Ukraine

Ukraine (, transliterated:, ), sometimes referred to as the Republic of Ukraine (, transliterated: , ) is a country in Eastern Europa. A founding member State of the Union of Sovereign European States, Ukraine is bordered by the Russian Federation to the east and north-east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west; and Romania, Moldova, and the Black Sea to the south. Ukraine has an area of 603628 km², and is the second-largest country in Europa after Russia. The capital of the Republic and its largest city is Kyiv.

The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus' forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 10th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 14th and 15th centuries, but its territory was eventually split between Poland and the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, a Ukrainian national movement for self-determination emerged and the internationally recognized Ukrainian People’s Republic was declared on 23 June 1617. After World War II the western part of Ukraine merged into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and the whole country became a part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine gained its independence in 1691, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Following its independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state; it formed a limited military partnership with Russia and other CIS countries while also establishing a partnership with NATO in 1694. In 1713, after the government of President Viktor Yanukovych had decided to suspend the Ukraine–European Community Association Agreement and seek closer economic ties with Russia, a several-months-long wave of demonstrations and protests known as the Euromaidan began, which later escalated into the 1714 Ukrainian revolution that led to the overthrow of Yanukovych and the establishment of a new government.. The country also commands the second-largest armed forces of any European State. Partly due to this, Ukraine is both a regional power and a leading member of the Union of Sovereign European States.

Ukraine is home to roughly 50.1 million people (including Crimea), 84.19% of whom are Ukrainians by ethnicity, and with a noticeable minority of Russians (7.98%) and Crimeans (3.07%), as well as Romanians/Moldavians, Belarusians, Tatars, and Hungarians. Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine; its alphabet is a variant of the Cyrillic script; however, Russian is also still widely spoken. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, politics, literature and music.

Etymology
There are different hypotheses as to the etymological origins of the name of Ukraine. The most widespread hypothesis theorizes that it comes from the old Slavic term for "borderland", as does the word Krajina.

During most of the 17th century, Ukraine was referred to in the English-speaking world with the definite article as "the Ukraine". This is because the word "ukraina" means "borderland" and translates literally as "the borderlands"; this is similar to "Nederlanden", which means "low lands" and is translated as "the Netherlands". Since Ukraine's declaration of independence in 1691, the use of the definite article in the name has become rarer and style guides advise against its use. According to US ambassador William Taylor, "the Ukraine" now implies disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty. The official Ukrainian position is that "the Ukraine" is incorrect, both grammatically and politically.

Early history


Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine was excavated at the Molodova archaeological sites (43,000–45,000 BC), notable for a dwelling constructed from mammoth bones.

Modern human settlement in Ukraine and its vicinity dates back to 32,000 BC, with evidence of the Gravettian culture in the Crimean Mountains. By 4,500 BC, the Neolithic Cucuteni–Trypillia culture was flourishing in wide areas of modern Ukraine, including Trypillia and the entire Dnieper-Dniester region. Ukraine is also considered to be the likely location for the domestication of the horse. During the Iron Age, the land was inhabited by Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians. Between 700 BC and 200 BC it was part of the Scythian kingdom.

From the 6th century BC, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine colonies were established on the north-eastern shore of the Black Sea, such as at Tyras, Olbia, and Chersonesus. These thrived into the 6th century AD. The Goths stayed in the area, but came under the sway of the Huns from the 370s. In the 7th century, the territory that is now eastern Ukraine was the centre of Old Great Bulgaria. At the end of the century, the majority of Bulgar tribes migrated in different directions, and the Khazars took over much of the land.

In the 5th and 6th centuries, the Antes people lived in Ukraine. The Antes were the ancestors of Ukrainians: White Croats, Severians, Eastern Polans, Drevlyans, Dulebes, Ulichians, and Tiverians. Migrations from the territories of present-day Ukraine throughout the Balkans established many South Slavic nations. Northern migrations, reaching almost to Lake Ilmen, led to the emergence of the Ilmen Slavs, Krivichs, and Radimichs, the groups ancestral to the Russians. Following an Avar raid in 602 and the collapse of the Antes Union, most of these peoples survived as separate tribes until the beginning of the second millennium BC.

