Ukraine (
Ukrayina, /ukraˈjina/) is a
country in
Eastern Europe. It borders
Russia to the east,
Belarus to the north,
Poland,
Slovakia and
Hungary to the west,
Romania and
Moldova to the southwest, and the
Black Sea and
Sea of Azov to the south. The historic city of
Kiev (
Kyiv) is the country's capital.
From at least the 9th century, the territory of present-day Ukraine was a centre of
medieval East Slavic civilization forming the state of
Kievan Rus, and for the following several centuries the territory was divided among a number of regional powers. After a
brief period of independence (1917–1921) following the
Russian Revolution of 1917, Ukraine became one of the founding
Soviet Republics in 1922. The
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's territory was enlarged westward after the
Second World War, and again in 1954 with the
Crimea transfer. In 1945, Ukrainian SSR became one of the co-founder members of the
United Nations. It became independent again after the
Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.
History
Human settlement in the territory of Ukraine has been documented into distant prehistory. The late
Neolithic Trypillian culture flourished from about 4500 BC to 3000 BC.
Early history (800 BC–AD 700)
In antiquity, the south and east of modern Ukraine was populated by nomads called
Scythians (
Iranian tribe).
The
Scythian Kingdom existed here from 700 BC to 200 BC. In the 3rd century AD, the
Goths settled and called the country
Oium. They formed the
Chernyakhov culture before moving on.
In the 7th century, the territory of modern Ukraine was the core of the state of the
Bulgars (often referred to as
Great Bulgaria) with capital city
Phanagoria. At the end of the 7th century, most Bulgar tribes migrated in several directions and the remains of their state were absorbed by the
Khazars, a semi-
nomadic people from
Central Asia.
The Khazars founded the independent
Khazar kingdom in the southeastern part of today's
Europe, near the
Caspian Sea and the
Caucasus. The kingdom included western
Kazakhstan, and parts of modern eastern Ukraine,
Azerbaijan, southern
Russia, and
Crimea.
Golden Age of Kiev (800–1100)
During the
10th and
11th centuries the territory of Ukraine became the centre of a powerful and prestigious state in
Europe, the
Kievan Rus, laying the foundation for the national identity of Ukrainians, as well as other
East Slavic nations, through subsequent centuries. Its capital was
Kiev, which later became the capital of modern Ukraine, wrested from Khazars by
Askold and Dir in about 860. According to the
Primary Chronicle, the Kievan Rus' elite initially consisted of
Varangians from
Scandinavia. The Varangians later became assimilated into the local Slavic population and became part of the Rus' first dynasty, the
Rurik Dynasty.
Kievan Rus' comprised several
principalities, ruled by the interrelated
Rurikid Princes. The seat of Kiev, the most prestigious and influential of all principalities, became a subject of many rivalries between Rurikids as the most valuable prize in their quest for power, sometimes through intrigue but often through bloody conflicts. The Golden Age of Kievan Rus' began with the reign of
Vladimir the Great (
Volodymyr, 980–1015) who
turned Rus' toward Byzantine Christianity. During the reign of his son,
Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054), Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural development and military power. This was followed by the state's increasing fragmentation as the relative importance of regions rose again. After a final resurgence under the rule of
Vladimir Monomakh (1113–1125) and his son
Mstislav (1125–1132), the Kievan Rus' finally disintegrated into separate principalities following Mstislav's death. The 13th century
Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus'.
Kiev was totally destroyed in 1240.
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
On the Ukrainian territory, the state of Kievan Rus' was succeeded by the principalities of
Halych and
Volodymyr-Volynskyi, which were merged into the state of
Halych-Volynia. In the mid 14th century, it was subjugated by
Casimir The Great of Poland while the
heartland of Rus', including Kiev, fell under the
Gediminids of
Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Following the 1386 marriage of Lithuania's
Grand Duke Jagiello to Poland's
King Jadwiga (her title was "King" although she was a woman), most of Ukraine's territory was controlled by the increasingly
Ruthenized Lithuanian rulers as part of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At this time, the term Ruthenia and Ruthenians as the Latinized versions of "Rus'", became widely applied to the land and its people, respectively.
By the 1569
Union of Lublin that formed the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from largely Ruthenized Lithuanian rule to the Polish administration, as it was transferred to the
Polish Crown. Under the cultural pressure of
Polonization much of the Ruthenian upper class converted to
Catholicism (such transitions were beneficial for achieving political influence within the state), for example,
King Michael of Poland, who reigned from 1669 to 1673, was of the Polonized Ruthenian Vishnevetsky (
Wiśniowiecki) family. At the same time, the common people, especially the peasants, retained their old ways and their allegiance to their historic
Eastern Orthodox Church. This led to increasing social tension, visible in events such as the 1596
Union of Brest, created by
Sigismund III Vasa, who attempted to bring the Orthodox population under the Catholicism through creation of the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. This controversial move failed to achieve its goals. Resisted even by some Ruthenian
magnates, otherwise loyal to the Polish kings (
Ostrogskis being the most notable example), the new "intermediate" religion was unnecessary for most of the upper class, much of which increasingly turned toward
Catholicism with each subsequent generation. Thus, the Ukrainian commoners, deprived of their native protectors among Ruthenian nobility, turned for protection to the
Cossacks who remained fiercely Orthodox at all times.
