Populated places in Ukraine

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In Ukraine, the term "populated place" (Ukrainian: населений пункт, romanized: naselenyi punkt) refers to a structured component of the human settlement system, representing a stationary community within a territorially cohesive and compact area characterized by a significant concentration of population.[1] Its defining attribute is the continuous presence of human inhabitants. Populated places in Ukraine are classified into two primary categories: urban and rural.[2] Urban populated places are cities, whereas rural areas include villages and selyshches.

All populated places are governed by their hromada (municipality), be it a village, city or any other type of settlement. A municipality may consist of one or several populated places and is (except Kyiv and Sevastopol) a constituent part of a raion (district) which in turn is constituents of an oblast (province).

Besides regular populated places in Ukraine, that are part of administrative division and population census, there are several additional categories for populated places that are used for other purposes. Among such categories are mountainous populated places, historic populated places, and others.

The 2015 law on decommunization required populated places and toponymy related to Ukraine's past in the Soviet Union to be renamed.[3] Leading to a string of new Ukrainian toponyms. On 21 March 2023, about a year following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent occupation of parts of Ukraine by Russia, the Ukrainian parliament adopted the law "On the Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Russian Imperial Policy in Ukraine and the Decolonization of Toponymy", which is set to change the names of places associated with Russian imperialism.[4] In the law's explanatory note was stated this was "a ban on assigning geographic objects names that glorify, perpetuate, promote, or symbolize the occupying state."[5]

## 2024 law

[edit]

The Law of Ukraine of 28.07.2023 № 3285-IX "About the procedure for solving certain issues of the administrative and territorial system of Ukraine" established the following terminology regarding populated places:[6]

* A populated place (населений пункт, naselenyi punkt) is a compactly inhabited place of residence of people, which was formed as a result of historical traditions, economic and other activities, has a stable population composition, its own name and a separate territory with boundaries established in accordance with the law.
* A city (місто, misto) is a populated place with mostly compact residential area, the total population of which is at least 10,000.

* A selyshche (селище is a populated place with mostly farmstead-type residences, the total number of inhabitants of which is at least 5,000.

* A village (село, selo) is a populated place with farmstead-type residences, the total number of inhabitants of which is less than 5,000

* Cities are urban, and selyshches and villages are rural populated places.

* A settlement (поселення, poselennia) is a compact place of residence of people outside a populated place, which does not have a stable population structure and is not classified as a "populated place". Examples of such places are dacha settlements or temporary settlements for displaced persons.[7]

In particular, the Soviet era category of urban-type settlement (селище міського типу, selyshche miskoho typu) was abolished.[7]

The law also regulates official reclassification of the type of a populated place.

## Cities

[edit]

See also: List of cities in Ukraine

City with special status is treated as a city-region. Most cities in Ukraine are the centres of the corresponding hromada. Two cities (Chernobyl and Pripyat) are abandoned and are governed by the State Agency of Ukraine on the Exclusion Zone Management.

City status a populated place receives on a decision of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

Cities that have population of less than 50,000 are considered to be small cities and fall under a special state program in development of small cities.[8]

According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census there are 454 cities in Ukraine, among which two with special status (Kyiv and Sevastopol).

## Rural populated places

[edit]

Rural populated places (Ukrainian: сільські населені пункти) or rural localities[9] can refer to two different types of inhabited places: selyshches and villages.

### Rural settlements

[edit]

"Selyshche" redirects here. For the village with the name, see Selyshche, Dnistrovskyi Raion, Chernivtsi Oblast.

The term selyshche (Ukrainian: селище, lit. 'settlement') used to have a double meaning in the administrative-territorial system of Ukraine. It was used either for urban-type settlements or for some smaller populated places which are often part of a rural hromada. Unlike other nomenclatures for populated places, in the Constitution of Ukraine a term like urban-type settlement was not defined and was part of the Soviet legislature that was conditionally grandfathered. In 2023 a law was passed to finally eliminate any deviations or variations of the term rural settlement clearly categorizing them as rural type of populated place along with villages. The law also merged the two categories that de facto existed in Ukraine.

According to the 2023 law "About the order to solve separate issues of the administrative and territorial system of Ukraine", a rural settlement is identified as a populated place with predominantly a private housing total population of which is no less than 5,000 people.[10]

According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census there were 1,266 rural settlements in Ukraine (excluding urban-type settlements, which still existed at the time and some of which were reclassified as selyshche).[citation needed]

### Village

[edit]

Village as a term became systematic for a conventional rural populated place and most numerous out of all terms used for populated places in a country. A rural hromada may be composed of a single village or group of villages. According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census there were 27,190 villages in Ukraine that were organized into 10,278 rural (village) councils.[citation needed]

According to the 2023 law "About the order to solve separate issues of the administrative and territorial system of Ukraine", a village identified as a populated place with predominantly a private housing total population of which is less than 5,000 people.

