With turn of millennium, the leadership in the league was overtaken by WFC Lehenda Chernihiv and stayed the leading team for the next decade. Around that time (2001), there was introduced new international tournament UEFA Women's Cup that gave a boost in expansion of the Ukrainian league. For the first time in the league appeared a team from Kharkiv. Later the team at first existing as a department of the main Metalist club, in 2006 was taken over by a local construction company. While the main Donetsk team declined, Chernihiv footballers received a notable competitiveness boost from Kharkiv, Prykarpattia and Azov regions. There also appeared new smaller teams such as Rodyna out of Kostopil in Volhynia and eastern Podollia teams around Uman. In 2008 there was introduced winter break competition which became regular later since 2013.