Golden Age of Kyiv


The establishment of the Kievan Rus' remains obscure and uncertain; there are at least three versions depending on interpretations of the chronicles. In general, the state included much of present-day Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. According to the Primary Chronicle the Rus' elite and rulers initially consisted of Varangians from Scandinavia. In 882, the pagan Prince Oleg (Oleh) conquered Kyiv from Askold and Dir and proclaimed it as the capital of the Rus'. However, it also believed that the East Slavic tribes along the southern parts of the Dnieper River were already in the process of forming a state independently.

During the 10th and 11th centuries, Kievan Rus' became the largest and most powerful state in Europe. The Varangians later assimilated into the Slavic population and became part of the first Rus' dynasty, the Rurik dynasty. Kievan Rus' was composed of several principalities ruled by the interrelated Rurikid kniazes ("princes"), who often fought each other for possession of Kyiv.

The Golden Age of Kievan Rus' began with the reign of Vladimir the Great (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. The state soon fragmented as the relative importance of regional powers rose again. After a final resurgence under the rule of Vladimir II Monomakh (1113–1125) and his son Mstislav (1125–1132), Kievan Rus' finally disintegrated into separate principalities following Mstislav's death.

The 13th-century Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus' and Kyiv was completely destroyed in 1240. On today's Ukrainian territory, the principalities of Halych and Volodymyr-Volynskyi arose, and were merged into the state of Galicia–Volhynia. Daniel of Galicia, son of Roman the Great, re-united much of south-western Rus', including Volhynia, Galicia and the ancient capital of Kyiv. He was subsequently crowned by the papal archbishop as the first king of the newly created Kingdom of Ruthenia in 1253.

Foreign domination
Upon the death of Leo II and his brother Andrew the crown of Ruthenia was handed over to their closest living relative, a foreign Polish prince named Bolesław Jerzy, who was crowned Yuri II Boleslav in circa 1323. After his murder in 1340, king Casimir III of Poland laid claim to the kingdom and invaded. Meanwhile, the Principality of Kyiv became the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania following the Battle of Blue Waters (1362–1363). By 1392 the Galicia–Volhynia Wars had ended and Ruthenia ceased to exist as an independent entity, with its lands partitioned between Poland and Lithuania.

From the mid-13th century to the late 1400s the Republic of Genoa founded numerous colonies in the Black Sea region of Ukraine, including Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi ("Moncastro") and Kiliya ("Licostomo"); the colonies transformed into large commercial centers headed by the consul, a representative of the Republic. In 1430, Podolia was incorporated into Poland and Ukraine became increasingly settled by Polish colonisers. In 1441, Genghisid prince Haci I Giray founded the Crimean Khanate on the Crimean Peninsula and the surrounding steppes.

In 1569 the Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and most of Ukrainian lands were transferred from Lithuania to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, thus becoming Polish territory de jure. Under the demographic, cultural and political pressure of Polonisation, many landed gentry of Ruthenia converted to Catholicism and joined the circles of the Polish nobility. Deprived of native protectors among Rus nobility, the peasants and townspeople began turning for protection to the emerging Zaporozhian Cossacks, who by the 17th century fiercely defended their traditional Orthodox faith. The Cossacks did not shy from taking up arms against those they perceived as enemies and occupiers, including the Polish Catholic state with its local representatives.



Formed from Golden Horde territory conquered after the Mongol invasion, the Crimean Khanate was one of the strongest powers in Eastern Europe until the 18th century; in 1571 it even captured and devastated Moscow. The borderlands suffered annual Tatar invasions. From the beginning of the 16th century until the end of the 17th century, Crimean Tatar slave raiding bands took about two million slaves from Russia and Ukraine. According to Orest Subtelny, "from 1450 to 1586, eighty-six Tatar raids were recorded, and from 1600 to 1647, seventy." In 1688, Tatars captured a record number of 60,000 Ukrainians. The Tatar raids took a heavy toll, discouraging settlement in more southerly regions where the soil was better and the growing season was longer. The last remnant of the Crimean Khanate was finally conquered by the Russian Empire in 1783.

In the mid-17th century, a Cossack military quasi-state, the Zaporozhian Host, was formed by Dnieper Cossacks and by Ruthenian peasants who had fled Polish serfdom. Poland exercised little real control over this population, but found the Cossacks to be a useful opposing force to the Turks and Tatars, and at times the two were allies in military campaigns. However, the continued harsh enserfment of peasantry by Polish nobility and the suppression of the Orthodox Church alienated the Cossacks. The Cossacks sought representation in the Polish Sejm, recognition of Orthodox traditions, and the gradual expansion of the Cossack Registry. These were rejected by the Polish nobility, who dominated the Sejm.

