In Ukraine, the term "populated place" (Ukrainian: населений пункт, romanized: naselenyi punkt) refers to a structured component of the human settlement system, representing a stationary community within a territorially cohesive and compact area characterized by a significant concentration of population.
The 2015 law on decommunization required populated places and toponymy related to Ukraine's past in the Soviet Union to be renamed.
"[5] The Law of Ukraine of 28.07.2023 № 3285-IX "About the procedure for solving certain issues of the administrative and territorial system of Ukraine" established the following terminology regarding populated places:[6] In particular, the Soviet era category of urban-type settlement (селище міського типу, selyshche miskoho typu) was abolished and conflated with the already existing category of rural settlement.
Two cities (Chernobyl and Pripyat) are abandoned and are governed by the State Agency of Ukraine on the Exclusion Zone Management.
Unlike other nomenclatures for populated places, in the Constitution of Ukraine a term like urban-type settlement was not defined and was part of the Soviet legislature that was conditionally grandfathered.
In 2023 a law was passed to finally eliminate any deviations or variations of the term selyshche clearly categorizing them as rural type of populated place along with villages.
Ukrainian khutirs were destroyed in 1930s–1940s during the Soviet occupation as part of the fight with individual farming (dekulakization campaign).
The designation was abolished in late January 2024 as part of the decommunization of Ukraine's settlement classification system.