The Ukraine Portal - Портал України
Ukraine Україна (Ukrainian) | |
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ISO 3166 code | UA |
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast. It also borders Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; and Romania and Moldova to the southwest; with a coastline along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast. Kyiv is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Kharkiv, Dnipro and Odesa. Ukraine's official language is Ukrainian; Russian is also widely spoken, especially in the east and south.
During the Middle Ages, Ukraine was the site of early Slavic expansion and the area later became a key centre of East Slavic culture under the state of Kievan Rus', which emerged in the 9th century. The state eventually disintegrated into rival regional powers and was ultimately destroyed by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. The area was then contested, divided, and ruled by a variety of external powers for the next 600 years, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia. The Cossack Hetmanate emerged in central Ukraine in the 17th century marked on maps as "Ukraine, land of the Cossacks", but was partitioned between Russia and Poland, and ultimately absorbed by the Russian Empire. Ukrainian nationalism developed and, following the Russian Revolution in 1917, the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic was formed. The Bolsheviks consolidated control over much of the former empire and established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union when it was formed in 1922. In the early 1930s, millions of Ukrainians died in the Holodomor, a human-made famine. The German occupation during World War II in Ukraine was devastating, with 7 million Ukrainian civilians killed, including most Ukrainian Jews.
Ukraine gained independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved, and declared itself neutral. A new constitution was adopted in 1996. A series of mass demonstrations, known as the Euromaidan, led to the establishment of a new government in 2014 after a revolution. Russia then unilaterally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and pro-Russian unrest culminated in a war in the Donbas between Russian-backed separatists and government forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since the outbreak of war with Russia, Ukraine has continued to seek closer ties with the United States, European Union, and NATO.
Ukraine is a unitary state and its system of government is a semi-presidential republic. A developing country, it is the poorest country in Europe by nominal GDP per capita and corruption remains a significant issue. However, due to its extensive fertile land, pre-war Ukraine was one of the largest grain exporters in the world. Nonetheless, Ukraine is a major middle power and possesses the sixth largest and one of the best-funded armed forces in the world. The Ukrainian Armed Forces also operates one of the largest and most diverse drone fleet in the world. It is a founding member of the United Nations, as well as a member of the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization, and the OSCE. It is in the process of joining the European Union and has applied to join NATO. (Full article...)
In the news
- 13 June 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Military aid to Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War
- Leaders at the G7 summit agree to loan Ukraine US$50 billion and use interest from Russia's frozen central bank assets as collateral for the loan. (AP)
- United States and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sign a 10-year security agreement to strengthen Ukraine's defensive capabilities. (AP)
- 12 June 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Foreign involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, India–Russia relations
- Two Indians recruited by the Russian army are killed in Ukraine with the Indian foreign ministry urging Moscow to quickly return all Indian nationals who are serving in the Russian army. (BBC News)
- Kryvyi Rih strikes
- Nine people are killed and 26 others are injured in a Russian airstrike on Kryvyi Rih. (Reuters) (NDTV)
- Kyiv strikes
- Russia launches a wave of cruise missiles and drone attacks at Kyiv. Ukraine claims to have intercepted all missiles and drones, although debris did cause some damage to infrastructure. (Reuters)
Featured pictures
Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that Zinkiv, Ukraine, was a center of Hasidic Judaism until almost the entirety of the city's 2,300-strong Jewish population was murdered during the Holocaust?
- ... that Love, a sculpture by Ukrainian artist Alexander Milov, represents two wire-frame adults who appear to be alienated, but inside their bodies two children reach out to each other?
- ... that Ukrainian parties obtained only a fifth of the votes in the 1917 Kiev City Duma election?
- ... that in 2014 the European Theatre Convention started a programme known as Dialogue of Cultures to support exchanges with theatres in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries?
- ... that J. T. Blatty was a tennis star and US Army captain before photographing military volunteers in Ukraine?
- ... that the Russian airstrike on Kyiv TV Tower (video featured) killed Yevhenii Sakun, one of at least 14 civilian journalists killed in the line of duty during the Russo-Ukrainian War?
More did you know -
- ... that journalist Savik Shuster who used to work for Russian TV channels now prefers to work for the Ukrainian TV because he felt the Russian Government was limiting his journalistic freedom?
- ... that although the secular music of Mykola Leontovych was well known in the twentieth century, the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom was little known because of a ban on sacred music in the Soviet Union?
- ... that the Khreschatyk is the main street of Ukrainian capital Kyiv on which Orange Revolution and other historical events mainly took place?
- ... that the Privat Group is one of the few Ukrainian companies that own industries in the United States?
- ... that the longest of the Kiev bridges, the 1,543 metres long Paton Bridge over the Dnieper River, constructed in 1953 was the first fully welded steel construction of such length at that time?
- ... that at its first years Kiev Zoo had to move its animals into the food storage of the main Kiev railway station for the winter?
Selected article -
The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Historically, they were a semi-nomadic and semi-militarized people, who, while under the nominal suzerainty of various Eastern European states at the time, were allowed a great degree of self-governance in exchange for military service. Although numerous linguistic and religious groups came together to form the Cossacks, most of them coalesced and became East Slavic-speaking Orthodox Christians.
The rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russian Empire endowed Cossacks with certain special privileges in return for the military duty to serve in the irregular troops. (Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly infantry soldiers, using war wagons. Don Cossacks were mostly cavalry soldiers.) The various Cossack groups were organized along military lines, with large autonomous groups called hosts. Each host had a territory consisting of affiliated villages called stanitsas. (Full article...)In the news
- 13 June 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Military aid to Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War
- Leaders at the G7 summit agree to loan Ukraine US$50 billion and use interest from Russia's frozen central bank assets as collateral for the loan. (AP)
- United States and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sign a 10-year security agreement to strengthen Ukraine's defensive capabilities. (AP)
- 12 June 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Foreign involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, India–Russia relations
- Two Indians recruited by the Russian army are killed in Ukraine with the Indian foreign ministry urging Moscow to quickly return all Indian nationals who are serving in the Russian army. (BBC News)
- Kryvyi Rih strikes
- Nine people are killed and 26 others are injured in a Russian airstrike on Kryvyi Rih. (Reuters) (NDTV)
- Kyiv strikes
- Russia launches a wave of cruise missiles and drone attacks at Kyiv. Ukraine claims to have intercepted all missiles and drones, although debris did cause some damage to infrastructure. (Reuters)
Selected anniversaries for June
- June 4, 1920 — Treaty of Trianon was signed between the Allied and Associated Powers and Hungary signed at the Grand Trianon Palace at Versailles, France.
- June 28, 1996 - is a public holiday honoring the adoption of the Constitution in Ukraine by the Verkhovna Rada
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