Kyiv Oblast

Kyiv oblast [Kyivska oblast]. An administrative region in north-central Ukraine on both banks of the Dnipro River, formed on 27 February 1932. After 1939 it relinquished its western territory to a new Zhytomyr oblast and in 1954 a slice of its southern territory to accommodate the new Cherkasy oblast. Presently Kyiv oblast, excluding the city of Kyiv, occupies 28,131 sq km and a population of 1,754,300 (2018). Administratively, it is divided among 25 raions, 26 cities, 30 towns (smt) and 1,126 villages. Both the oblast capital and national capital is Kyiv.

Physical geography. Kyiv oblast is located on the rolling plain of the middle Dnipro Basin. It may be divided into three parts. Its northern part lies in the Polisia Lowland (elevation up to 198 m). It consists of gently rolling moraine, alluvial fan and lake deposits, covered with coniferous and mixed forests, and marshes, on soddy-podzolized, gley, meadow, and marshy soils. The second part rises in elevation from the Dnipro River to the southwest to form the Dnipro Upland. It is a loess-covered gently undulating plain, incised by rivers, attaining maximum elevation of 273 m in the south. Its northern transition belt west of Kyiv has gray forest soils and podzolized chernozems; further south deep typical chernozems prevail. Natural vegetation is of the forest-steppe. The third part is east of the Dnipro River, forming the Dnipro Lowland. The surface is nearly flat, the terraces defined by sandy rises with marshy troughs in between. The second terrace (145 m) is dissected by gullies near rivers or contains gentle depressions where internal drainage causes saline ponding. Soils include soddy-podzolized, gley, meadow, marshy and peat bog soils in the low wetlands, podzolized chernozems and typical chernozems on the second terrace with saline soils in depressions. Forests cover 624,100 ha (23.7 percent) of the oblast’s land area.