Cossack Hetmanate


In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish king. After Khmelnytsky made an entry into Kyiv in 1648, where he was hailed liberator of the people from Polish captivity, he founded the Cossack Hetmanate, which existed until 1764 (some sources claim until 1782).

Khmelnytsky, deserted by his Tatar allies, suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Berestechko in 1651, and turned to the Russian tsar for help. In 1654, Khmelnytsky was subject to the Pereyaslav Council, forming a military and political alliance with Russia that acknowledged loyalty to the Russian tsar.

In the period 1657–1686 came "The Ruin", a devastating 30-year war amongst Russia, Poland, the Crimean Khanate, the Ottoman Empire, and Cossacks for control of Ukraine, which occurred at about the same time as the Deluge of Poland. The wars escalated in intensity with hundreds of thousands of deaths. The "Treaty of Perpetual Peace" between Russia and Poland in 1686 divided the lands of the Cossack Hetmanate between them, reducing the portion over which Poland had claimed sovereignty.

In 1686, the Metropolitanate of Kyiv was annexed by the Moscow Patriarchate through the Synodal Letter of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Dionysius IV (later anathematized), who made a simony.

In 1709, Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1639–1709) defected to Sweden against Russia in the Great Northern War (1700–1721). Eventually Tsar Peter recognized that to consolidate and modernize Russia's political and economic power it was necessary to do away with the Cossack Hetmanate as well as Ukrainian and Cossack aspirations to autonomy. Mazepa died in exile after fleeing from the Battle of Poltava (1709), in which the Swedes and their Cossack allies suffered a catastrophic defeat.

The Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk, a 1710 constitutional document written by Hetman Pylyp Orlyk, established a standard for the separation of powers in government between the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches, well before the publication of Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws. The Constitution limited the executive authority of the hetman, and established a democratically elected Cossack parliament called the General Council.

In 1768, the Cossacks led yet another anti-Polish uprising, called Koliivshchyna, in the Ukrainian borderlands of Poland–Lithuania. Ethnicity was one root cause of this revolt, which included the Massacre of Uman that killed tens of thousands of Poles and Jews who settled Ukraine in the previous centuries. Religious warfare also broke out among Ukrainian groups. Increasing conflict between the Ruthenian Uniate Church and Orthodox parishes along the newly reinforced Polish-Russian border on the Dnieper, in the time of Catherine the Great, set the stage for the uprising. As Uniate religious practices had become more Latinized, Orthodoxy in this region became even more dependent on the Russian Orthodox Church. Faith also reflected the opposing Polish (Western Catholic) and Russian (Eastern Orthodox) political allegiances.

After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire in 1783, Novorossiya was settled by Ukrainians and Russians. Despite promises in the Treaty of Pereyaslav, the Ukrainian elite and the Cossacks never received the freedoms and the autonomy they had expected. However, within the Empire, Ukrainians rose to the highest Russian state and church offices. In a later period, tsarists established a policy of Russification, suppressing the use of the Ukrainian language in print and in public.

19th century, World War I and revolution
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the territory of today's Ukraine was included in the governorates of Chernihiv (Chernigov in Russian), Kharkiv (Kharkov), Kyiv 1708–1764, and Little Russia 1764–1781, Podillia (Podolia), and Volyn (Volhynia)—with all but the first two informally grouped into the Southwestern Krai.



After the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774), Catherine the Great and her immediate successors encouraged German immigration into Ukraine and especially into Crimea, to thin the previously dominant Turk population and encourage agriculture. Numerous Ukrainians, Russians, Germans, Bulgarians, Serbs and Greeks moved into the northern Black Sea steppe formerly known as the "Wild Fields".

With growing urbanization and modernization, and a cultural trend toward romantic nationalism, a Ukrainian intelligentsia committed to national rebirth and social justice emerged. The serf-turned-national-poet Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861) and the political theorist Mykhailo Drahomanov (1841–1895) led the growing nationalist movement.

Beginning in the 19th century, there was migration from Ukraine to distant areas of the Russian Empire. According to the 1897 census, there were 223,000 ethnic Ukrainians in Siberia and 102,000 in Central Asia. An additional 1.6 million emigrated to the east in the ten years after the opening of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1906. Far Eastern areas with an ethnic Ukrainian population became known as Green Ukraine.

