Law of the Soviet Union in the context of "Rural settlement (Ukraine)"

In Ukraine, a rural settlement or selyshche (Ukrainian: селище, lit. 'settlement') is a type of populated place in Ukraine larger than a village though smaller than a city.

The term selyshche used to have a double meaning in the administrative-territorial system of Ukraine. It was used either for urban-type settlements or for some smaller populated places which are often part of a rural hromada. Unlike other nomenclatures for populated places, in the Constitution of Ukraine, the term "urban-type settlement" was not defined and was part of Soviet legislation that was conditionally grandfathered. In 2023, a law was passed to finally eliminate any deviations or variations of the term rural settlement, clearly categorizing them, along with villages, as a type of rural populated place. The law also merged the two categories that existed de facto in Ukraine.