Kherson Region

Kherson Oblast is an oblast (province) in southern Ukraine, just north of Crimea. Its administrative center is Kherson. The area of the region is 28,461 km², its population (as of 1 January 2012) is 1,083,367.

Important cities in the oblast include:

• Kherson (capital)
• Kakhovka
• Nova Kakhovka

Geography

The Kherson Oblast is bordered by the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast on the north, the Black Sea and the disputed region of Crimea on the south, the Mykolayiv Oblast on the west, and the Azov Sea and the Zaporizhzhia Oblast on the east.

The Dnieper River runs through the oblast which includes the Kakhovka Reservoir.

The oblast includes (within Henichesk Raion) the northern portion of the Arabat Spit, a thin strip of land between the brackish Syvash and the Sea of Azov that is geographically part of the Crimean Peninsula. Due to Russia gaining de facto control of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in 2014 the southern areas of Kherson are the only parts of the Crimean Peninsula under direct Ukrainian control.

Attractions

• Askania-Nova
• Legendary tachanka monument
• Kurhan cemetery
• Shovkunek Art museum
• Saint-Yekaterynian Temple

Public opinion

During the 1991 referendum, 90.13% of votes in Kherson Oblast were in favor of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. A survey conducted in December 2014 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found 1% of the oblast's population supported their region joining Russia, 94.9% did not support the idea, and the rest were undecided or did not respond.