Kherson Oblast, also known as Khersonshchyna , is an oblast (province) in southern Ukraine. It is located just north of Crimea. Its administrative center is Kherson, on the northern or right bank of the Dnieper river, which bisects the oblast. The oblast has an area of 28,461 km2 and a population of It is considered the 'fruit basket' of the country, as much of its agricultural production is dispersed throughout the country, with production peaking during the summer months. Most of the area of the oblast has been under Russian military occupation since early in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 30 September 2022, Russia declared it had annexed Kherson Oblast, along with the Donetsk (Donetsk People's Republic), Luhansk (Luhansk People's Republic) and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, but the referendums and subsequent declared annexations are internationally unrecognized. Ukraine recaptured the whole area on the right bank of the Dnieper, including Kherson city, by mid-November 2022, in the Kherson counteroffensive.

History

Historically, at various times, the territory was ruled either entirely or partly by Scythia, ancient Greeks, Old Great Bulgaria, Khazars, Kipchaks, the Byzantine Empire, Kyivan Rus', Italians, the Mongol Empire, Lithuania, the Crimean Khanate, the Ottoman Empire, Poland and Russia. Medieval towns of greatest importance were the former Byzantine, Kyivan Rus' and Genoese trading port of Oleshia and former Lithuanian customs point and Polish and Turkish fortress of Tawan/Kazikermen, now Beryslav. Another notable town in the early modern period was Bilchowisce, now Kherson. In 1917–1920 the territory at various times passed between the Ukrainians, Bolsheviks and White Russians, decisively becoming part Soviet Ukraine in 1920. It was the scene of Soviet genocidal crimes, chiefly the Holodomor of 1932–1933 and part of the Katyn massacre of 1940. During World War II, it was occupied by Germany from 1941 to 1944. The province was established in 1944 within Soviet Ukraine. In the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum, 90.13% of votes in Kherson Oblast were in favor of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. A survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in December 2014 found that 90.9% of the oblast's population opposed their region joining Russia, 1% supported the idea, and the rest were undecided or did not respond.

Russian invasion

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022, Russian forces have occupied most of the oblast, with government by the "Kherson military–civilian administration" from 28 April to 30 September 2022. On 27 July 2022, the Ukrainian army destroyed the Antonivka Road Bridge as part of its wider campaign to isolate the Russian 49th Combined Arms Army on the right bank of the Dnieper river. On 31 August, it was reported that the defenders of the occupied Kherson territory were the 49th Combined Arms Army and what was left of the 35th Combined Arms Army. On 5 September it was announced that the newly-installed Russian administration had postponed its plans to hold a referendum on the planned secession from Ukraine. The plebiscite had been scheduled to occur on 11 September, in order to coincide with the Russian electoral calendar. Due to the contestation of the oblast by the Ukrainian forces, it was found to be impractical to hold at this time. On 23–27 September 2022, the Russian Federation held referendums in the occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts for "independence and subsequent entry into the Russian Federation", recognized by most states to be staged and against international law. On 29 September, the Russian Federation recognized Kherson Oblast as an independent state. On 30 September, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of the Kherson Oblast and three other Ukrainian territories, and signed "accession decrees" that are widely considered to be illegal. At that time, Russia was not in control of the province as a whole. The United Nations General Assembly subsequently passed a resolution calling on countries not to recognise what it described as an "attempted illegal annexation" and demanded that Russia "immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw". On 9 November 2022, the city of Kherson and a remaining pocket of land on the right bank of the Dnieper were recaptured by Ukrainian forces. The territory on the left bank is still under Russian control. On 6 June 2023, the Kakhovka Dam was breached, causing extensive flooding downstream and prompting mass evacuations in the oblast, while the Kakhovka Reservoir was drained. Russian authorities claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin won 88.12% of the vote in the occupied Kherson region in the 2024 Russian presidential election, which has been described as rigged and fraudulent.

Geography

Kherson Oblast is bordered by Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to the north, the Black Sea and Crimea to the south, Mykolaiv Oblast to the west, and the Azov Sea and Zaporizhzhia Oblast to the east. The Dnieper River, which includes the Kakhovka Reservoir, runs through the oblast. Before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, two bridges spanned the Dniper: the Khakovsky Bridge near Nova Kakhovka and the Antonivka Road Bridge at Kherson. Another significant bridge, the Daryivka Bridge crosses the Inhulets river and connects Kherson via the M14 highway to Beryslav, the other abutment of the Khakovsky Bridge. The oblast's Henichesk Raion includes 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, this strip within Kherson Oblast was the only part of the Crimean Peninsula under Ukrainian control immediately prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Historically, it is located in Yedisan (north-western part), Zaporizhzhia (northern part) and Pryazovia (southern and eastern parts). Kherson is the only city with a population over 100,000. Four other cities have over 30,000 – they are, in order from largest, Nova Kakhovka, Kakhovka, Oleshky and Henichesk.

Administrative divisions

Until the 2020 re-organisation, the Kherson Oblast was administratively subdivided into 18 raions (districts) and 3 municipalities. The municipalities – Kherson (administrative center of the oblast), Nova Kakhovka, and Kakhovka – were directly subordinate to the oblast government. The Kherson municipality was subdivided into 3 urban districts. All information below was current as of 2015. .* Note: Though the administrative center of the raion is housed in the city/town that it is named after, cities do not answer to the raion authorities only towns do; instead they are directly subordinated to the oblast government and therefore are not counted as part of raion statistics. At a lower level of administration, these district-level administrations are subdivided into: The local administration of the oblast is controlled by the Kherson Regional Council. The governor of the oblast is the Kherson Regional Council speaker, appointed by the President of Ukraine.

Demographics

The population of the oblast is 1,083,367 (2012), which is 2.4% of the total population of Ukraine. It is also ranked 21st by its population. The population density is 38 per km2. About 61.5% or 745,400 people live in urban areas of the Oblast and 38.5% or 467,600 people live in agricultural centers/villages. Men make up 46.7% or 565,400 people of the population, women make up 53.3% or 644,600 people, and pensioners make up 26.2% or 317,400 people of the Oblast population. Ukrainian National Census (2001): Age structure Median age

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