From 1569 the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth suffered a series of
Tatar invasions, the goal of which was to loot, pillage and capture
slaves into jasyr. The borderland area to the southeast was in a state of semi-permanent warfare until the 18th century. Some researchers estimate that more than three-million people, predominantly
Ukrainians but also
Circassians,
Russians,
Belarusians and
Poles, were captured and enslaved during the time of the
Crimean Khanate.
Rise of the Cossacks
In the mid 17th century, a Cossack state, the
Zaporozhian Sich, was established by the Dnipro cossacks and the Ruthenian peasants fleeing Polish
serfdom. Poland had little real control of this land in what is now central Ukraine, which became an autonomous military state, at times allied with the Commonwealth in the military campaigns. However, the en
serfment of peasantry by the
Polish nobility, overall emphasis of the Commonwealth's
agricultural economy on the fierce exploitation of the unfree workforce, and, perhaps most importantly, the suppression of the Orthodox church pushed the allegiances of Cossacks away from Poland. Their aspiration was to have a representation in Polish
Sejm, recognition of Orthodox traditions and the gradual expansion of the
Cossack Registry, all being vehemently denied by the Polish kings. The cossacks turned toward Orthodox Russia, which was one reason for the later downfall of the Polish-Lithuanian state.
Russian Empire
In 1648,
Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the
largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish king
John II Casimir. This uprising finally led to a partition of Ukraine between Poland and Russia.
Left-bank Ukraine was eventually integrated into Russia as the
Cossack Hetmanate, following the 1654
Treaty of Pereyaslav and the ensuing
Russo-Polish War. After the
partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century by
Prussia,
Habsburg Austria, and
Russia, Western Ukrainian (
Galicia) was taken over by Austria, while the rest of Ukraine was progressively incorporated into the Russian Empire. Despite the promises of Ukrainian autonomy given by the treaty of Pereyaslav, Ukrainians never received the freedoms they were hoping for from Imperial Russia. The Ukrainians played an important role in the frequent wars between East European monarchies and the
Ottoman Empire. As a result of Russian successes in the
wars against Ottoman Empire and Crimean Khanate of 1768–74 and 1787–1792, the territories along the
Black Sea coast were annexed to the Russian Empire as well. Within the Empire Ukrainians frequently rose to the highest offices of Russian state (for example,
Aleksey Razumovsky,
Alexander Bezborodko,
Ivan Paskevich), and the
Russian Orthodox Church (for example,
Stephen Yavorsky,
Feofan Prokopovich,
Dimitry of Rostov). At a later period, the
tsar regime was implementing a harsh policy of
Russification,
banning the use of the
Ukrainian language in print, and in public.
World War I and Austro-Hungarian rule
During
World War I Austro-Hungarian authorities established the Ukrainian Legion, along with the Polish Legion, to fight against the repression of the Czar. Thousands of young men from both oppressed regions flocked to their respective standards and were armed, equipped and trained by the Austrian Hungarian Army. These legions were the foundations of the successful Polish Army and the abortive Ukrainian Army that fought against the Bolsheviks, in eastern Europe in the post World War 1 period (1919-1923)
Possibly up to 20-thousand supporters of Russia from Galicia were detained and placed in an Austrian internment camp in
Talerhof,
Styria, and in a fortress at
Terezín (now in the
Czech Republic).
Division and early Soviet years
With the collapse of the Russian and Austrian empires following World War I and the
Russian Revolution of 1917, a Ukrainian national movement for self-determination reemerged. During 1917–20, several separate Ukrainian states briefly emerged: the
Tsentralna Rada, the
Hetmanate, the
Directorate, the
Ukrainian People's Republic and the
West Ukrainian People's Republic. However, with the defeat of the latter in the
Polish-Ukrainian War and the failure of the Polish
Kiev Offensive (1920) of the
Polish-Soviet War, the
Peace of Riga concluded in March 1921 between
Poland and the
Bolsheviks left Ukraine divided again. The western part of Ukraine had been incorporated into the newly-organized
Second Polish Republic. The larger central and eastern part, established as the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in March of 1919, later became a constituent republic of the
Soviet Union in December 1922.
The Ukrainian national identity lived on during the early Soviet years and the
Ukrainian culture and
language even enjoyed a revival as the
Ukrainization became a local implementation of the Soviet-wide
Korenization (
indigenization) policy whose gains were sharply reversed by the early-1930s policy changes.
Ukraine saw its share of the
Soviet industrialization starting from the late 1920s and the republic's industrial output quadrupled in the 1930s. However, the industrialization had a heavy cost for the peasantry, demographically a backbone of the Ukrainian nation. To satisfy the state's need for increased food supplies and finance industrialization, Stalin instituted a
program of collectivization of agriculture as the state combined the peasants' lands and animals into collective farms and enforcing the policies by the regular troops and secret police. Those who resisted were
arrested and deported and the increased production quotas were placed on the peasantry. The collectivization had a devastating effect on agricultural productivity. As the members of the collective farms were not allowed to receive any grain until the unachievable quotas were met,
starvation became widespread. Millions starved to death in a famine known as the
Holodomor.
