Cherkasy Raion (Ukrainian: Черкаський район, romanized: Cherkas'kyi raion) is a raion (district) of Cherkasy Oblast. It is located in the central part of Cherkasy oblast, and the center of the raion is the city of Cherkasy. The population is 583,648 (2022 estimate).[1]
On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the number of raions of Cherkasy Oblast was reduced to four, and the area of Cherkasy Raion was significantly expanded. Four abolished raions, Chyhyryn, Kamianka, Kaniv, and Smila Raions, parts of two more abolished raions, Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi and Horodyshche Raions, as well as the cities of Cherkasy, Kaniv, and Smila, which were previously incorporated as cities of oblast significance and did not belong to any raion, were merged into Cherkasy Raion.[2][3] The January 2020 estimate of the raion population was 73,883 (2020 est.).[4]
The approximate length if the raion was 76 km (47 mi) and its width is up to 25 km (16 mi), and the raion consisted of 39 settlements - 38 villages and 1 urban-type settlement - Irdyn. There were 23 village councils (sil's'ka rada) in Cherkasy raion. The biggest villages of them were Ruska Polyana (Ukrainian: Руська Поляна), Chervona Sloboda (Ukrainian: Червона Слобода), Bilozirya (Ukrainian: Білозір'я), and Moshny (Ukrainian: Мошни). The area of the raion was 1,617 km2 (624 sq mi), with the density of 49 inhabitants per square kilometre (130/sq mi). The population consisted of Ukrainians (96.4%), Russians (2.9%), Belarusians (0.2%), and others (0.5%).
The raion is located on lowlands, on the bank of Kremenchuk Reservoir, on the Dnieper. Rivers, such as the Ros, the Vilshyanka, and the Tyasmyn are flowing through the raion. Forests cover about 62 hectares of the district, including the famous Cherkasy Forest.[14]
The raion is crossed with highways which connect Cherkasy with other cities like Kaniv, Zolotonosha, Uman. The length of all routes is 3,209 km (1,994 mi), from which 1,012 km (629 mi) are national routes. The region also hosts a part of Odesa-Moscow railway route.
^"Черкаський район" [Cherkasy Raion] (in Ukrainian). Cherkasy Regional State Administration. Archived from the original on 23 March 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2016.