Podilsk Raion

Podilsk Raion (Ukrainian: Подільський район; Romanian: Raionul Bârzula), known until 2015 as Kotovsk Raion (Ukrainian: Котовський район), is a raion (district) in Odesa Oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Podilsk. Population: 220,786 (2022 estimate). On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the number of raions of Odesa Oblast was reduced to seven, and the area of Podilsk Raion was significantly expanded. Six abolished raions, Ananiv, Balta, Kodyma, Liubashivka, Okny, and Savran Raions, as well as Balta Municipality and the city of Podilsk, which was previously incorporated as a city of oblast significance and did not belong to the raion, were merged into Podilsk Raion. The January 2020 estimate of the raion population was 25,524 (2020 est.). In the 2001 census, 14.8 percent of its population declared to be native Moldovan-speakers. On 21 May 2016, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a decision to rename Kotovsk Raion to Podilsk Raion and Kotovsk to Podilsk according to the law prohibiting names of Communist origin.