Zaporizhzhia Oblast (), commonly referred to as Zaporizhzhia (), is an oblast (region) in south-east Ukraine. Its administrative centre is Zaporizhzhia. The oblast covers an area of , and has a population of
This oblast is an important part of Ukraine's industry and agriculture. Most of the area of the oblast has been under Russian military occupation since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, including all of the coast, although the capital and the majority of the population remains under Ukrainian administration.
On 30 September 2022, Russia declared it had annexed the Donetsk (Donetsk People's Republic), Luhansk (Luhansk People's Republic), Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, despite having failed to occupy all of these Ukrainian territories. However, the sham referendums and subsequent annexations are internationally unrecognized.
To the south, Zaporizhzhia Oblast covers roughly of coastline of the Sea of Azov, as part of a coastal region known as Pryazovia, also including the coastal regions of Kherson Oblast and Donetsk Oblast, to the west and east, respectively.
Geography
The area of the oblast is 27,183 km2; its population (estimated as of 1 January 2013) was 1,785,243.
Cities
The largest cities are, in order:
Zaporizhzhia
Melitopol – under Russian occupation
Berdiansk – under Russian occupation
Enerhodar (location of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant) – under Russian occupation Tokmak – under Russian occupation
Relief
Zaporizhzhia Oblast is characterized by a flat landscape. Soils are mostly chernozem. Knowledge of the relief of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast today is especially important because of the problem of land reclamation and its more intensive use.
The territory of Zaporizhzhia Oblast as a whole has a flat topography, but there are markedly elevated and depressed areas, which differ in shape, origin, and age.
The highest central-eastern part of the oblast is the Azov Upland. It extends to the east and to the territory of Donetsk Oblast, where it meets the Donetsk ridge. In the south, between the Azov Upland and the Sea of Azov, is the western part of the Azov coastal plain, which flows into the Black Sea west of the Molochna River. The northeastern end of the coastal plain merges with the Zaporizhzhia inner plain, which borders the southeastern outskirts of the Dnieper Upland. Thus, the territory of Zaporizhzhia Oblast consists of two distinct geomorphological parts: the outskirts of the Azov and Dnipro uplands, which structurally correspond to the southeastern part of the Ukrainian crystalline massif and the outskirts of the coastal Priazov and Black Sea plains, which are located within the Black Sea basin.
History
The area corresponding approximately to the modern Zaporizhzhia Oblast—according to Herodotus—was called in antiquity as the land of Gerrhos. This area was the burial place of the kings of the "Royal Scythians".
The modern Zaporizhzhia Oblast was created as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on 10 January 1939 out of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
During the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum, 90.66% of votes in the oblast were in favor of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.
Russian invasion
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian armed forces occupied the southern part of the oblast, defeating the Ukrainian armed forces at Melitopol and at Enerhodar. Ukrainian forces conducted an attack that destroyed a Russian ship and damaged two others in the port of Berdiansk. the northern parts of the oblast, including its capital city, Zaporizhzhia, are controlled by Ukraine.
On 4–5 July 2022 during the international Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2022) hosted in Lugano, Switzerland, The Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden pledged to support the rebuilding of Zaporizhzhia region.