Regions of Ukraine
Encyclopedia
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and/or inhabited by Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and their ancestors throughout history.
Traditional regions
The traditional names of the regions of Ukraine are important geographic, historical, and ethnographic identifiers.- VolhyniaVolhyniaVolhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
(Volyn’) - Galicia (Halychyna)
- PodoliaPodoliaThe region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova, is also a part of Podolia...
(Podillya) - Sloboda UkraineSloboda UkraineSloboda Ukraine was a historical region which developed and flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries on the southwestern frontier of the Tsardom of Russia....
(Slobozhanshchyna, "free land") - Zaporizhzhia ("beyond the rapids" of the Dnieper)
- Donbass ("Donets Basin")
- Black Sea Lands
- CrimeaCrimeaCrimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
(Krym)
In the Carpathian Mountains
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...
(see also Ruthenia
Ruthenia
Ruthenia is the Latin word used onwards from the 13th century, describing lands of the Ancient Rus in European manuscripts. Its geographic and culturo-ethnic name at that time was applied to the parts of Eastern Europe. Essentially, the word is a false Latin rendering of the ancient place name Rus...
, Rusyns
Rusyns
Carpatho-Rusyns are a primarily diasporic ethnic group who speak an Eastern Slavic language, or Ukrainian dialect, known as Rusyn. Carpatho-Rusyns descend from a minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt the use of the ethnonym "Ukrainian" in the early twentieth century...
):
- Lemko region (LemkivshchynaLemkivshchynaLemkivshchyna sometimes called Lemkovyna, Lemkivshchyna, Lemkovshchina or Łemkowszczyzna, is the region traditionally inhabited by the Lemkos. It forms an ethnographic peninsula 140 km long and 25–50 km wide from the Ukrainian border within Polish and Slovak territory...
) - Boiko region (Boikivshchyna)
- Hutsul region (Hutsul’shchyna)
- TranscarpathiaCarpathian RutheniaCarpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
(Zakarpattia)
Regions historically inhabited by Ukrainians (mostly with other nations), which are partly or wholly outside modern Ukraine:
- San RiverSan RiverThe San is a river in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, a tributary of the Vistula River, with a length of 433 km and a basin area of 16,861 km2...
region - Chełm (Kholm) region
- Southern Podlasie (Podlasie)
- Polesie (Polissia)
- BukovinaBukovinaBukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
(Bukovyna) - Southern Basarabia (Budjak/Southern Bessarabia)
- Northern Caucasus (also called Pink UkraineUkrainians in KubanUkrainians in Kuban in southern Russia constitute a significant national minority. The region as a whole shares many linguistic, cultural and historic ties with Ukraine....
) - Volga RegionVolga RegionVolga Region is a historical region of Russia that encompasses the territories adjacent to the flow of Volga River. According to the flow of the river, it is usually classified into the Middle Volga Region and Lower Volga Region...
(around Saratov, called Yellow Ukraine) - SiberiaSiberiaSiberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
(city of Omsk, Grey Ukraine) - Russian Far EastRussian Far EastRussian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
(see Green UkraineGreen UkraineZeleny Klyn , also known as the Green Ukraine is a historical Ukrainian name of the land in the Russian Far East area between the Amur River and the Pacific Ocean....
)
Regions of Ukraine
Due to geopolitical, historical, and cultural factors, there are semi-official nominations to a certain region. The map right shows the broad sense of particular regions. The terms West, East, South and Central Ukraine are often used. There is no clear description on what includes/excludes one region or another, but rather a general reference. Here is a list of what constitutes such nominations:- Western Ukraine, may mean either the historic region of Galicia, or may also include Volhynia, Podolia, Transcarpathia, and/or Bukovina.
- Eastern Ukraine may mean either the Don basin, Sloboda Ukraine, continental Taurida regions etc.
- South Ukraine is often includes the whole Taurida, the Kryvyi Rih basin, and the regions of Mykolayiv and Odessa oblasts. Alternatively it may include the Don basin, in particularly the adjacent land to the Azov Sea.
- Central Ukraine is more vague term and often denotes what is not included in Western or South-Eastern definitions.
Other terms are rarely used such as South-West Ukraine, which can denote either Transcarpathia
Carpathian Ruthenia
Carpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
, or Budjak
Budjak
Budjak or Budzhak is a historical region in the Odessa Oblast of Ukraine. Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube and Dniester rivers this multiethnic region was the southern part of Bessarabia...
