Ukrainian major road network: trunk roads (M-highways) (some of which are expressways) in blue, and avtomahistral (motorway) in green
Roads in Ukraine's transportation network are divided into two main categories: general-use roads, which consist of streets and roads in cities, villages, and other populated areas; and specialized roads, which include official, private, and special-use roads. Most members of the public travel on general-use roads, the most prominent of which are part of the international E-road network. However, high-speed highways, locally known as avtomahistrali (motorways) or shvydkisni dorohy (expressways), are rare and only exist on certain segments of major routes. In early 2010, in preparation for Ukraine co-hosting the UEFA Euro 2012 football tournament, significant infrastructure improvement projects were announced by the newly-established Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, then headed by Borys Kolesnikov. These efforts fell short of expectations in some areas, and the road network at-large is still in need of significant renovation.[citation needed]
Ukraine inherited its transportation network from the Ukrainian SSR (Soviet Ukraine), whose roads were integrated into the larger Soviet road system. In 1940, Ukraine had only 270,700 kilometers of roads, only 10.8% of which had paved surfaces. The present-day road network was mostly built during the 1960s and 1970s. 99% of roads in the modern network are public-use, of which 12% are considered to have 'national importance' and 87% to have 'local importance'. The whole network of all automobile roads (roadways) is approximately 172,400km (107,100mi) long, of which 164,100km (102,000mi) or 95.19% is hard-surfaced.[citation needed]
Some critics point out that road conditions and road safety are in dangerous states of disarray and that recent reforms[which?] have not diminished the level of police corruption.[1]
Beginning in 2020, the "Great Construction" project facilitated the reconstruction or renovation of many roads.[citation needed] The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also heavily impacted infrastructure work in the country, leading to billions of dollars (USD) in construction costs. In 2023 alone, the Government of Ukraine reported making more than 2,000 kilometers of emergency repairs on motorways, highways, and other national roads.[2]
After the fall of the Soviet Union, all road service state bodies within Ukraine were reorganized. Ukravtodor was established as a state agency and corporation in 1990, replacing the Ministry of Roadways of Soviet Ukraine as the body governing automobile roads in modern Ukraine. It is supplemented by a project institute Ukrhiprodor which designs objects of road management. Ukravtodor[3] is supervised by the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.[4] On February 28, 2002, the state-owned open stock company Avtomobilni dorohy Ukrainy (ADU, lit.'Ukrainian motor roads') was created by Presidential Decree.[5] The company was directly involved in road construction and maintenance. In 2016 ADU was merged into Ukravtodor, and the latter now owns 100% of ADU's shares.[6]
In 2015, the World Bank Group approved a US$560 million loan to improve road conditions in Ukraine, particularly along the M03 route between Poltava and Kharkiv.[7]
In 2016, many of Ukraine's major provincial highways were in very poor condition, with Ukravtodor reporting that 97% of the country's roads needed repair. This high figure was attributed mostly to corruption-driven budget misallocations and to lackluster enforcement of weight restrictions on trucks.[8] That same year, the road repair budget was set at about ₴20 billion.[citation needed] In 2017, the Groysman government began a three year large-scale renovation of Ukraine's motorway infrastructure,[9] with the road budget increasing to ₴42 billion in 2018,[9] ₴51 billion in 2019,[10] and reaching a record high of ₴70 billion in 2020.[11]
Ukraine's increased efforts at road maintenance and construction have shown some tangible results: on the World Economic Forum's Quality of Roads Report, Ukraine rose from 139th place in 2014 to 119th place in 2019, improving 20 places in five years.[12]
Classifications
The state highways have the index letters of M, H, P, and T, each standing for a respective letter in Cyrillic. These 'state-importance' roads are utilized by the European E-network of highways.
Both the M-network (Ukrainian: Міжнародні, romanized:Mizhnarodni - International) and the H-network (Ukrainian: Національні, romanized:Natsionalni - National) of roads use two-digit numbers ranging from 01 to 33. These roads are designed for major transportation corridors across the country and form part of the European highway system.
The P-network (Ukrainian: Регіональні, romanized:Rehionalni - Regional) of roads also uses two-digit numbers, ranging from 01 to 84.
The T-network (Ukrainian: Територіальні, romanized:Terytorialni - Territorial) of roads form the territorial network within each of the first-level administrative divisions of Ukraine (oblasts of Ukraine), and their index is a four-digit number where two of the digits identify the region where a given road is located.