The times also coincided with the Soviet assault on the national political and cultural elite often accused in "nationalist deviations" as the
Ukrainization. These policies were reversed at the turn of the decade. Two waves of
purges (1929–1934 and 1936–1938) resulted in the elimination of four-fifths of the Ukrainian cultural elite.
World War II
During
World War II, some elements of the Ukrainian nationalist underground fought both
Nazi and Soviet forces, forming the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army in 1942, while other Ukrainians initially collaborated with the Nazis, having been ignored by all other powers. In 1941 the German invaders and their
Axis allies initially advanced against desperate but unsuccessful efforts of the
Red Army. In the encirclement battle of
Kiev, the city was acclaimed by the Soviets as a "
Hero City", for the fierce resistance of the Red Army and of the local population. More than 650,000 Soviet males between the ages of 15-50 were taken captive.
Initially, the Germans were received as liberators by many Ukrainians, especially in western Ukraine, which had been occupied by the Soviets only in 1939. However, German misrule in the occupied territories eventually aided the Soviet cause. Nazi administrators of conquered Soviet territories made little attempt to exploit the population of Ukrainian territories' dissatisfaction with Soviet political and economic policies. Instead, the Nazis preserved the collective-farm system, systematically carried out genocidal policies against
Jews, deported others (mainly Ukrainians) to work in Germany, and began a systematic depopulation of Ukraine to prepare it for German colonization, which included a food blockade on Kiev. Under these circumstances, most people living in the occupied territory either passively or actively opposed the Nazis.
Total civilian losses during the war and German occupation in Ukraine are estimated between five and eight million, including over half a million Jews killed by the
Einsatzgruppen, sometimes with the help of local collaborators. Of the estimated 8.6 million Soviet troops who fell in battle against the Nazis, about a quarter (2.7 million) were ethnic Ukrainians. Ukraine is distinguished as one of the first nations to fight the Axis powers in
Carpatho-Ukraine, and one that saw some of the greatest bloodshed during the war.
Postwar development
The republic was heavily damaged by the war, and it required significant efforts to recover. More than 700 cities and towns and 28,000 villages were destroyed. The situation was worsened by a man-made
famine in 1946–47, when the Soviet authorities were forcibly confiscating grain crops in accordance with a plan, ignoring drought conditions of 1946. Collected grain was distributed to the other regions of the Soviet Union, and 2.5 million
tonnes were exported. In Ukraine, about one million people, predominantly in rural areas, died from the famine.
In western Ukraine, Ukrainians continued to resist Soviet rule. The
Ukrainian Insurgent Army, formed in World War II to fight both Soviets and Nazis, continued to fight the USSR into the 1950s. Using
guerilla war tactics, the insurgents were
assassinating Soviet party leaders,
NKVD and military officers. In particular, due to the resistance, the 1946-47 famine was much less severe in West Ukraine than in other Ukrainian regions.
Following the death of
Stalin in 1953,
Nikita Khrushchev became the new leader of the USSR. Being the First Secretary of Communist Party of Ukrainian SSR in 1938-49, Khrushchev played a role in Stalin's repressions, the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazis, organization of the man-made famine in 1946-47, and suppression of resistance in West Ukraine. But after taking power, he found it best to propagandize the friendship between the Ukrainian and Russian nations. In 1954, the 300th anniversary of the
Treaty of Pereyaslav was widely celebrated, and in particular, the
Crimea was transferred from the
Russian SFSR to the
Ukrainian SSR.
In the times of
Khrushchev Thaw of 1960s, there were
dissident movements in Ukraine by prominent figures such as
Vyacheslav Chornovil,
Vasyl Stus,
Levko Lukyanenko. As in the other regions of USSR, the movements were quickly suppressed.
In the 1970s, the new Soviet leader,
Leonid Brezhnev, was gradually concentrating power. In 1972, the First Secretary of Communist Party of Ukraine
Petro Shelest lost his position, as he was seen as being "too independent" by the government in Moscow and was replaced by
Volodymyr Shcherbytsky.
The rule of Shcherbytsky was characterized by the expanded policies of
Russification. He used his influence as the First Secretary of CPU, and a
Politburo member for over 25 years, to advocate economic interests of Ukraine within the USSR.
The Chernobyl Incident
On
April 26,
1986, a reactor in the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, resulting in the
Chernobyl disaster, the worst
nuclear reactor accident in history. The disaster was the result of a flawed Soviet reactor design, lack of a containment vessel, and serious mistakes by inadequately-trained plant operators. The disaster contaminated a large area of
Belarus and Ukraine to such an extent that a
30 km exclusion zone was established around the plant. Other parts of Europe were contaminated in varying degrees.
After the accident, a new city,
Slavutych, was built outside the exclusion zone to house and support the employees of the plant, which was decommissioned in 2000. Around 150,000 people were evacuated from the
contaminated area, and 300,000–600,000 took part in the cleanup. As of 2000, about 4000 Ukrainian children have been diagnosed with
thyroid cancer caused by radiation released by this incident.
Independence
The wave of
Gorbachev's
perestroika arrived in Ukraine only in 1988–89. It was hindered initially by
Shcherbytsky and party
nomenklatura. Also, the economic slowdown and product shortages were initially not as severe in Ukraine as in the other regions of the USSR.