. Sometimes the term South-Eastern Ukraine is used to define both regions of the Southern and Eastern Ukraine. Due to the shape of the country, in narrow definition, term Northern Ukraine is often used to denote either the bulge of Chernihiv
Chernihiv Oblast
Chernihiv Oblast is an oblast of northern Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Chernihiv.-Geography:The total area of the province is around 31,900 km²....
/Sumy Oblast
Sumy Oblast
Sumy Oblast is an oblast in the northeastern part of Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Sumy.Other important cities within the oblast include Konotop, Okhtyrka, Romny, and Shostka....
s or, in broader terms, the whole of Polesia
Polesia
Polesia is one of the largest European swampy areas, located in the south-western part of the Eastern-European Lowland, mainly within Belarus and Ukraine but also partly within Poland and Russia...
. North-western Ukraine almost exclusively refers to the historic region of Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
. This makes the term North-Eastern Ukraine rarest of them all, and is either used as synonym for the narrow definition of Northern Ukraine, or as synonym for Sloboda Ukraine (particularly the Sumy Oblast
Sumy Oblast
Sumy Oblast is an oblast in the northeastern part of Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Sumy.Other important cities within the oblast include Konotop, Okhtyrka, Romny, and Shostka....
).
Other historic regions and names
- Little RussiaLittle RussiaLittle Russia , sometimes Little or Lesser Rus’ , is a historical political and geographical term in the Russian language referring to most of the territory of modern-day Ukraine before the 20th century. It is similar to the Polish term Małopolska of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
, the name applied to Ukraine under the Russian EmpireRussian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Also, for historic reasons (note: left-bank and right bank refer to the bank of the river when facing downstream):- Right-bank UkraineRight-bank UkraineRight-bank Ukraine , a historical name of a part of Ukraine on the right bank of the Dnieper River, corresponding with modern-day oblasts of Volyn, Rivne, Vinnitsa, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad and Kiev, as well as part of Cherkasy and Ternopil...
(Pravoberezhna Ukrayina or Pravoberezhzhia), west of the Dnieper riverDnieper RiverThe Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations... - Left-bank UkraineLeft-bank UkraineLeft-bank Ukraine is a historic name of the part of Ukraine on the left bank of the Dnieper River, comprising the modern-day oblasts of Chernihiv, Poltava and Sumy as well as the eastern parts of the Kiev and Cherkasy....
(Livoberezhna Ukrayina or Livoberezhzhia), east of the Dnieper.
- Right-bank Ukraine
- New Russia , colony of the Russian Empire in the depopulated steppes, in the south-east of modern-day Ukraine (Dikoye PoleWild FieldsThe Wild Field or the Wilderness is a historical term used in the Polish–Lithuanian documents of the 16th and 18th centuries referring to forest steppes and steppes of the Black sea and Azov sea regions...
, "the wild field")
Historical Ukrainian states
- Kievan Rus'Kievan Rus'Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
(a state of Early East Slavs, (880s–1240) - Galicia-Volhynia (1199–1349)
- Cossack HetmanateCossack HetmanateThe Hetmanate or Zaporizhian Host was the Ruthenian Cossack state in the Central Ukraine between 1649 and 1782.The Hetmanate was founded by first Ukrainian hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Khmelnytsky Uprising . In 1654 it pledged its allegiance to Muscovy during the Council of Pereyaslav,...
(1649–1764) - Central Rada of the Ukrainian People's RepublicUkrainian People's RepublicThe Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
(1917–1918) - HetmanateHetmanateThe Ukrainian State or The Hetmanate was a short-lived polity in Ukraine, installed by Ukrainian Cossacks and military organizations under the support of the Central Powers, after disbanding the Central Rada of the Ukrainian National Republic on 28 April 1918.-History:On April 29, 1918 the head...
of the Ukrainian State (1918) - West Ukrainian People's Republic (1918–1919)
- DirectorateDirectorate of UkraineThe Directorate, or Directory was a provisional revolutionary state committee of the Ukrainian National Republic, formed in 1918 by the Ukrainian National Union in rebellion against Skoropadsky's regime....
of the Ukrainian People's Republic (1918–1920) - Galician Soviet Socialist RepublicGalician Soviet Socialist RepublicThe Galician Soviet Socialist Republic existed from July 8, 1920 to September 21, 1920 during the Polish-Soviet War within the area of the South-Western front of the Red Army...
(1920) - Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1919–1991)
- Carpatho-UkraineCarpatho-UkraineCarpatho-Ukraine was an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia from late 1938 to March 15, 1939. It declared itself an independent republic on March 15, 1939, but was occupied by Hungary between March 15 and March 18, 1939, remaining under Hungarian control until the Nazi occupation of Hungary in...
(1939)