text: Most of Ukraine's oblasts are named after their respective administrative centers, which are also the largest and most developed cities in the region. Oblast populations range from 904,000 in Chernivtsi Oblast to 4.4 million in the eastern Donetsk Oblast.
  Original in 1932
  Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, centered in Dnipropetrovsk (subdivided into raions)
  Kharkiv Oblast, centered in Kharkiv (subdivided into raions)
  Kyiv Oblast, centered in Kyiv (subdivided into raions)
  Odesa Oblast, centered in Odesa (subdivided into raions)
  Vinnytsia Oblast, centered in Vinnytsia (subdivided into raions)
  raions of republican subordination (directly to Kharkiv)
  Later there were added
  Donetsk Oblast, centered in Stalino (initially – Artemivsk) (created on 17 July 1932 out of raions of Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts and raions of republican subordination)
  Chernihiv Oblast, centered in Chernihiv (created on 15 October 1932 out of raions of Kharkiv and Kyiv oblasts)
  Further division in 1937–1938
  Kamianets-Podilsk Oblast, centered in Kamianets-Podilsk (out of raions of Vinnytsia Oblast)
  Mykolaiv Oblast, centered in Mykolaiv (out of raions of Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts)
  Poltava Oblast, centered in Poltava (out of raions of Kharkiv and Kyiv oblasts)
  Zhytomyr Oblast, centered in Zhytomyr (out of raions of Vinnytsia and Kyiv oblasts)
  Donetsk Oblast was split into Stalino Oblast, centered in Stalino, and Voroshylovhrad Oblast, centered in Voroshylovhrad