Kirovograd Ukraine

Kirovograd is the capital of Kirovograd region (oblast). Kirovograd oblast was formed in its contemporary borders in 1939. Its territory is 24,600 sq. km which makes 4.1% of the total territory of Ukraine, with the population of 1,168,500 people, which is 2.4% of that in Ukraine. The average population density is 48 persons/sq. km, against 83 persons/sq. km in the country as a whole. The oblast includes 21 administrative rayons, 12 towns, 4 of them being those of regional subordination, 26 urban-type settlements and 1024 rural-type settlements. The urban population makes 61,2% of its total number in the region, against 67,9% in Ukraine. Above 30 ethnic groups are represented in the oblast: Ukrainians 85.3%, Russians 11.7%, and others.

The Kirovograd region is situated in the center of Ukraine, in the Dnieper and the Southern Buh interfluves. A marker of the geographical center of Ukraine was put in the Dobrovelychkivka rayon.
The settlement of the region started in the age of paleolith. In the second half of the 15th century these territories were a part of the lands where the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks appeared. Later, for nearly three centuries these lands were a part of the "Volnist (the Territory) of Zaporizhzhya Army". It was here that the Cossacks worked and fought.

The first battle of the Liberation War of the Ukrainian people of 1648-1654 near Zhovty Vody took place on the territory of the contemporary Kirovograd oblast. In mid-1700s an intensive Russian colonization of the Ukrainian lands began. In 1952, New Serbia was founded, and in 1754 the Fortress of St. Elizabeth was founded which later turned into the town of Elisavetgrad (now Kirovograd) – an uyezd (rayon) central town in Kherson guberniya (province).

The temperate warm climate, the availability of deposits of radon and mineral waters (reserves of about 150,000 cu. m /year), forest areas, meadows, and rivers create favorable conditions for organization of short- and long-term recreation as well as a network of resort-therapeutically establishments.

The oblast’s position in the center of the Ukrainian crystalline massif determines the origin of large deposits of rare metals. The availability of a whole series of ores manifestations: tungsten, copper, molybdenum, apatite, uranium, gold and silver, bismuth, tin, lead, beryllium, antimony, tantalum and niobium, is the characteristic feature of the Kirovograd metallogenic zone.

The mineral and raw material potential of the region includes above 340 deposits of minerals, 107 of them being developed. These are: brown coal, ore raw materials, raw materials for nuclear power industry (uranium), non-ore minerals.

The main amount of minerals is excavated from open mines which creates favorable conditions for development of the mining sector in the region.
The gold ore deposits, discovered in the recent decades, are the basis for the future creation of gold mining and gold-processing sector in the region. According to geologists’ opinion, the deposits of platinum, diamonds, chrome, tungsten and rare metals may be discovered as well.
The Kirovograd region is known since long ago as a region with well-developed agricultural production. The natural-climatic conditions and rich black soils (chernozems) are favorable for growing agricultural crops. A set of organizational, agro-forest-reclamation, hydro technical and other measures have been taken with the purpose of rational use of the land resources.

The oblast is favorably located geographically and has a developed transportation network.
The Kirovograd region is crossed by main railroads for transportation in the Donbas-Carpathians direction linking the important industrial and agricultural regions of the South with the South-West and the Center of Ukraine. The transport network includes 926 km of railways. The network density is 38 km per 1000 sq. km. The Kirovograd region has 10 highways 728.7 km long in convenient directions, which link Ukraine with the countries of the CIS and Central and Southern Europe. The motor roads density is 308.5 km per 1000 sq. km.
The Kirovograd airport corresponds to the 3rd category of ICAO. Transportation by air is performed by the state air carrier "Ukrainian Airlines". There are two commercial air carriers: "URGA" and "Chaika", working on international air lines.

The Kirovograd inhabitants were among the first telephone subscribers in Ukraine who could communicate with the whole world. Automatic trunk-exchange 5 ESS ("Utel") for long-distance calls was put in operation in 1994. A new kind of communications services - cellular or mobile telephone communications - was introduced in May 1996.

The list of Ukraine Airway Companies: Ukraine International Airlines, Volare Airways, Air Travel, Lvov Airways, Niclolayev Airways, Crimea Airways, Aerostar, Donbas Airways, Aerosvit, Ukrainian Cargo Airways, Ukrcopter Airways.

The list of Ukraine Airports: Berdyansk Airport, Borispol International Airport (Kiev), Vinnitsa Airport, Dnepropetrovsk Airport, Donetsk Airport, Zaporozhzhye Airport, Ivano-Frankovsk Airport, Izmail Airport, Kerch Airport, Zulyany Airport (Kiev), Kirovograd Airport, Kramatorsk Airport, Kryvyy Rih Airport, Lugansk Airport, Lvov Airport, Mariupol Airport, Nikolayev International Airport, Odessa International Airport, Poltava Airport, Rovno Airport, Severdonoetsk Airport, Simferopol International Airport, Sumy Airport, Ternopol Airport, Uzgorod Airport, Kharkov Airport, Kherson Airport, Cherkassy Airport, Chernovtsy Airport, Chernigov Airport

The list of the main Ukraine bus and railway directions: Lugansk, Donetsk, Sumy, Nikolayev, Poltava, Dnepropetrovsk, Kerch, Zaporozhe, Kherson, Kirovograd, Cherkassy, Kiev, Chernigov, Odessa, Vinnitsa, Zhitomir, Chernovtsy, Khmelnitsky, Rovno, Ivano - Frankovsk, Ternopol, Lutsk, Lvov, Uzhgorod, Melitopol. Crimea: Simferopol, Sevastopol, Sudak, Evpatoria, Feodosia, Yalta, Bakhchisarai, Alupka, Alushta, Jankoi, Kharkov.