A povit, or county (Ukrainian: повіт, romanized: povit), was a type of historical territorial-administrative and judicial unit in Ukraine, administered by a starosta.^[1] Following annexation of Ukraine (historically the Cossack Hetmanate) by the Russian Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries as well as through the partitions of Poland, the Russian administration introduced the system of uezds which locally (in Ukrainian language) were still referred in old manner as povits.^[2] After Ukraine regained its independence in 1918, povits remained until the introduction of raions in 1923.

Quick Facts Povits of Ukraine, Category ...

Povits of Ukraine
Povits in 1921 following the Treaty of Riga
Category	Second level of subdivision
Location	Ukraine /  Ukrainian SSR
Found in	Governorates of Ukraine
Created	1918
Abolished	1923
Number	99 (as of 1923)
Government	Povit council
Subdivisions	volosts

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Counties were introduced in Ukrainian territories under Poland (the Commonwealth Rzeczpospolita to be more precise) in the second half of the 14th century (Polish: powiat). More detailed norms were adopted in the Second Statutes of Lithuania of 1566.

They were introduced in the eighteenth century in the Cossack State by the judicial reforms of Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovskyi – while the system of Cossack regiments and companies remained in use as well (see Cossack host) – and they became administrative and financial entities in 1782. Under the Russian Empire, counties were also introduced in Sloboda Ukraine, Southern Ukraine, and Right-Bank Ukraine (Russian: уезд, romanized: uezd).^[1]

In 1913, there were 126 counties in Ukrainian-inhabited territories of the Russian Empire.^[1] Under the Austrian Empire in 1914, there were 59 counties in Ukrainian-inhabited Galicia, 34 in Transcarpathia, and 10 in Bukovina.^[1] Counties were retained by the independent Ukrainian People's Republic of 1917–1921, and in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Romania until the Soviet annexations at the start of World War II. 99 counties formed the Ukrainian SSR in 1919, where they were abolished in 1923–25 in favour of 53 okruhas (in turn replaced by oblasts in 1930–32), although they existed in the Zakarpattia Oblast until 1953.^[1][3]