Oblasts are a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Ukraine, it was also used by the Soviet Union which does not exist anymore. Official terms in successor states of the Soviet Union differ, the majority (except Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and the Baltics) still use a cognate of the Russian term, e.g. voblast (voblasts, voblasts' , ) is used for provinces of Belarus, and oblys (plural: oblystar) for provinces of Kazakhstan.