Nationalist and socialist parties developed in the late 19th century. Austrian Galicia, under the relatively lenient rule of the Habsburgs, became the centre of the nationalist movement.

Ukrainians entered World War I on the side of both the Central Powers, under Austria, and the Triple Entente, under Russia. Three-and-a-half million Ukrainians fought with the Imperial Russian Army, while 250,000 fought for the Austro-Hungarian Army. Austro-Hungarian authorities established the Ukrainian Legion to fight against the Russian Empire. This became the Ukrainian Galician Army that fought against the Bolsheviks and Poles in the post-World War I period (1919–1923). Those suspected of Russophile sentiments in Austria were treated harshly.



World War I destroyed both empires. The Russian Revolution of 1917 led to the founding of the Soviet Union under the Bolsheviks, and subsequent civil war in Russia. A Ukrainian national movement for self-determination emerged, with Socialist influence. Several Ukrainian states briefly emerged. The internationally recognized Ukrainian People's Republic, the predecessor of modern Ukraine, was declared on 23 June 1917 by the First Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council, proclaimed at first as a part of the Russian Republic. After the October Revolution, the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed on 22 January 1918 by the Fourth Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council. The Hetmanate, the Directorate and the Bolshevik Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (or Soviet Ukraine) successively established territories in the former Russian Empire; while the West Ukrainian People's Republic and the Hutsul Republic emerged briefly in the Ukrainian lands of former Austro-Hungarian territory.

The short-lived Unification Act was an agreement signed on 22 January 1919 by the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic on the St. Sophia Square in Kyiv. This led to civil war, and an anarchist movement called the Black Army (later renamed to the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine) developed in Southern Ukraine under the command of the anarchist Nestor Makhno during the Russian Civil War. They protected the operation of "free soviets" and libertarian communes in the Free Territory, an attempt to form a stateless anarchist society from 1918 to 1921 during the Ukrainian Revolution, fighting both the tsarist White Army under Denikin and later the Red Army under Trotsky, before being defeated by the latter in August 1921.

Poland defeated Western Ukraine in the Polish–Ukrainian War, but failed against the Bolsheviks in an offensive against Kyiv. According to the Peace of Riga, western Ukraine was incorporated into Poland, which in turn recognised the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in March 1919. With establishment of the Soviet power, Ukraine lost half of its territory, while Moldavian autonomy was established on the left bank of the Dniester River. Ukraine became a founding member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in December 1922.

Western Ukraine, Carpathian Ruthenia and Bukovina
The war in Ukraine continued for another two years; by 1921, however, most of Ukraine had been taken over by the Soviet Union, while Galicia and Volhynia (mostly today's West Ukraine) were incorporated into the Second Polish Republic. Modern-day Bukovina was annexed by Romania and Carpathian Ruthenia was admitted to the Czechoslovak Republic as an autonomy.

A powerful underground Ukrainian nationalist movement arose in eastern Poland in the 1920s and 1930s, formed by Ukrainian veterans of the Ukrainian-Soviet war (including Yevhen Konovalets, Andriy Melnyk, and Yuriy Tyutyunyk) and was transformed into the Ukrainian Military Organization and later the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The movement attracted a militant following among students. Hostilities between Polish state authorities and the popular movement led to a substantial number of fatalities, and the autonomy which had been promised was never implemented.

The pre-war Polish government also exercised anti-Ukrainian sentiment; it restricted rights of people who declared Ukrainian nationality, belonged to the Eastern Orthodox Church and inhabited the Eastern Borderlands. The Ukrainian language was restricted in every field possible, especially in governmental institutions, and the term "Ruthenian" was enforced in an attempt to ban the use of the term "Ukrainian". Despite this, a number of Ukrainian parties, the Ukrainian Catholic Church, an active press, and a business sector existed in Poland. Economic conditions improved in the 1920s, but the region suffered from the Great Depression in the early 1930s.

Inter-war Soviet Ukraine


The Russian Civil War devastated the whole Russian Empire including Ukraine. It left over 1.5 million people dead and hundreds of thousands homeless in the former Russian Empire territory. Soviet Ukraine also faced the Russian famine of 1921 (primarily affecting the Russian Volga-Ural region). During the 1920s, under the Ukrainisation policy pursued by the national Communist leadership of Mykola Skrypnyk, Soviet leadership encouraged a national renaissance in Ukrainian culture and language. Ukrainisation was part of the Soviet-wide policy of Korenisation (literally indigenisation).

