Galicia (Halychyna), Podilia, Slobozhanshchyna: Historical Region Names Beyond the Oblasts

The map of Ukraine is divided into 24 oblasts, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and the two cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol. Yet news reports, novels, and descriptions of food and crafts often use region names that do not appear among the oblasts: Galicia (Halychyna), Volhynia, Podilia, Bukovina, Slobozhanshchyna, Donbas, and others.

These are region names born of history and geography, not administrative units. The following summarizes, based on the entries of the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies), which present-day oblasts each name overlaps with.

Oblasts Are Set by the Constitution; Region Names Are Set by History

Article 133 of the Constitution of Ukraine lists, as components of the state, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, 24 oblasts, and the two cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol. The system of oblasts, raions and hromadas is introduced in our article on Ukraine’s division into 24 oblasts, 136 raions and 1,469 hromadas. Names such as Galicia or Podilia do not appear in this article of the Constitution.

Because region names have no legally fixed borders, the area each one denotes changes with the era and the source. According to IEU, the name Podilia has been known since the mid-14th century; it originally referred to about 40,000 km² of land between two tributaries of the Dniester and the Boh River, and is now said to refer to about 60,000 km², corresponding to the Podilia Upland. Treat the “overlapping oblasts” in the table below as one account given by IEU.

The Western Regions

According to IEU, the former Galicia, the western part of Volhynia, the northern part of Bukovina, and Transcarpathia are today often grouped together and called “Western Ukraine.”

On the eastern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains lies the Hutsul region, home to a mountain people called the Hutsuls. According to IEU, the Hutsul region straddles the mountains of Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia, and, apart from 8 villages located in Romania, lies within present-day Ukraine’s borders. Our article on the painted ceramics of Kosiv, where green and yellow flow like “tears” also concerns this region.

The Eastern and Southern Regions

Sloboda Ukraine Governorate was renamed Kharkiv Governorate in 1835. IEU’s entry on Slobozhanshchyna states that, at that time, part of it was transferred to Voronezh and Kursk governorates. The southern steppe facing the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, meanwhile, was called “New Russia” (Novorossiya) within the Russian Empire from the late 18th century until 1917. This was a name given by the empire, and IEU treats the whole southern region under the entry “Southern Ukraine.”

Regions That Straddle Borders

The boundaries of historical regions do not match today’s national borders. Here are a few examples from IEU’s descriptions.

• Bukovina was entirely part of Romania from 1919 to 1940. In that year, by a decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on August 2, its northern part became Chernivtsi oblast of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, while the southern part remained in Romania.
• In Galicia, by a Soviet-Polish agreement of August 16, 1945, the San River basin, including Przemyśl, became part of Poland.
• Polisia is a lowland straddling the border between Ukraine and Belarus.
• Most of Bessarabia lies in Moldova; Ukraine has only its northern and southern edges.
• Part of eastern Donbas extends into Russia’s Rostov oblast.

Region Names That Include Occupied Territory

The names of the eastern and southern regions include territory occupied by Russia. Crimea has been occupied by Russia since 2014. The UN General Assembly, in Resolution 68/262 of March 27, 2014, called on states not to recognize any change in the status of Crimea and Sevastopol. IEU’s entry on Donbas records that, in April 2014, organizations calling themselves the “Donetsk People’s Republic” and “Luhansk People’s Republic” were formed with Russian backing, that the Ukrainian government does not recognize them, and that it refers to the lost territory as “certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.”

The occupation expanded with Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began on February 24, 2022. UN General Assembly Resolution ES-11/4 of October 12, 2022 states that, as a result of the aggression, parts of the four oblasts of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia are or have been under Russia’s temporary military control, and declares that Russia’s attempted “annexation” has no validity under international law.

Which raions and hromadas are occupied or the site of fighting is defined and repeatedly revised by the Ukrainian government in a list (Order No. 376 of the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development, February 28, 2025). The latest version as of September 2026 is from the August 21, 2026 amendment. When reading place names in eastern Donbas, Tavriia and Slobozhanshchyna, keep in mind that the region name alone does not tell you who currently controls that land.

Writing These Names

The same region can go by several names. Galicia is Галичина in Ukrainian and Galicia in English; Bukovina is also spelled Bukowina or Bucovina; Podilia is also written Podolia; Polisia is written Polesie in Polish. This article writes “Galicia” and, where the name first appears, adds Halychyna, its Ukrainian pronunciation. Because it is easily confused with Galicia in northwestern Spain, pairing it with the Ukrainian form at first mention reduces confusion.

Another thing to watch for is confusing the oblast with the region. “Volyn oblast” is a single oblast with its capital at Lutsk, while the historical “Volhynia” spans three oblasts. Writing it as “the Volhynia region” when using it in the regional sense keeps readers from getting lost on the map. How place-name spellings and their transliterations are decided is introduced in our article on the day “Kiev” became “Kyiv,” and how place-name spellings are decided.