Avtomahistral
In Ukraine, a high-speed divided highway or motorway is called an avtomahistral (Ukrainian: автомагістраль). Currently, these act not as a distinct route network, but rather as a standard to which portions of the M-roads are adapted.
In the late 2000s, two of the first improved avtomahistral motorways were opened: the Kyiv – Boryspil route (Ukrainian: Автомагістраль Київ - Бориспіль), which takes up the segment of the M03 road connecting the capital with Boryspil International Airport; and the M29 which connects Kharkiv and Dnipro by running parallel with the M18. The Kyiv – Boryspil freeway stretches for 18km (11mi) and has a traffic capacity of 40,000 vehicles per day. An important supplemental feature of the avtomahistral is an electronic informational system that allows the traveling drivers to be informed of any updates on the route. One such experimental project was installed in 2007 and cost ₴40 million.[citation needed]
Road characteristics categories
Beyond classification by geographic levels, the roads in Ukraine are also categorized by their ability to handle varying degrees of traffic. There are five categories, with Category I split into A and B subcategories. Although all Category I roads are considered "avtomahistral", not all of them would be considered real motorways.[why?] Since around 2010, the two major avtomahistrals, Kyiv – Boryspil and Kharkiv – Dnipro, have been deemed the top roads of category IA.
List of international E-road network routes in Ukraine
The international E-road network and its 'European routes' run throughout the continent of Europe, in addition to adjacent islands, parts of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Asia Minor. The European routes in Ukraine mostly travel along Ukrainian 'M-network' or 'International' roads.
International E-road network in Ukraine in 2008, approximately
In the list below, main routes are indicated by a green background. These have numbers ending in either zero (0) or five (5). Obsolete routes are indicated by a red background. Odd-numbered routes run north-south and even-numbered routes run east-west.
As of 2020, renovation has been occurring on the H-31 highway, which connects the capital with Dnipro, a major industrial hub. The largest construction site is located in the Poltava region, where a 7-kilometre section of concrete-surface highway is being built from scratch.[14] The bypass section around Poltava includes a 518-metre long viaduct.[15]
As of 2020, roadworks continue with the goal of reconstructing the full 453km length of the Kyiv–Odesa Highway. Reconstruction is scheduled to finish in 2021. According to Ukravtodor, the reconstruction is "complex", requiring work on additional auxiliary road services such as the installation of weigh in motion (WiM) complexes, grade-separated intersections, and the abandonment of left-turning lanes.[16]
As of 2020, the Northern Bypass section of the M-06 Highway around Zhytomyr is being expanded to four lanes with an increased maximum speed of 110km/h.[17] The project includes four multi-level interchanges and three grade-separated railway crossings. Construction is scheduled to finish in 2020.[18]
Rivne Northern Bypass, Phase One
A two-lane bypass road is currently under construction around the city of Rivne. The first phase is a built-from-scratch 6km road section linking the N-25 and T-18-32 highways. The project aims to relieve heavy transit traffic in the city centre[19] and includes a 280-metre-long overpass above a ravine.[20]
Local importance routes
The 'local importance' roads have three classes but only two indexes (T and O) as the raion-level network of roads does not have an implemented index. Local road indexes are also supplemented by an oblast index noting where they are located.
Indexes of territorial roads of local importance and total length of all highways per oblast
The list is arranged in Cyrillic alphabetical order, except for Chernihiv Oblast, which precedes Chernivtsi Oblast. As an example, the territorial highway 22 in Rivne Oblast would be identified as 'T-18-22' since 18 is the index number for the Rivne Oblast. The T-network (Territorial) roads have four-digit codes, with unique two-digit identifiers within each oblast. The Oblast network (O-network) roads, on the other hand, each have six-digit codes and no secondary hyphen. For example, a highway in Kharkiv Oblast would have the code 'O-21xxxx'.
Special routes
The two main technical terms for special routes in Ukraine are pid'yizd (Ukrainian: під'їзд) and ob'yizd (Ukrainian: об'їзд). A pid'yizd route is usually an access route akin to a spur that splits from the main route towards an important geographic point such as a city, airport, or park. An ob'yizd route is a type of ring road which is not necessarily complete, similar in some cases to bypass routes, business routes, or truck routes.
Vulytsia (street), the most common and generic type of a roadway within a populated area; the English name is becoming more widely used
Shose, a broad limited-access road built for high-speed traffic for big distances;[21] also defined as a generally accessible road (especially a main road) that connects cities or settlements[22]
Prospekt, a term for a broad, long, and straight road in big cities
Bulvar, a scenic broad road similar to a boulevard
Naberezhna, a roadway running along a body of water (e.g. sea, river, or lake)
Transport in Ukraine includes ground transportation, water, air transportation, and pipelines. The transportation sector accounts for roughly 11% of the country's gross domestic product and 7% of total employment.
