The first mentions of Poltava is about a fortress on river Ltava and concern XII century, but then up to XV century there is no data on settlement with the similar name. From XV century Poltava is mentioned in set of documents on transfer of settlement from one prince to another and so up to the end of XVII century, when Poltava has been named as a city and was given the Magdeburg rights.

As a part of Hetman Ukraine, Poltava became an administrative center of the Poltava regiment. The city history is closely connected with history of liberation war of Bogdan Khmelnitskiy against Poland, and then, certainly, with Northern war between Russia and Sweden.

Poltava is the important center of automobile transportations, it is located on crossing of the transport ways connecting the Western and East Ukraine. Besides, it is the attractive cultural and tourist center of Ukraine.

The city area is 104.42 sq. km. Administratively city is divided into 3 areas: Oktyabrskiy, Kievskiy and Leninskiy. The city population (by data for 2008) totals 318 thousand people.