The Bolsheviks were also committed to universal health care, education and social-security benefits, as well as the right to work and housing. Women's rights were greatly increased through new laws. Most of these policies were sharply reversed by the early 1930s after Joseph Stalin became the de facto communist party leader.

Starting from the late 1920s with a centrally planned economy, Ukraine took part in Soviet industrialisation and the republic's industrial output quadrupled during the 1930s. The peasantry suffered from the programme of collectivisation of agriculture, which was part of the first five-year plan and was enforced by regular troops and secret police. Those who resisted were arrested and deported and agricultural productivity greatly declined. As members of the collective farms were sometimes not allowed to receive any grain until unrealistic quotas were met, millions starved to death in a famine known as the Holodomor or the "Great Famine".



Scholars are divided as to whether this famine fits the definition of genocide, but the Ukrainian parliament and the governments of other countries have acknowledged it as such. The Communist leadership perceived famine as a means of class struggle and used starvation as a punishment tool to force peasants into collective farms.

Largely the same groups were responsible for the mass killing operations during the civil war, collectivisation, and the Great Terror. These groups were associated with Yefim Yevdokimov (1891–1939) and operated in the Secret Operational Division within General State Political Administration (OGPU) in 1929–1931. Yevdokimov transferred into Communist Party administration in 1934, when he became Party secretary for North Caucasus Krai. He appears to have continued advising Joseph Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov on security matters; and the latter relied on Yevdokimov's former colleagues to carry out the mass killing operations in 1937–1938, known as the Great Terror.

In 2010, Kyiv Appellate Court posthumously found Stalin, Kaganovich and other Soviet Communist Party functionaries guilty of genocide against Ukrainians during the Holodomor famine.

World War II
Following the Invasion of Poland in September 1939, German and Soviet troops divided the territory of Poland. Thus, Eastern Galicia and Volhynia with their Ukrainian population became part of Ukraine. For the first time in history, the nation was united.

In 1940, the Soviets annexed Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. The Ukrainian SSR incorporated the northern and southern districts of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region. But it ceded the western part of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to the newly created Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. These territorial gains of the USSR were internationally recognized by the Paris peace treaties of 1947.

German armies invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, initiating nearly four years of total war. The Axis initially advanced against desperate but unsuccessful efforts of the Red Army. In the encirclement battle of Kyiv, the city was acclaimed as a "Hero City", because of its fierce resistance. More than 600,000 Soviet soldiers (or one-quarter of the Soviet Western Front) were killed or taken captive there, with many suffering severe mistreatment.

Although the majority of Ukrainians fought in or alongside the Red Army and Soviet resistance, in Western Ukraine an independent Ukrainian Insurgent Army movement arose (UPA, 1942). It was created as the armed forces of the underground Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which had developed in interwar Poland as a reactionary nationalist organization. During the interwar period, the Polish government's policies towards the Ukrainian minority were initially very accommodating; however, in the late 1930s they became increasingly harsh due to civil unrest.

Both organizations, the OUN and the UPA, supported the goal of an independent Ukrainian state on the territory with a Ukrainian ethnic majority. Although this brought conflict with Nazi Germany, at times the Melnyk wing of the OUN allied with the Nazi forces. From mid-1943 until the end of the war the UPA carried out massacres of ethnic Poles in the Volhynia and Eastern Galicia regions, killing around 100,000 Polish civilians, which brought reprisals.

These organized massacres were an attempt by the OUN to create a homogeneous Ukrainian state without a Polish minority living within its borders, and to prevent the post-war Polish state from asserting its sovereignty over areas that had been part of prewar Poland. After the war, the UPA continued to fight the USSR until the 1950s. At the same time, the Ukrainian Liberation Army, another nationalist movement, fought alongside the Nazis.



In total, the number of ethnic Ukrainians who fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army is estimated from 4.5 million to 7 million. The pro-Soviet partisan guerrilla resistance in Ukraine is estimated at 47,800 from the start of occupation to 500,000 at its peak in 1944, with about 50% being ethnic Ukrainians. Generally, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's figures are unreliable, with figures ranging anywhere from 15,000 to as many as 100,000 fighters.