An oblast in Ukraine, sometimes translated as region or province, is the main type of first-level administrative division of the country. Ukraine's territory is divided into 24 oblasts, as well as one autonomous republic and two cities with special status. Ukraine is a unitary state, thus the oblasts do not have much legal scope of competence other than that which is established in the Ukrainian Constitution and devolved by law. Articles 140–146 of Chapter XI of the constitution deal directly with local authorities and their competence.
Igor Sikorsky Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany) (Ukrainian: Міжнародний аеропорт «Київ» імені Ігоря Сікорського (Жуляни)) (IATA: IEV, ICAO: UKKK) is one of the two passenger airports of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the other being Boryspil International Airport. It is owned by the municipality of Kyiv and located in the Zhuliany neighbourhood, about seven kilometres (four nautical miles) southwest of the city centre. Aside from facilitating regular passenger flights, Kyiv International Airport is also the main business aviation airport in Ukraine, and one of the busiest business aviation hubs in Europe.
Ukrainian Railways or Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) (Ukrainian: Укрзалізниця) is a state-owned joint-stock company administering railway infrastructure and rail transport in Ukraine; a monopoly that controls the vast majority of the railroad transportation in the country. Ukrainian Railways is the world's sixth largest rail passenger transporter and world's seventh largest freight transporter. As of 2020, the total length of the main broad-gauge (1,520 mm) railroad network was 19,787 kilometres (12,295 mi), making it the 13th largest in the world. Ukraine also has many stretches of standard-gauge railway (1,435 mm), and is currently working to expand these in order to improve its connections to the European Union.
Rail transport in Ukraine is a major mode of transport in Ukraine. Most railway infrastructure in Ukraine is owned by the government of Ukraine through Ukrzaliznytsia, a joint-stock company which has a de facto country-wide monopoly on passenger and freight transport by rail.
The 2006–07 Ukrainian Cup was the 16th annual edition of Ukraine's football knockout competition, the Ukrainian Cup. The winner of this competition was Dynamo Kyiv which also was defending its title.
The 1993–94 Ukrainian Cup was the third annual edition of Ukraine's football knockout competition, known as the Ukrainian Cup.
State highways in Ukraine are subdivided into four categories: international (M-network), national (H-network), regional (P-network), and territorial (Т-network). The letter's indexes are in Cyrillic, standing for their respective abbreviations in Ukrainian.
Highway M03 is a Ukrainian international highway (M-highway) connecting Kyiv with Dovzhansky on the border with Russia, where it continues into Russia as the A270. It is part of European route E40 from Kyiv to Debaltseve at which it is part of European route E50 to the border with Russia. At 844 km (524 mi), the M03 is the longest international state highway in Ukraine.
Boryspil is a city and the administrative center of Boryspil Raion in Kyiv Oblast (region) in northern and central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Boryspil urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. The population was estimated as 64,117.
Highway M06 is a Ukrainian international highway (M-highway) connecting Kyiv to the Hungarian border near Chop, where it continues as Hungarian main road 4 to Záhony and Budapest.
M29 is a Ukrainian international highway (M-highway) in eastern Ukraine that runs from Kharkiv to Dnipro parallel to the M18. It is also known as Kharkiv – Dnipro motorway, although it does not have an official motorway designation. The entire route is part of European route E105.
Volodymyr Volodymyrovych Omelyan is a Ukrainian diplomat and politician. He is a former Ukraine's infrastructure minister in the government of Volodymyr Groysman.
European route E 40 (E 40) is a west–east European route, running from the port of Calais in France to Altai Mountains near Ridder in Kazakhstan.
The Ukravtodor or The State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine is the agency within the Ministry of Infrastructure that oversees the road signs in Ukraine.
H08 is an important Ukraine national highway (H-highway) in Kyiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk Oblasts.
The New Zaporizhzhia Dniper Bridge is an under-construction controlled-access highway bridge in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Construction of the bridge began in August 2004 with the first span of the bridge opened for public vehicular use in January 2022 after several years of delays. The bridge was opened in a public ceremony on January 22, 2022, by President Volodymyr Zelensky. When completed, the bridge will stand at a height of 151 meters, making it the tallest in Ukraine and the eighth tallest in Europe.
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