Ukrainian Oblast - Overview

Overview

The administrative division has the following units: autonomous republic, oblast (region), raion (district), misto (city), raion in misto (district in city), selyshche miskoho typu (town), silrada (village council), selo (village).

There are three main criteria by which the mentioned administrative division units are divided.

• 1. By geographical characteristics the units are divided on regions (such as autonomous republic, oblasts, districts, cities with special status) and places of settlement (cities, towns, villages).
• 2. By their status they can be administrative-territorial units (oblasts and districts), self-governed territorial units (cities, towns, villages). Also the autonomous republic has a unique status of territorial autonomy, while districts in cities combine both characteristics of administrative territorial as well as self-governed territorial units.
• 3. By position in the system of administrative division of Ukraine, the units divided into territorial units of prime level (cities w/o district division, districts in cities, towns, villages), of middle level (districts, cities with district division), and of higher level (autonomous republic, oblasts, cities with special status).

Regions, cities, districts are governed by a state administration, a chief of which is appointed by the president. Crimea has its own cabinet of ministers, however the state administration is represented by the office of the Presidential Representative of Ukraine. A basic and the lowest level of administrative division is a settlement that is governed by a local council (rada). Cities as a settlement always carry a special status within a region and have their own form of self-administration (municipality - vykonkom) and some may consist of their own city's districts (raions). Bigger cities may include additional smaller cities, towns, and rural localities. City municipalities are governed by a mayor and a city council (miskrada). Towns as well as villages do not have a traditional administration and are governed by either a town council (selyshchena rada) or a village council (silrada). Village councils may carry a combined jurisdiction which may include several villages and hamlets (selyshche). Unlike villages, each town council always has a separate jurisdiction which may be part of bigger city's council. Hamlet (selyshche) is a non-governed rural locality and is governed by a village council of nearby village.