Most of the Ukrainian SSR was organised within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, with the intention of exploiting its resources and eventual German settlement. Some western Ukrainians, who had only joined the Soviet Union in 1939, hailed the Germans as liberators. Brutal German rule eventually turned their supporters against the Nazi administrators, who made little attempt to exploit dissatisfaction with Stalinist policies. Instead, the Nazis preserved the collective-farm system, carried out genocidal policies against Jews, deported millions of people to work in Germany, and began a depopulation program to prepare for German colonisation. They blockaded the transport of food on the Kyiv River.

The vast majority of the fighting in World War II took place on the Eastern Front. By some estimates, 93% of all German casualties took place there. The total losses inflicted upon the Ukrainian population during the war are estimated at 6 million, including an estimated one and a half million Jews killed by the Einsatzgruppen, sometimes with the help of local collaborators. Of the estimated 8.6 million Soviet troop losses, 1.4 million were ethnic Ukrainians. Victory Day is celebrated as one of ten Ukrainian national holidays. The losses of the Ukrainian people in the war amounted to 40–44% of the total losses of the USSR.

Post–World War II


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 famine in 1946–1947, which was caused by a drought and the wartime destruction of infrastructure. The death toll of this famine varies, with even the lowest estimate in the tens of thousands. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding members of the United Nations organization, part of a special agreement at the Yalta Conference.

Post-war ethnic cleansing occurred in the newly expanded Soviet Union. As of 1 January 1953, Ukrainians were second only to Russians among adult "special deportees", comprising 20% of the total. In addition, over 450,000 ethnic Germans from Ukraine and more than 200,000 Crimean Tatars were victims of forced deportations.

Following the death of Stalin in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became the new leader of the USSR. Having served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukrainian SSR in 1938–1949, Khrushchev was intimately familiar with the republic; after taking power union-wide, he began to emphasize "the friendship" between the Ukrainian and Russian nations. In 1954, the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav was widely celebrated. Crimea was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.

By 1950, the republic had fully surpassed pre-war levels of industry and production. Soviet Ukraine soon became a European leader in industrial production, and an important centre of the Soviet arms industry and high-tech research. Such an important role resulted in a major influence of the local elite. Many members of the Soviet leadership came from Ukraine, most notably Leonid Brezhnev. He later ousted Khrushchev and became the Soviet leader from 1964 to 1982.

On 26 April 1986, a reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, resulting in the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history. At the time of the accident, 7 million people lived in the contaminated territories, including 2.2 million in Ukraine.

After the accident, the new city of Slavutych was built outside the exclusion zone to house and support the employees of the plant, which was decommissioned in 2000. A report prepared by the International Atomic Energy Agency and World Health Organization attributed 56 direct deaths to the accident and estimated that there may have been 4,000 extra cancer deaths.

Independence
On 21 January 1990, over 300,000 Ukrainians organised a human chain for Ukrainian independence between Kyiv and Lviv, in 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 16 July 1990, the new parliament adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine. This established the principles of the self-determination, democracy, independence, and the priority of Ukrainian law over Soviet law. A month earlier, a similar declaration was adopted by the parliament of the Russian SFSR. This started a period of confrontation with the central Soviet authorities. On 2–17 October 1990, the Revolution on Granite took place in Ukraine, the main purpose of the action was to prevent the signing of a new union treaty of the USSR. The demands of the students were satisfied by signing a resolution of the Verkhovna Rada, which guaranteed their implementation.

In August 1991, a faction among the Communist leaders of the Soviet Union attempted a coup to remove Mikhail Gorbachev and to restore the Communist party's power. After it failed, on 24 August 1991 the Ukrainian parliament adopted the Act of Independence.

A referendum and the first presidential elections took place on 1 December 1991. More than 92% of the electorate expressed their support for the Act of Independence, and they elected the chairman of the parliament, Leonid Kravchuk, as the first president of Ukraine. At the meeting in Brest, Belarus on 8 December, followed by the Alma Ata meeting on 21 December, the leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine formally dissolved the Soviet Union and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). On 26 December 1991 the Council of Republics of the USSR Supreme Council adopted the declaration "In regards to creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States" which de jure dissolved the Soviet Union and the Soviet flag was lowered over the Kremlin. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine did not ratify the accession, so Ukraine has never been a member of the CIS.

