.ua is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Ukraine. To register at the second-level (example) domainname.ua, possession of the exact trademark (matching the domain name) is required. It is not required for third-level domains (.com.ua, .net.ua, etc.).

History

Third-level & second-level domains

To remove the risk of cybersquatting, registration of second-level domains directly below .ua is restricted to owners of registered trade marks, who may register a domain name similar to that of the trade mark in question. However, third-level domains can be registered beneath some of the following:

Generic domains

Special domains

Geographical domains

There are also second-level domains which are region-specific. These are less popular than the above list (making domain names more available) but they are sometimes restricted to organisations exclusively from within the region.

Mirror domains

When registering a domain name in one of the mirror domains, a domain name of the same name in the second (other) mirror domain will automatically be reserved for the registrant.

Geographic domains where new registrations have been terminated

Reserved domain names

The administrators of the .UA ccTLD have decided to reserve public domains with transliterations of Ukrainian names for most Ukrainian geographical domains. Geographical public domains, initially based on phone area codes, were allocated during a conference of Ukrainian internet specialists in Slavsko in January 1993, following the delegation of the .UA country code top-level domain. Initially, these domains were mostly transliterations of Russian city names (e.g., kiev.ua, kirovograd.ua, sebastopol.ua). As the Internet transitioned from experimental to mainstream technology, new requirements and discussions for alternative names emerged. In December 1997, shorter, easier-to-remember two-letter names were introduced (e.g., ivano-frankivsk.ua became if.ua). The introduction of these new names aimed to address inherent flaws without replacing old names, allowing parallel registration in both traditional and new domains. These changes, led by domain administrators Dmytro Kohmanyuk, Ihor Svyrydon, and Hostmaster LLC, will ensure Ukrainian transliterations are reserved and mirrored to existing geographical domains, available to administrators by autumn 2008, contingent on compliance with .UA domain rules.

Technological domains

Statistics

As of March 2017, around 10.78% of all the .ua domains were served via secured HTTPS protocol, with the Let's Encrypt Authority X3 being the most popular SSL certificate. Nginx is the most popular web server, serving 68.97% of the .ua domains, followed by Apache serving 17.75% of the total .ua domains.