Poltava is a city and oblast center in Poltava Oblast in central Ukraine with some 313,400 inhabitants (2004).
It is still unknown when the city was founded. Within the city limits the archeologists unearthed a Paleolithic dwelling as well as the Scythian remains. The present name of the city is traditionally connected to the settlement Ltava which is mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle.

The city belonged to Lithuania from the 14th century. Polish administration took over in 1569. In the 16-17th cc. it belonged to Pereyaslav Kniazhestvo (Principality). In 1648 Poltava was captured by the Polish magnate (of ruthenian descent) Jeremi Wisniowiecki (1612-51). Poltava was the base of a distinguished Polk (Regiment) of the Ukrainian Cossacks. In 1667 Poltava became a part of the Russian Empire.

In the Battle of Poltava on June 27, 1709 (Old Style), or 8 July (New Style), tsar Peter the Great, commanding 45,000 troops, defeated at Poltava a Swedish army of 29,000 troops led by Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Rehnskiold (who had received the command of the army after the wounding of the Swedish king Charles XII on June 17). "Like a Swede at Poltava" remains a simile for "totally helpless" in Russian and Ukrainian idiom. The battle marked the end of Sweden as a great power and the rise of Russia as one.

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