In 1989, the national movement "
People's Movement of Ukraine", known in short as
Rukh was formed. In the elections to the parliament of republic, which were held in March of 1990, Rukh obtained overwhelming support in western Ukraine, as well as in the cities of Kiev and
Kharkiv.
On
January 21,
1990, over 300,000 Ukrainians organized a human chain for Ukrainian independence in the
memory of the 1919 unification of the
Ukrainian People's Republic and the
West Ukrainian National Republic. Citizens came out to the streets and highways, forming live chains by holding hands in support of unity. On
July 16,
1990 the new parliament adopted the
Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine. The declaration established the principles of the self-determination of the Ukrainian nation, democracy, political and economic independence, and the priority of Ukrainian law on the Ukrainian territory over Soviet law. A month earlier, a similar declaration was adopted by the parliament of the
Russian SFSR. It started a period of confrontation between the central Soviet, and new republican authorities.
In March 1991, a referendum was organized by Soviet authorities, asking people whether they wanted to live in a "renewed" Soviet Union. The Ukrainian parliament added a second question, asking Ukrainian citizens whether they wished to live in the Soviet Union on the principles established in the Declaration of State Sovereignty. The citizens of Ukraine responded positively to both questions.
In August 1991, the conservative Communist leaders of the Soviet Union
attempted a coup to remove Gorbachev and to restore the Communist party's power. After the attempt failed, on
August 22,
1991 the Ukrainian parliament adopted the
Act of Independence of Ukraine in which the parliament declared Ukraine as an independent democratic state.
A
referendum and the
first presidential elections took place on
December 1,
1991. That day, more than 90 percent of the Ukrainian people expressed their support for the Act of Independence, and they elected the chairman of the parliament,
Leonid Kravchuk to serve as the first
president of the country.
At the
meeting in Brest on
December 8, followed by
Alma Ata meeting on
December 21 the leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, formally dissolved the Soviet Union and formed the
Commonwealth of Independent States.
Modern history
Ukraine was initially viewed as a republic with favorable economic conditions in comparison to the other regions of the Soviet Union. However, the country experienced deeper economic slowdown than the other republics. During the recession, Ukraine lost 60 percent of its
GDP from 1991 to 1999, and suffered five-digit inflation rates. Dissatisfied with the economic conditions, as well as crime and corruption, Ukrainians protested and organized strikes. In 1994, President Kravchuk agreed to hold
presidential elections ahead of schedule, in which he lost the presidential post to former
Prime-Minister Leonid Kuchma.
Under Kuchma, who served two terms as president, the Ukrainian economy stabilized by the end of 1990s, and since 2000 has enjoyed steady economic growth averaging approximately seven percent annually, which is one of the highest growth rates in Europe and the world. A new
Constitution of Ukraine was adopted in 1996, which turned Ukraine into a
semi-presidential republic and established a stable political system. Kuchma was, however, criticized by opponents for concentrating too much of power in his office, corruption, transferring public property into hands of loyal
oligarchs, discouraging free speech, and
electoral fraud.
The first
National Space Agency of Ukraine astronaut to enter space under the Ukrainian flag was
Leonid Kadenyuk on
May 13,
1997. Ukraine became an active participant in scientific space exploration and remote sensing missions. Between 1992 and 2007, Ukraine has launched six self made
satellites and 97
launch vehicles, and continues to design spacecraft.
In 2004,
Viktor Yanukovych, then
Prime Minister, was declared the winner of the
presidential elections, which had been rigged, as many observers agreed. The results caused a public outcry in support of the opposition candidate,
Viktor Yushchenko, who challenged the results and led the peaceful
Orange Revolution. The revolution brought Viktor Yushchenko and
Yulia Tymoshenko to power, while casting Viktor Yanukovych in opposition. The same year, Ukrainian pop-folk singer
Ruslana won
Eurovision Song Contest 2004, which allowed Ukraine to host
Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in
Kiev.
In March 2006,
Verkhovna Rada elections took place and three months later the official government was formed by the "
Anti-Crisis Coalition" among the
Party of Regions,
Communist, and
Socialist parties. The latter party switched from the "Orange Coalition" with
Our Ukraine, and the
Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. The new coalition nominated Viktor Yanukovych for the post of Prime Minister. Yanukovych once again became Prime Minister, while the leader of Socialist Party,
Oleksander Moroz, managed to secure the position of chairman of parliament, which is believed by many to have been the reason for his leaving the Orange Coalition, where he hadn't been considered for this position. On
April 2,
2007, President Yushchenko dissolved the Verkhovna Rada with a bill that had to be revised three times because of the uncertainties in the legal basis for the early parliamentary elections. As a result of protracted negotiations among the parties to the conflict, the elections were set to take place in September 2007.
On
April 18,
2007 in
Cardiff, Wales, Ukraine won a joint bid with
Poland to host the
UEFA Euro 2012 football championship, which is the third-largest sporting event in the world after the
FIFA World Cup and the
Olympics. This is the first time in Ukrainian history that the country got a chance to host such a major international event. Experts and politicians have noted that it'll boost Ukrainian infrastructure development, tourist attractiveness and overall investments into the country. Among the most significant developments that will take place in the process of preparation are the road infrastructure improvement, expanding hotel networks in at least six major cities, in particular
Kiev,
Dnipropetrovsk,
Kharkiv,
Donetsk,
Odessa and
Lviv, modernization of airports and construction of modern football stadiums. One of the stadiums (under construction) is the
Shakhtar Stadium in Donetsk, which received a five-star
FIFA rating as one of the best in the world.
