Secrets of car license plates

We will reveal some secrets of Ukrainian license plates.

The history of Ukrainian car license plates began in 1992 (before that, "Soviet" ones were in effect). They did not differ much from their predecessors, but later the Ukrainian flag and the country code "UA" were added on the left side of the plate. In addition, besides the letters of the Russian alphabet similar to Latin ones, the Ukrainian letter "І" and the letter "Я" began to be used on license plates. At the same time, the "Soviet" letter coding of regions was still used.

Since 1995, a new standard of plates with a new coding of administrative units has been used: the Ukrainian flag began to be placed on the plate, under which a two-digit digital region code was located. Then followed five digits and two letters of the series, also assigned by region.

The third stage came in 2004 and is still in effect today. Since that year, the digital code was replaced by a letter code and began to be located to the left of the digits; the plate began to contain four digits and two letters denoting the series. On the left - the Ukrainian flag, trident, and the inscription "UA".

Since 2004, the standard DSTU 4278:2004 "License plates of vehicles" has been in effect, which defines 10 types of license plates for different vehicles (see our material "Types of license plates" for types of license plates and codification of regions).

So what is the secret of license plates?

It is that "special" plates belonging to the powers that be have always existed. For statesmen, police, diplomats - special license plates were introduced, and even ordinary (at first glance) plates can hide information about the status of their owner.

State plates

For persons protected by the state and statesmen (heads of the Verkhovna Rada, members of the Cabinet of Ministers, heads of state committees, etc.), since 1995, license plates of the following type were provided:

In addition, separate plates were held by:
Presidential Administration - series AP (in effect from 2000 to 2004).

Verkhovna Rada - series VR (in effect from 2000 to 2004).

Cabinet of Ministers - series KM (in effect from 2000 to 2004).

Due to the abundance of "left" plates of the VR and KM series (the AP series almost never went "left"), in 2004, during the anti-corruption campaign, these series were abolished.

Since 2004 (with the adoption of the new GOST), state license plates began to have two, and since 2005, three digits, and the letter index was removed. In 2004, the plate looked like this:

And since 2005, after the Orange Revolution, such plates changed somewhat (the flag was removed) and began to contain strictly three digits.

Car plates of this type were assigned to statesmen:

The number of possible combinations on such plates does not exceed 1000, and it is impossible to cover everyone who wants to drive with such plates.

From January 1, 2008, plates of this type were abolished. But "ordinary" plates (type-1) continued to be issued in such a way that now they became the ones carrying information about owners. Read more about this below.

Plates ordinary and not so

It should be recalled that since 2004, new plates were issued only during vehicle registration and re-registration operations. Therefore, now you can easily meet "cool" plates issued at the beginning of the century.

"Ordinary" plates with "cool" series began to appear with the introduction of the 1995 GOST.

The first of these were plates of the form 555-** KA (initially issued only to legal entities) and 555-** KI. Employees of the Presidential Administration drove with such plates:

• 555-01 KA - personally the President of Ukraine,
• 555-0* KA - head of the Administration and his deputies,
• 555-** KA - officials of the Administration (as well as businessmen not related to the Administration).

Similar plates of the form 550-** KA, 551-** KA, 552-** KA, 553-** KA, 554-** KA had nothing to do with the Administration but were considered "cool".

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine used plates of the form 333-** KA, 334-** KA, 335-** KA, 336-** KA:

• 333-01 KA - Prime Minister of Ukraine,
• 333-0* KA - first vice-prime minister, vice-prime ministers,
• 333-** KA - ministers, secretariat of the CM of Ukraine (as well as businessmen not related to the Cabinet of Ministers).

Similar plates of the form 330-** KA, 331-** KA, 332-** KA were also considered "cool".

Plates of the form 000-**KA were used in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine:

• 000-01 KA - Minister of Internal Affairs,
• 000-0* KA - deputy ministers,
• 000-** KA - heads of various departments (as well as businessmen not related to the Ministry of Internal Affairs).

The General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, as well as the academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the prosecutor's office of Kyiv, the prosecutor's office of the Kyiv region also used plates of the form 000-** KA.

When such plates ran out, the series 000-**КІ appeared - similar in significance.

Since 2000, as part of the fight against corruption, instead of 000-** KA, the series 000-** OO was introduced.

Then this series was replaced by the series 000-**II, and after 2004 - ІІ 00** МІ.

After the introduction of the new GOST in 2004, the Presidential Administration was assigned plates АА0001АА - АА1000АА (АА0001АА - personally the President of Ukraine).

The Cabinet of Ministers was assigned several series, namely:

• AA33**KA - the main one, as well as a number of reserve ones:
• AA33** KI,
• AA33** KВ,
• AA33** KC,
• AA33** KK,
• AA33**KT.

After another amendment to the GOST, the letter combination КМ returned to license plates. And the plates of the Cabinet of Ministers can now also look like AA00** KM.

Summary

Let me repeat once again - new license plates are issued only during vehicle registration and re-registration operations. Therefore, now you can easily meet "cool" plates issued at the beginning of the century. And now - the list:

• 555-** KA,
• 555-** KI,
• 333-** KA,
• 333-** KI,
• 334-** KA,
• 334-** KI,
• 335-** KA,
• 335-** KI,
• 336-** KA,
• 336-** KI,
• 000-** KA,
• 000-** KI,
• 000-** OO,
• 000-** II

And new "cool" plates:

• ІІ 00** МІ
• АА **** АА
• AA 33** KA
• AA 33** KI,
• AA 33** KВ,
• AA 33** KC,
• AA 33** KK,
• AA 33** KT,
• AA 00** KM.

A lot. Isn't it?