Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. Ukraine borders
the Russian Federation to the east and northeast, Belarus to the
northwest, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and
Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to
the south and southeast, respectively. It has an area of 603,628
square km, making it the largest country entirely within Europe.
According to a popular and well established theory, the medieval
state of Kievan Rus was established by the Varangians in the 9th
century as the first historically recorded East Slavic state. It
emerged as a powerful nation in the Middle Ages but disintegrated
in the 12th century. By the middle of the 14th century, present
Ukrainian territories were under the rule of three external powers:
the Golden Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Kingdom
of Poland, during the 15th century these lands came under the rule
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth
(since 1569), and Crimean Khanate. After [12] After the Partitions
of Poland (1772-1795) and conquest of Crimean Khanate, Ukraine
was divided between Russia and Austria, thus the largest part of
Ukraine was integrated into the Russian Empire, with the rest
under Austrian (known as Austro-Hungarian since 1849) control.
A chaotic period of incessant warfare ensued, with
internationally recognized establishment of independent
Ukrainian People's Republic. Independent Ukraine emerged
from its own civil war. Then Soviet aggression and the
Ukrainian-Soviet War followed, which resulted in Soviet
victory. Ukrainian People's Republic was occupied and a
puppet state called Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was
created. On December 30, 1922 it became one of the founding
republics of the Soviet Union. The Soviet government was
hostile to Ukrainian language and Ukrainian culture; there
were mass repressions of Ukrainian poets, historians and
linguists. Then there was a genocide of Ukrainians:
millions of people starved to death in 1932 and 1933 in the
Holodomor. After the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi
Germany and Soviet Union, the Ukrainian SSR's territory was
enlarged westward. During World War II the Ukrainian
Insurgent Army tried to reestablish Ukrainian independence
and fought against both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
But in 1941 Ukraine was occupied by Nazi Germany, being
liberated in 1944. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of
the founding members of the United Nations.[13] In 1954 it
expanded to the south with the transfer of the Crimean
Peninsula.
Ukraine became independent again when the Soviet Union
dissolved in 1991. This dissolution started a period of
transition to a market economy, in which Ukraine suffered
an eight-year recession.[14] Since then, however, the
economy has experienced a high increase in GDP growth.
Ukraine was caught up in the worldwide economic crisis in
2008 and the economy plunged. GDP fell 20% from spring 2008
to spring 2009, then leveled off as analysts compared the
magnitude of the downturn to the worst years of economic
depression during the early 1990s.
Throughout its history, Ukraine has been one of the
powerhouses of world agriculture due to its fertile
conditions. The country, as of 2011, was the world's
third-largest grain exporter[16] and is one of ten most
attractive agricultural land acquisition regions.
Ukraine is a unitary state composed of 24 oblasts
(provinces), one autonomous republic (Crimea), and two
cities with special status: Kiev, its capital and largest
city, and Sevastopol, which houses the Russian Black Sea
Fleet under a leasing agreement. Ukraine is a republic
under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative,
executive, and judicial branches. Since the dissolution of
the Soviet Union, Ukraine continues to maintain the
second-largest military in Europe, after that of Russia.
The country is home to 46 million people, 77.8 percent of
whom are ethnic Ukrainians, with sizable minorities of
Russians (17%), Belarusians and Romanians. Ukrainian is the
official language of Ukraine. Russian is also widely
spoken. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern
Orthodox Christianity, which has strongly influenced
Ukrainian architecture, literature and music.
All information courtesy of wikipedia. Read more at wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine.