## Other populated places

[edit]

In 1995 there was created a special category for mountainous populated places in Ukraine. Mountainous status is received by populated places located in mountainous area, have inadequately developed sphere of employment and social services as well as a limited transportation access (low development density of infrastructure or infrastructure is weak).[citation needed]

## Historic types of populated places

[edit]

Among historic types of populated places in Ukraine are places like khutir, prysilok, zymivnyk, mistechko, sloboda, horod. Collective and/or soviet farms used to be based either on an individual settlement (village) or include several neighboring rural settlements (villages, khutirs, slobodas).

Ukrainian khutirs were destroyed in 1930s–1940s during the Soviet occupation as part of the fight with individual farming (dekulakization campaign).[11]

Urban-type settlements in Ukraine were a type of populated place in Ukraine from 1925 until 2024, deriving from a Soviet invented term for a populated place with some degree of urbanization or in proximity to an urbanized area. In the Constitution of Ukraine urban settlement is mentioned simply as selysche (a settlement), which also adds another ambiguity to the administrative territorial system of Ukraine. The term selysche is also used to some smaller populated places, while can be found within other administrative territorial subdivisions. Those settlements are implicitly known as rural settlements, while often presented simply as selysches. According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census there were 890 urban-type settlements in Ukraine.[citation needed] The designation was abolished in late January 2024 as part of the decommunization of Ukraine's settlement classification system.

## See also

[edit]

* Ukraine portal

* Geography of Ukraine
* ISO 3166-2:UA
* List of cities in Ukraine, sortable list of cities by region and population
* List of places named after people (Ukraine)
* The History of Cities and Villages of the Ukrainian SSR, a comprehensive encyclopedic compilation of all populated places

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Populated place (Населений пункт). The Great Ukrainian Encyclopedia.
2. ^ (Лист-роз’яснення Міністерства юстиції України від 27.01.2016 № 27/13/32-16 «Щодо права на вчинення нотаріальних дій посадовими особами органу місцевого самоврядування в населених пунктах, які мають статус селищ міського типу у зв’язку із внесенням змін до статті 37 Закону України «Про нотаріат») Archived 2020-08-09 at the Wayback Machine. Ministry of Justice. 27 January 2016
3. ^ Poroshenko signed the laws about decomunization. Ukrayinska Pravda. 15 May 2015
Poroshenko signs laws on denouncing Communist, Nazi regimes, Interfax-Ukraine. 15 May 20
Goodbye, Lenin: Ukraine moves to ban communist symbols, BBC News (14 April 2015)
4. ^ "Geographical names associated with Russia have been banned in Ukraine". Lb.ua [uk] (in Ukrainian). 22 March 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.+[uk]&rft.atitle=Geographical+names+associated+with+Russia+have+been+banned+in+Ukraine&rft.date=2023-03-22&rft_id=https://lb.ua/news/2023/03/21/549538_ukraini_zaboronili_geografichni.html&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Populated+places+in+Ukraine" class="Z3988">
5. ^ "Geographical names associated with Russia have been banned in Ukraine". Lb.ua [uk] (in Ukrainian). 22 March 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.+[uk]&rft.atitle=Geographical+names+associated+with+Russia+have+been+banned+in+Ukraine&rft.date=2023-03-22&rft_id=https://lb.ua/news/2023/03/21/549538_ukraini_zaboronili_geografichni.html&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Populated+places+in+Ukraine" class="Z3988">
6. ^ ЗАКОН УКРАЇНИ Про порядок вирішення окремих питань адміністративно-територіального устрою України
7. ^ a b Дмитро Гулійчук, В Україні ліквідували статус "селище міського типу": що це означає
8. ^ Law of Ukraine: "On Approval of the National Program for Development of Small Cities". March 4, 2004.
9. ^ "Number of administrative-territory divisions". Population of Ukraine. State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015. Retrieved 9 February 2015.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
10. ^ The text of the law No. 8263
11. ^ Types of rural settlements. disted.edu.vn.ua (in Ukrainian)

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Populated places in Ukraine.

* On the procedure for resolving certain issues of the administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine Law of Ukraine 3285-IX (current)
* About order for solution of issues on the administrative-territorial system of the Ukrainian SSR. Ukase of Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukrainian SSR. N 1654-X. 1981-03-12. (former)
* About the status of mountainous populated places in Ukraine. Law of Ukraine. N 56/95-VR. 1995-02-15. (current)
* Androshchuk, O. Urban settlements in a system of territorial setting in the Ukrainian SSR in 40s-60s of the 20th century[permanent dead link]. "Krayeznavstvo". 2006.

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