Kiev Region

Kiev Oblast or Kyiv Oblast is an oblast (province) in central Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Kiev (Ukrainian: Київ, Kyiv), which also serves as the capital of Ukraine. Despite being located in the center of the Kiev Oblast, and hosting the governing bodies of the oblast, Kiev itself is a self-governing city with special status and not under oblast jurisdiction.

Kiev Oblast neither corresponds to nor is limited to the unofficially-designated Kiev metropolitan area although it is significantly dependent on the urban economy and transportation of the latter.

The largest city in the oblast is Bila Tserkva.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is technically located within the northernmost part of the Kiev Oblast but access to the Zone is prohibited to the public and it is administered separately from the oblast.

Geography

Kiev Oblast has a total area of 28,100 km2 (10,849 sq mi) (approximately 35 times the area of Kiev city) and is located in north-central Ukraine. On the west it borders the Zhytomyr Oblast, on the Southwest – Vinnytsia Oblast, on the South – Cherkasy Oblast, on the Southeast – Poltava Oblast, on the East and Northeast – Chernihiv Oblast, and on the North – Homyel Voblasts of Belarus.

The oblast is equally split between the both banks of Dnieper River (Dnipro) north and south of Kiev. Other significant rivers in the oblast are the Dnieper's tributaries: Pripyat (Prypiat) (R), Desna (L), Teteriv (R), Irpin' (R), Ros' (R) and Trubizh (L).

The length of the Dnipro River within the boundaries of the oblast totals 246 km (153 mi). The oblast has a total number of 177 rivers intersecting the region; 13 reservoirs (the most notable ones being Kyiv Reservoir and the Kaniv Reservoir), over 2000 ponds, and approximately 750 small lakes.

Vegetation

Kiev Oblast has small mountains and slopes on the right bank of the Dnieper River. This entire area is surrounded by a continuous belt by greenery and forests. The oblast's "green area" covers 436 km2 (168 sq mi), characterized by 250 different sorts of trees and bushes.

History

Kiev Oblast was officially created as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on February 27, 1932.

Earlier historical administrative units that later became the territory of the oblast include the Kiev Voivodeship under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Kiev Governorate under the Russian Empire. The northern part of the oblast belongs to the historical region of Polesia (Polissia).

In Kiev region, there was a specific folk icon-painting style much influenced by the Kiev Pechersk Lavra painting school. Saints were depicted on the deep purple or black background, their clothes dark, their haloes dark blue, dark green or even black, outlined by thin white dotted contours. The Kiev region's icons' collection is the part of the exhibition of the Museum of Ukrainian home icons in the Historical and cultural complex "The Radomysl Castle".

The current borders of the oblast were last set following the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Administrative oversight of the new city of Slavutych, which was constructed as part of the Chernihiv Oblast, was then transferred to the Kiev Oblast (see Chernobyl zone below).

Points of interest

The following historic-cultural sites were nominated for the Seven Wonders of Ukraine.

• Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi museum of folk architecture
• Liutych platzdarm
• Ivan Kozlovsky villa
• Dobranychivka settlement
• Saint Pokrov Church (Parkhomivka)
• Museum-villa of Ekaterina Bilokur
• Landscape garden Oleksandria

Nomenclature

Most of Ukraine's oblasts are named after their capital cities, officially referred to as "oblast centers". The name of each oblast is a relative adjective, formed by adding a feminine suffix to the name of respective center city: Kiev (Kyiv in transliterated Ukrainian) is the center of the Kyivs’ka oblast' (Kiev Oblast). Most oblasts are also sometimes referred to in a feminine noun form, following the convention of traditional regional place names, ending with the suffix "-shchyna", as is the case with the Kiev Oblast, Kyivshchyna.

Kiev is the traditional English name for the administrative center of the Kiev Oblast, but the Ukrainianized versions (transliterated from the Ukrainian language) Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast are sometimes also used.