Crimea became an A.S.S.R. within the Russian S.F.S.R. The rest of Taurida guberniya was split between Odessa and Yekaterinoslav guberniy.
7. 1922-12-30: By the Treaty of Union, Ukrainian S.S.R. became a constituent republic of the newly formed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, with its capital at Kharkov. It contained the nine guberniy, excluding the Crimea, four counties in northern Chernigov, and territory lost to Poland, but including one county from the guberniya of Kursk.
8. ~1923: Donets guberniya split from Yekaterinoslav. Its capital was Bakhmut (later Artemovsk).
9. 1924: Moldavian A.S.S.R. split from Ukraine, consisting of Bessarabian territory on the left bank of the Dniestr River.
10. 1925: Ukraine reorganized into 53 okruhas (provinces), subdivided into raiony (districts).
11. ~1927: Taganrog and Shakhty provinces transferred from Ukraine to Russia.
12. 1932: Ukraine reorganized again, this time into seven oblastey (regions), subdivided into raiony.
13. 1934: Capital of Ukrainian S.S.R. moved from Kharkov to Kiev.
14. 1935: Name of Lugansk region and its capital changed to Voroshilovgrad, in honor of Marshal Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov (1881-1969).
15. 1939: Splits had increased the number of regions to sixteen.
16. 1939-09: Soviet conquests in Galicia annexed to Ukrainian S.S.R.
17. 1940-06: Northern Bukovina transferred from Romania to Ukrainian S.S.R. by treaty. It became Chernovtsy region.
18. 1940-08-02: Soviet Union assimilated Bessarabia, a former guberniya of Russia, which it had retaken from Romania. From parts of Bessarabia and the Moldavian A.S.S.R., the Moldavian S.S.R. was created. The remaining parts merged with the Ukraine (the Moldavian part joined with Odessa, and the Bessarabian part becoming the new region of Izmail). The annexation was formalized on 1947-02-10.
19. 1945-06-29: Soviet Union acquired Subcarpathian Ruthenia, also called Carpatho-Ukraine, from Czechoslovakia. It became Transcarpathia region within the Ukrainian S.S.R.
20. 1945-07-16: Potsdam Conference began. As one outcome, the Soviet Union recovered territory lost in the Russo-Polish War up to approximately the Curzon Line, annexing it to the republics of Byelorussia, Lithuania, and Ukraine. This territory became the regions of Drogobych, L'vov, Rovno, Stanislav, Ternopol', Transcarpathia, and Volyn.
21. 1954-02-19: Crimea (now an oblast) transferred from Russian S.F.S.R. to Ukrainian S.S.R.
22. ~1955: Cherkassy region formed from parts of Kiev and Poltava. Izmail merged with Odessa. Names of Kamenets-Podol'skiy region and its capital Proskurov both changed to Khmelnitsky.
23. 1958: Name of Voroshilovgrad region and its capital changed back to Lugansk.
24. 1961: Name of Stalino region and its capital changed to Donetsk.
25. 1962: Name of Stanislav region and its capital changed to Ivano-Frankovsk.
26. ~1963: Drogobych region merged with L'vov.
27. 1991-12-25: Soviet Union officially dissolved. Its 15 constituent republics became independent countries. Many of them had already unilaterally declared independence in the preceding few months. Ukrainian names of regions and cities became official.
28. 1992: Status of Crimea oblast changed to autonomous republic.

Other names of subdivisions: 

During the Soviet era, the Russian names were considered standard. Now, the Ukrainian language is official. Both languages are written in the Cyrillic alphabet, but they use certain individual letters that are different. Their transliterations into the Roman alphabet are also different. To compound the confusion, in Ukrainian or Russian, the name is usually given in adjective form, followed by the generic (usually Oblast'). For example, Chernihiv would be Chernigovskaya Oblast' in Russian, Chernihivs'ka Oblast' in Ukrainian; its capital is Chernigov or Chernihiv, respectively. Kyyiv is now the preferred English name for the capital, but the Russian-based spelling, Kiev, is still well established.

