Other major cities within the oblast include Mukachevo, Khust, Berehove, and Chop, the last of which is home to railroad transport infrastructure.

During the Ukrainian independence referendum held in 1991, Zakarpatska Oblast voters were given a separate option on whether or not they favoured autonomy for the region.

[11] Situated in the Carpathian Mountains of western Ukraine, except the southwestern Hungarian-populated region that belongs to the Hungarian plain, Zakarpattia Oblast is the only Ukrainian administrative division which borders upon four countries: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania.

As the Carpathians are an important tourist and travel destination (housing many ski and spa resorts), they play a major part in the oblast's economy.

[6] This total includes people of many different nationalities of which Hungarians, Romanians, and Rusyns constitute significant minorities in some of the province's cities, while in others, they form the majority of the population (as in the case of Berehove).

Many historical names included Rus' or Ruthenian when referring to the region because of the area's large population of Rusyns (also known as Carpatho-Rusyns, Ruthenians, or Rusnaks), an East Slavic ethnic group that speaks the Rusyn language and descend from the original East Slavic population that had inhabited the northeastern regions of the Eastern Carpathians since the Early Middle Ages.

[12] The Transcarpathia name and its variants instead reflect the East Slavic language practice of emphasizing the area's location "past" or "beyond" the Carpathians (as opposed to "below").

According to the Gesta Hungarorum, as Prince Álmos entered on the castle of Hung and there he appointed his son Árpád as the primary ruler, hence he was called of the leader of Hungvária, while all of his valiant soldiers as Hungvárus, so since then all the Magyars have been known by this name internationally.

Nevertheless, such autonomy was granted as late as in 1938, after detrimental events of the Munich Conference; until then this land was administered directly from Prague by the government-appointed provincial presidents (zemští prezidenti) and/or elected governors (guvernéři).

[20] Between 1945 and 1947, the new Soviet authorities fortified the new borders, and in July 1947 declared Transcarpathia as "restricted zone of the highest level", with checkpoints on the mountain passes connecting the region to mainland Ukraine.

[22] In December 1944, the National Council of Transcarpatho-Ukraine set up a special people's tribunal in Uzhgorod to try and condemn all collaborationists with the previous governments – both Hungary and Carpatho-Ukraine.

[10] After breaking the Greek Catholic Church in Eastern Galicia in 1946, Soviet authorities pushed for the return to Orthodoxy of Greek-Catholic parishes in Transcarpathia too, including by engineering the accident and death of recalcitrant bishop Theodore Romzha on 1 November 1947.

[10] As early as 1924, the Comintern had declared all East Slavic inhabitants of Czechoslovakia (Rusyns, Carpatho-Russians, Rusnaks) to be Ukrainians.

[citation needed] Already in February 1945, the National Council proceeded to confiscate 53,000 hectares of land from big landowners and redistribute it to 54,000 peasant households (37% of the population).

State-owned lumber mills, chemical and food-processing plants widened, with Mukachevo's tobacco factory and Solotvyno's salt works as the biggest ones, providing steady employment to the residents of the region, beyond the traditional subsistence agriculture.

And while traditional labour migration routes to the fields of Hungary or the factories of the North-West United States were now closed, Carpathian Ruthens and Romanians could now move for seasonal work in Russia's North and East.

The arrival of the Red Army meant the departure of 5,100 Magyars and 2,500 Germans, while the 15–20,000 Jews survivors of the Holocaust also decided to move out before the borders were sealed.

In return, a large number of Ukrainians and Russians moved to Transcarpathia, where they found jobs in the industry, the military, or the civilian administration.

The same year, voters in the region supported the incumbent Leonid Kravchuk over Leonid Kuchma by 70.5% At the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Transcarpathia turned out to be one of the strongholds (together with Kyiv and L'viv) of Viktor Medvedchuk's Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united), which back then ran on a moderate Ukrainian nationalist ideology.

[27] On May 1, 2009, National Union Svoboda blocked the holding of the third European congress of the Carpathian Ruthenians, a pro-Russian entity.

[28] At the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, Yulia Tymoshenko won in most raions of Transcarpathia save for Mukachevo, Berehove and Vynohradiv, where Viktor Yanukovych gained a majority.

At the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, electoral results in Transcarpathia saw districts being won by Arseniy Yatsenyuk's People's Front and by the Petro Poroshenko Bloc.

At the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, president Zelensky's Servant of the People party won a plurality in Transcarpathia.

The Zakarpattia Oblast mostly consists of mountains and small hills covered with deciduous and coniferous forests, as well as alpine meadows.

[34] The Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians, part of which are located within Zakarpattia Oblast, were recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.

[32] With an elevation of 2,061 metres (6,762 ft) above sea level, Hoverla, part of the Chornohora mountain range, is the highest point in the oblast.

[32] The lowest point, 101 m (331 ft) above sea level, is located in the village of Ruski Heyevtsi (Oroszgejőc in Hungarian) in the Uzhhorodskyi Raion.

[33] In 2011 it had a gross regional product worth ₴18,100,000,000 The oblast is known as the birthplace of many prominent Ukrainian scientists, artists and stage performers.

Many film actors and directors came from the region, including Shari Fedak, Vyacheslav Bihun, Jack Gaffrein, Alta Vashova, Antonin Moskalyk, Ludvik Raza, Mykhailo Fitz, Anastasia Yevtushenko, Beila Shalamon, Rudolph Dzurynets, Urai Tivodar, Antonio Lukic, Yevhen Yanovich, Stephen Gerey, and Dyula Chortosh.

Zakarpattia Oblast incorporates four unofficial geographic-historic regions (counties): Ung, Bereg, Ugocsa and Northern Maramureș.