Government and politics
Ukraine is a
republic under a mixed semi-parliamentary
semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The
President is elected by popular vote and is the formal head of state.
The 450-seat
unicameral parliament,
Verkhovna Rada, is primarily responsible for the formation of the executive branch, the
Cabinet of Ministers, which is headed by the
Prime Minister.
Laws, acts of the parliament and the cabinet, presidential decrees, and acts of the
Crimean parliament may be abrogated by the
Constitutional Court of Ukraine, should they be found to violate the
Constitution of Ukraine. Other normative acts are subject to judicial review. The
Supreme Court of Ukraine is the main body in the system of courts of general jurisdiction.
Local self-government is officially guaranteed. Local councils and city mayors are popularly elected and exercise control over local budgets. The heads of regional and district administrations are appointed by the president.
Ukraine has a large number of political parties, many of which have tiny memberships and are unknown to the general public. Small parties often join in multi-party coalitions (electoral blocks) for the purpose of participating in parliamentary elections.
Current political situation
Ukraine is currently a transition state after a substantial constitutional reform was introduced at the beginning of 2006. The amendments to the Constitution were meant to transform the Ukrainian state from a
presidential republic to a mixed
parliamentary-presidential republic. However, the amendments happened to be far from perfect and created a great opportunity for potential conflicts between the president on one side and the parliamentary coalition on the other. The political life of Ukraine during this time could be characterized as a constant struggle between the President and the Prime Minister for power. This has been aggravated by the fact that the President and the Prime Minister represent opposite poles of the political spectrum and have significant differences concerning foreign and internal policy. The conflict has been accompanied by accusations from both sides. President
Yushchenko accuses the coalition of trying to usurp power and take away even those powers that he preserved after the reform. On the other hand, the coalition accuses the president of unwillingness to accept the consequences of constitutional reform and trying to regain his former powers by all means possible.
In late March and early April 2007, the Ukrainian political system dealt with another constitutional crisis. President Viktor Yushchenko dissolved the Ukrainian parliament and ordered an early election to be held
May 27,
2007. Crowds of about 70,000 gathered on
Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the central square of
Kiev, and supported the dismissal of parliament, with 20,000 supporting
Yanukovych's plan to keep the parliament together. On
April 3,
2007, President Yushchenko signed the bill into existence. Two hours later on Kiev's
Maidan, it was announced to the crowds that
Parliament no longer existed.
The
Verkhovna Rada immediately called an emergency session and voted against
Yuschenko's decree (255 votes in favor; opposition didn't participate). A group of members of the parliament took the case to the
Constitutional Court of Ukraine, challenging the validity of the president's decree, but the court closed the case without opinion. A political struggle ensued between the parliamentary coalition and the opposition. Later, a compromise between Yushchenko and Yanukovych was reached to hold early parliamentary elections.
The elections were held on
September 30,
2007 and the coalition of the
Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and
Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc gained the majority of votes.
The legal status of the previous parliament is unclear. Formally, the parliament has been dismissed, because more than a third of its members have resigned, and their parties cleared the reserve deputies lists. According to the constitution, this rendered the parliament inoperative. On the other hand, the Constitution states that the existing parliament is valid until the new parliament is sworn in.
Administrative divisions
The system of Ukrainian subdivisions reflects the country's status as a
unitary state (as stated in the country's
constitution) with unified
legal and
administrative regime for each unit.
Ukraine is subdivided into twenty-four
oblasts (
provinces) and one
autonomous republic (
avtonomna respublika),
Crimea. Additionally, two
cities (
misto),
Kiev and
Sevastopol, have a special legal status. The oblasts are subdivided into 494
raions (
districts).