1. Cherkasy: Cherkas'ka Oblast' (Ukrainian); Черкасская область, Черкассы (Russian)
2. Chernihiv: Tschernigow (German); Черниговская область (Russian)
3. Chernivtsi: Chernivets'ka Oblast' (Ukrainian); Czernowitz, Tschernowzy (German); Tchernovtsy (French); Черновцы, Черновицкая область (Russian)
4. Crimea: Crimée (French); Criméia (Portuguese); Krim (German); Respublika Krym (Ukrainian); Крымская Республика, Крым (Russian)
5. Dnipropetrovs'k: Dniepropietrovsk (variant); Dnjepropetrowsk (German); Днепропетровская область (Russian)
6. Donets'k: Donezk (German, Italian); Stalino (obsolete); Донецкая область (Russian)
7. Ivano-Frankivs'k: Stanislav (obsolete); Ивано-Франковск, Ивано-Франковская область (Russian)
8. Kharkiv: Charkow (German); Harkova (Finnish); Jarkov (Spanish); Karkov (Italian); Kharkov (variant); Харьковская область (Russian)
9. Kherson: Cherson (German); Khersons'ka Oblast' (Ukrainian); Херсонская область (Russian)
10. Khmel'nyts'kyy: Chmelnizkij (German); Hmelnicki (variant); Kamenets-Podol'skaya Oblast' (obsolete); Khmel'nyts'ka Oblast', Khmel'nyts'kyi (Ukrainian); Хмельницкая область (Russian)
11. Kiev: Kiew, Kijew (German); Kiiv, Kijev, Kiyev, Kyiv, Kyjiv, Kyyiv (variant); Kiova (Finnish); Kyyivs'ka Oblast' (Ukrainian); Киевская область (Russian)
12. Kiev City: Kyïvs'ka mis'ka rada, Misto Kyyiv (Ukrainian); Киев (Russian)
13. Kirovohrad: ; Кировоградская область (Russian)
14. L'viv: Lemberg (obsolete); Llvov (Spanish); Lwow (German); L'vivs'ka Oblast' (Ukrainian); Львовская область (Russian)
15. Luhans'k: Luhans'ka Oblast' (Ukrainian); Voroshilovgrad (obsolete); Луганская область (Russian)
16. Mykolayiv: Mykolaiv (variant); Nikolajew (German); Николаевская область (Russian)
17. Odessa: Odesa, Odes'ka Oblast' (Ukrainian); Одесса, Одесская область (Russian)
18. Poltava: Полтава, Полтавская область (Russian)
19. Rivne: Rivnens'ka Oblast' (Ukrainian); Ровенская область, Ровно (Russian)
20. Sevastopol' City: Misto Sevastopol', Sevastopol's'ka mis'ka rada (Ukrainian); Sebastopol (variant); Sebastopoli (Italian); Sewastopol (German); Севастополь (Russian)
21. Sumy: Сумы, Сумская область (Russian)
22. Ternopil': ; Тернопольская область (Russian)
23. Transcarpathia: Ruthenia (obsolete); Zakarpats'ka Oblast', Zakarpattia (Ukrainian); Закарпатская область (Russian)
24. Vinnytsya: Vinnytsia, Vinnyts'ka Oblast' (Ukrainian); Winniza (German); Винница, Винницкая область (Russian)
25. Volyn: Volhynia (variant); Volyns'ka Oblast' (Ukrainian); Wolynien (German); Волынская область (Russian)
26. Zaporizhzhya: Saporoshje (German); Zaporizhia, Zaporiz'ka Oblast' (Ukrainian); Zaporojie (French); Zaporožje (variant); Запорожская область, Запорожье (Russian)
27. Zhytomyr: Jitomir (French); Shitomir (German); Житомирская область (Russian)

Sources: 

1. [1] Kubijovyč, Volodomyr, ed., Ukraine: a Concise Encyclopedia. University of Toronto Press, 1963.