Kiev Oblast

Kiev Oblast or Kyiv Oblast (Ukrainian: Київська область, translit. Kyivs’ka oblast’; also referred to as Kyivshchyna – Ukrainian: Київщина) 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.