Administrative divisions
| Capital |
Area |
Population |
| Cherkasy Oblast |
Cherkasy |
20,900 km² |
1,402,900 |
| Chernihiv Oblast |
Chernihiv |
31,900 km² |
1,245,300 |
| Chernivtsi Oblast |
Chernivtsi |
8,100 km² |
922,800 |
| Autonomous Republic of Crimea |
Simferopol |
26,100 km² |
2,033,700 |
| Dnipropetrovsk Oblast |
Dnipropetrovsk |
31,900 km² |
3,567,600 |
| Donetsk Oblast |
Donetsk |
26,500 km² |
4,841,100 |
| Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast |
Ivano-Frankivsk |
13,900 km² |
1,409,800 |
| Kharkiv Oblast |
Kharkiv |
31,400 km² |
2,914,200 |
| Kherson Oblast |
Kherson |
28,500 km² |
1,175,100 |
| Khmelnytskyi Oblast |
Khmelnytskyi |
20,600 km² |
1,430,800 |
| Kirovohrad Oblast |
Kirovohrad |
24,600 km² |
1,133,100 |
| Kiev Oblast |
Kiev |
28,100 km² |
1,827,900 |
| Kiev City |
Kiev |
800 km² |
2,611,300 |
| Luhansk Oblast |
Luhansk |
26,700 km² |
2,546,200 |
| Lviv Oblast |
Lviv |
21,800 km² |
2,626,500 |
| Mykolaiv Oblast |
Mykolaiv |
24,600 km² |
1,264,700 |
| Odessa Oblast |
Odessa |
33,300 km² |
2,469,000 |
| Poltava Oblast |
Poltava |
28,800 km² |
1,630,100 |
| Rivne Oblast |
Rivne |
20,100 km² |
1,173,300 |
| Sevastopol City |
Sevastopol |
900 km² |
379,500 |
| Sumy Oblast |
Sumy |
23,800 km² |
1,299,700 |
| Ternopil Oblast |
Ternopil |
13,800 km² |
1,142,400 |
| Vinnytsia Oblast |
Vinnytsia |
26,500 km² |
1,772,400 |
| Volyn Oblast |
Lutsk |
20,200 km² |
1,060,700 |
| Zakarpattia Oblast |
Uzhhorod |
12,800 km² |
1,258,300 |
| Zaporizhia Oblast |
Zaporizhia |
27,200 km² |
1,929,200 |
| Zhytomyr Oblast |
Zhytomyr |
29,900 km² |
1,389,500 |
|
Geography
At 603,700
km² (233,074
sq mi) and with a coastline of 2,782 km (1,729 sq mi)
(External Link
), Ukraine is the world's
44th-largest country (after the
Central African Republic, before
Madagascar). It is the
second largest country in Europe (after European part of Russia, before
metropolitan France).
According to some, the
geographical center of Europe lies in Ukraine, perhaps near the western town of
Rakhiv. The question of Europe's geographical center is subject to ongoing debate, however.
The Ukrainian landscape consists mostly of fertile plains (or
steppes) and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the
Dnieper,
Seversky Donets,
Dniester and the
Southern Buh as they flow south into the
Black Sea and the smaller
Sea of Azov. To the southwest, the
delta of the
Danube forms the border with Romania. The country's only mountains are the
Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest is the
Hora Hoverla at 2,061 m (6,762
ft), and
those on the
Crimean peninsula, in the extreme south along the coast.
Ukraine has a mostly
temperate continental
climate, although a more
mediterranean climate is found on the southern Crimean coast.
Precipitation is disproportionately distributed; it's highest in the west and north and lesser in the east and southeast. Winters vary from cool along the
Black Sea to cold farther inland. Summers are warm across the greater part of the country, but generally hot in the south.
Economy
Ukraine's 2006 GDP (
PPP) is ranked
28th in the world and estimated at $355.8 billions. Nominal GDP (in U.S. dollars, calculated at market exchange rate) was $81.53 billions, ranked 53rd in the world.
In Soviet times, the economy of the republic was the second largest in the
Soviet Union, being an important
industrial and
agricultural component of the country's
planned economy. With the collapse of the Soviet system, the country moved from a
planned economy to a
market economy. The transition process was painful for the majority of the population which plunged into poverty.
The services sector of the economy contributes to 39.8% of GDP while the agriculture sector contributes to 17.5% of Ukraine's GDP.
In 1991, the government liberalized most prices to combat widespread product shortages, and was successful in overcoming the problem. At the same time, the government continued to subsidize government-owned industries and agriculture by uncovered monetary emission. The loose monetary policies of the early 1990s pushed
inflation to
hyperinflationary levels. For the year 1993, Ukraine holds the world record for inflation in one calendar year.Daily life in Ukraine was a struggle, particularly for those living on fixed incomes. Prices stabilized only after the introduction of new currency,
hryvnia, in 1996.
The country was also slow in implementing structural reforms. Following independence, the government formed a legal framework for
privatization. However, widespread resistance to reforms within the government and from a significant part of the population soon stalled the reform efforts. A large number of governed-owned enterprises were exempt from the privatization process. In the meantime, by 1999, the output had fallen to less than 40 percent of the 1991 level, but recovered to slightly above the 100 percent mark by the end of 2006.
Since the late 1990s, the government has pledged to reduce the number of government agencies, streamline the regulatory process, create a legal environment to encourage entrepreneurs, and enact a comprehensive
tax overhaul. Outside institutions — particularly the
IMF — have encouraged Ukraine to quicken the pace and scope of reforms and have threatened to withdraw financial support. But reforms in some politically sensitive areas of structural reform and land privatizations are still lagging.
In the early 2000s, the economy showed strong export-based growth of 5 to 10 percent, with industrial production growing more than 10 percent per year. The growth was largely attributed to a surge in exports of metals and chemicals to
China.
In 2005, economic growth temporarily slowed due to unfavorable changes in terms of trade, as world energy prices rose and metal prices fell. In 2006, the economy was again experiencing above growth above five percent supported by strong domestic demand and growing consumer and investor confidence.
The current Ukrainian economy is a typical example of a post-Soviet developing economy. The
World Bank classifies Ukraine as a lower middle-income state. Significant issues include underdeveloped infrastructure and transportation, corruption and bureaucracy, and a lack of modern-minded professionals - despite the large number of universities. But the rapidly growing Ukrainian economy has a very interesting emerging market with a relatively big population, and large profits associated with the high risks. The
Ukrainian stock market grew significantly 10 times between 2000 and 2006, including
341 percent growth in 2004, 28 percent in 2005, and 24 percent in 2006. Growing sectors of the Ukrainian economy include the
IT Outsourcing market, which has been growing at over 100 percent per annum.
