Vehicle registration plates of Ukraine
Ukrainian regular legal standard number plate. | |
| Country | Ukraine |
|---|---|
| Country code | UA |
| Current series | |
| Size | 520 mm × 110 mm 20.5 in × 4.3 in |
| Serial format | AB 1234 BC (AB being the regional code) |
| Colour (front) | Black on white |
| Colour (rear) | Black on white |
Since the restoration of Ukraine's independence in 1991, the country has used four main systems of vehicle registration plates.
The first system was introduced in 1992. Its design was based on the 1977 Soviet license plate design standard, which was still in widespread use when the USSR collapsed. However, a new regional suffix was added, corresponding to a Ukrainian province.
In 1993, the left-hand side of the plate was modified with the addition of the national flag over the country code "UA".
1995 saw the introduction of a completely new system consisting of five digits, with a dash between the third and fourth digit, combined with a two letter suffix. It also included a two-digit region code, situated under the National Flag on the left-hand side of the plate.
In order to enable drivers to their vehicle abroad, and in order to adhere to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, regular Ukrainian license plates only use Cyrillic characters with glyphs that resemble a letter from the Roman alphabet. (These characters are: А, В, Е, І, К, М, Н, О, Р, С, Т, and Х). Before 1995, the "Я" character was also used. Cyrillic characters that have no resemblance to any Roman alphabet character can still be used for some types of black-background plates.
Some vehicles, like trolleybuses, are not required to have license plates, because they cannot leave the network they operate on and can be identified by a number painted on the vehicle and assigned to it by the local public transport authority.