 In August 2005, Territorial Directorate "North" was established from the Northern Operational Command.The Directorate was responsible for territory spanning over , in which 15,000,000 people lived in 2008.The oblasts (provinces) of Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy, Kiev, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, and Cherkasy were all are under the Directorate control.