The average nominal salary in Ukraine by the start of 2007 reached over 200 euros per month. Despite remaining much lower than in neighboring central European countries, the annual growth of average salary income is approximately 30 percent for several years in a row. For 2006, the
Index of Economic Freedom of Ukraine was 3.24, ranked 99th among 157 states. (Please note the 200 euro figure doesn't includes portion of personal earnings that go unreported. 'Under the table' payments are common)
The country imports most energy supplies, especially
oil and
natural gas, and to a large extent depends on
Russia as an energy supplier. While 25 percent of the natural gas in Ukraine comes from internal sources, about 35 percent comes from Russia and the remaining 40 percent from
Central Asia through transit routes that Russia controls. At the same time, 85 percent of the Russian gas is delivered to Western Europe via Ukraine.
Ukraine produces nearly all types of transportation vehicles: automobiles, buses, trucks, ships, airplanes, subway and rail cars, and even space craft. In recent years, high technological production has become the norm as most industries have undergone significant modernization, making Ukrainian-made vehicles more economically competitive.
Antonov airplanes and KRAZ trucks are already exported to many countries.
Despite political turmoil the economy of Ukraine continues to rise strongly, in particular the real estate sector, approximately 50% price increase in real estate and 100% price increase in land investment.
Military
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited a 780,000 military force on its territory, equipped with the third-largest
nuclear weapon arsenal in the world. In May 1992, Ukraine signed the
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (
START) in which the country agreed to give up all nuclear weapons to Russia and to join the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state. Ukraine ratified the treaty in 1994, and by 1996 the country became free of nuclear weapons.
Ukraine also took consistent steps toward reduction of conventional weapons. It signed the
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which called for reduction of tanks, artillery, and armored vehicles (Army forces were reduced to 300,000). The country plans to convert the current
conscript-based army into a professional volunteer army.
Following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. The country had limited military partnership with Russia and other CIS countries and has had a
partnership with NATO since 1994. In the 2000s, Ukraine was leaning toward
NATO, and a deeper cooperation with the alliance was set by NATO-Ukraine Action Plan signed in 2002. As of 2006, this issue is a subject of extensive debate within Ukraine as to whether the country should join NATO. In August of 2006, the leading political parties signed the
Universal of National Unity, a nonbinding document, in which they agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future.
Demographics
|caption =
Source: Ethnical composition of the population of Ukraine according to the 2001 Census
}}
According to the
Ukrainian Census of 2001, ethnic
Ukrainians make up 77.8% of the population. Other significant ethnic groups are
Russians (17.3%),
Belarusians (0.6%),
Moldovans (0.5%),
Crimean Tatars (0.5%),
Bulgarians (0.4%),
Hungarians (0.3%),
Romanians (0.3%),
Poles (0.3%),
Jews (0.2%),
Armenians (0.2%),
Greeks (0.2%) and
Tatars (0.2%).
The industrial regions in the east and south-east are the most heavily populated, and about 67.2% of the population lives in urban areas.
Ukrainian is the only
official state language.
Russian, which was
de facto the official language in the Soviet Union, is widely spoken, especially in eastern and southern Ukraine. According to the 2001 census, 67.5% of the population declared Ukrainian as their native language and 29.6% declared Russian.
It is sometimes difficult to determine the extent of the two languages. Many people use a
Surzhyk (a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian where the vocabulary is often combined with Ukrainian grammar and pronunciation) while claiming in surveys that they speak Russian or Ukrainian (though most can speak both literary languages). Besides, some ethnic Ukrainians, while calling Ukrainian their 'native' language, use Russian more frequently in their daily lives.
These details result in a significant difference across different survey results, as even a small restating of a question switches responses of a significant group of people. Standard literary Ukrainian is mainly spoken in western and central Ukraine. In western Ukraine, Ukrainian is also the dominant language in cities (such as
Lviv). In central Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian are both equally used in cities, with Russian being more common in
Kiev,
According to the Constitution of the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukrainian is the only state language of the republic. However, the republic's constitution specifically recognizes Russian as the language of the majority of its population and guarantees its usage 'in all spheres of public life'. Similarly, the
Crimean Tatar language (the language of a sizeable 12% minority of the republic) is guaranteed a special state protection as well as the 'languages of other ethnicities'. Russian speakers constitute an overwhelming majority of the Crimean population (77%), with Ukrainian speakers comprising 10.1%, and Crimean Tatar speakers 11.4%. But in everyday life the majority of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea use Russian.
Romanians and Moldavians are another significant minority in Ukraine, concentrated mainly in
Chernivtsi,
Odessa,
Zakarpattia and
Vinnytsia oblasts.
Jews played a very important role in Ukrainian cultural life, especially in the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Today
Yiddish, the Ukrainian Jews' traditional language, is only used by a small number of older people.
After independence, a significant change in the language of instruction in educational institutions took place. According to the Razumkov centre, 49% of high school students in 1991/92 were receiving their education in Ukrainian, and 50% in Russian. In 2000/01, however, 70% of students attended Ukrainian schools (where Ukrainian is the primary language of instruction) while 29% were studying in Russian schools (both languages are studied in all schools in Ukraine, as part of the curriculum). This trend is opposite to the changes in the 1970s and 1980s, when the number of Russian schools was constantly being increased. The transition toward Ukrainian-language usage is taking a long time, and in some schools that had switched to Ukrainian from Russian, part or most of the instruction is still given in Russian.
In general, most of the population is bilingual, at least to some degree. Most of the
Ukrainophone population is also fluent in Russian and many Russian native speakers in Ukraine are fluent in Ukrainian as well. An overwhelming majority has at least a reasonable command in Ukrainian even in primarily Russophone southern and eastern parts of the country.
Significant migration took place in the first years of Ukrainian independence. More than 1 million people moved into Ukraine in 1991-1992, mostly from the other former Soviet republics. In total, between 1991 and 2004, 2.2 million immigrated to Ukraine (among them, 2.0 million came from the other former Soviet Union states), and 2.5 million emigrated from Ukraine (among them, 1.9 million moved to other former Soviet Union republics).
In the context of low salaries and unemployment within Ukraine, labor
emigration became a mass phenomenon at the end of the 1990s. Although estimates vary, approximately two to three million Ukrainian citizens are currently working abroad, many illegally, in construction, service, housekeeping, and agriculture industries. Moreover, a significant number of women from Ukraine had been dragged into prostitution and sex slavery in foreign lands, mainly
Western Europe and
Turkey. In 1932, Stalin made
socialist realism state policy in the Soviet Union when he promulgated the decree "On the Reconstruction of Literary and Art Organizations"; this stifled creativity. During the 1980s
glasnost(openness) was introduced and Soviet artists and writers again became free to express themselves as they wanted.
The tradition of the
Easter egg, known as
pysanka has long roots in Ukraine: these eggs were drawn on with wax to create pattern; dye was then added to give the eggs their delightful colors — the dye not affecting the wax-coated parts of the egg. Once the whole egg was dyed, the wax was removed leaving only the colorful pattern. The tradition is thousands of years old, and predates the arrival of Christianity in the country.
Ukrainians cuisine is, in fact, generally pre-Christian in origin. The Ukrainian diet includes chicken, pork, beef, fish and mushrooms. Ukrainians eat a lot of potatoes, grains, fresh and sour vegetables, different kinds of bread. Popular traditional dishes include varenyky (boiled dumplings with mushrooms, potatoes, sauerkraut, cottage cheese or cherries), borsch (soup made of beets, cabbage and mushrooms or meat) and
holubtsy (stuffed cabbage rolls filled with rice, carrots and meat). Ukrainian specialties also include
Chicken Kiev and
Kiev Cake. Ukrainians drink stewed fruit, juices, milk, sour milk (they make cottage cheese from this), mineral water, tea and coffee, beer, wine and vodka.
In Ukraine, gender roles tend to be more traditional, and grandparents play greater role in raising children than in the West.
Religion
The dominant religion in Ukraine is
Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which is currently split between three Church bodies:
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate),
Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate, and
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
A distant second is the
Eastern Rite Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which practices a similar
liturgical and
spiritual tradition as Eastern Orthodoxy, but is in
communion with the
See of Peter (Roman Catholic Church) and recognizes the primacy of the
Pope as head of the Church.
There are 879
Catholic communities, and 499
clergy members serving the some one million
Roman Catholics in Ukraine. The group forms some 2.19% of the population and consists mainly of ethnic
Poles, living predominantly in the western regions of the country.
Protestant Christians also form some 2.19% of the population. Protestant numbers have grown greatly since Ukrainian independence.
Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine is the largest group, with more than 300,000 members and about 3000 clergy. Other groups include
Calvinists,
Lutherans,
Methodists,
Seventh-day Adventists.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is also present.
The Jewish community is a tiny fraction of what it was before
World War II.
Jews form 0.63% of the population. A 2001 census indicated 103,600 Jews, although community leaders claimed that the population could be as large as 300,000. Most Ukrainian Jews are
Orthodox, and there's a small
Reform population. Additionally, there's a presence of the middle-ground sect,
Conservative Judaism (aka
Masorti Judaism) as well.
There are an estimated 500,000
Muslims in Ukraine, some 320,000 on the
Crimean Peninsula. Most Ukrainian Muslims are
Crimean Tatars. In addition, some 50,000 foreign-born Muslims live in
Kiev.
As of January 1, 2006, there were 29
Krishna Consciousness and 47
Buddhist registered communities in the country.
Name etymology
The
Ukrainian word
Ukrayina is from
Old East Slavic oukraina "borderland", from
ou "by, at" and the
Slavic root
kraj "edge; region" . In particular, in Ukrainian
krayina means simply "country". On the other hand, "ou" means "in" in Ukrainian, so it can mean "inner country".
In
English, the country is sometimes referred to with the definite article, as
the Ukraine, similar to
the Netherlands,
the Gambia,
the Sudan or
the Congo. However, usage without the article is now more frequent, and has become established in diplomacy and journalism since the country's independence
International rankings
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