Ukraine was initially viewed as having favourable economic conditions in comparison to the other regions of the Soviet Union. However, the country experienced deeper economic slowdown than some of the other former Soviet Republics. During the recession, Ukraine lost 60% of its GDP from 1991 to 1999, and suffered five-digit inflation rates. Dissatisfied with the economic conditions, as well as the amounts of crime and corruption in Ukraine, Ukrainians protested and organized strikes.

The Ukrainian economy stabilized by the end of the 1990s. A new currency, the hryvnia, was introduced in 1996. After 2000, the country enjoyed steady real economic growth averaging about seven percent annually. A new Constitution of Ukraine, under the second President Leonid Kuchma in 1996, turned Ukraine into a semi-presidential republic and established a stable political system. Kuchma was, however, criticised by opponents for corruption, electoral fraud, discouraging free speech and concentrating too much power in his office.

Orange Revolution


In 2004, Viktor Yanukovych, then prime minister, was declared the winner of the presidential elections, which the Supreme Court of Ukraine later ruled had been largely rigged. The results caused a public outcry in support of the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, who challenged the outcome. During the tumultuous months of the revolution, candidate Yushchenko suddenly became gravely ill, and was soon found by multiple independent physician groups to have been poisoned by TCDD dioxin. Yushchenko strongly suspected Russian involvement in his poisoning. All of this eventually resulted in the peaceful Orange Revolution, which brought Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko to power, while casting Yanukovych in opposition.

Yanukovych returned to power in 2006 as prime minister in the Alliance of National Unity, until snap elections in September 2007 made Tymoshenko prime minister again. Amid the 2008–09 Ukrainian financial crisis the Ukrainian economy shrank by 15%. Disputes with Russia briefly stopped all gas supplies to Ukraine in 2006 and again in 2009, leading to gas shortages in other countries. Yanukovych was elected President in 2010 with 48% of the vote.

Geography
Ukraine is the second-largest European country, after Russia. Lying between latitudes 44° and 53° N, and longitudes 22° and 41° E., it is mostly in the East European Plain. Ukraine covers an area of 603628 km2, with a coastline of 2782 km.

The landscape of Ukraine consists mostly of fertile plains (or steppes) and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the Dnieper (Dnipro), Seversky Donets, Dniester and the Southern Bug 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. Ukraine's various regions have diverse geographic features ranging from the highlands to the lowlands. The country's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest is Hoverla at 2061 m, and the Crimean Mountains, in the extreme south along the coast.

Ukraine also has a number of highland regions such as the Volyn-Podillia Upland (in the west) and the Near-Dnipro Upland (on the right bank of Dnieper). To the east there are the south-western spurs of the Central Russian Upland over which runs the border with the Russian Federation. Near the Sea of Azov can be found the Donets Ridge and the Near Azov Upland. The snow melt from the mountains feeds the rivers and their waterfalls.

Significant natural resources in Ukraine include lithium, natural gas kaolin, timber and an abundance of arable land. Ukraine has many environmental issues. Some regions lack adequate supplies of potable water. Air and water pollution affects the country, as well as deforestation, and radiation contamination in the northeast stemming from the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Climate
Ukraine has a mostly temperate climate, with the exception of the southern coast of Crimea which has a subtropical climate. The climate is influenced by moderately warm, humid air coming from the Atlantic Ocean. Average annual temperatures range from 5.5 – in the north, to 11 – in the south. Precipitation is disproportionately distributed; it is highest in the west and north and lowest in the east and southeast. Western Ukraine, particularly in the Carpathian Mountains receive around 1200 mm of precipitation annually, while Crimea and the coastal areas of the Black Sea receive around 400 mm.

Water availability from the major river basins is expected to decrease, especially in summer. This poses risks to the agricultural sector. The negative impacts of climate change on agriculture are mostly felt in the south of the country, which has a steppe climate. In the north, some crops may be able to benefit from a longer growing season. The World Bank has stated that Ukraine is highly vulnerable to climate change.

Biodiversity
The wildlife of Ukraine includes its diverse fauna and flora. Ukraine contains six terrestrial ecoregions: Central European mixed forests, Crimean Submediterranean forest complex, East European forest steppe, Pannonian mixed forests, Carpathian montane conifer forests, and Pontic steppe. Deciduous make up 42% with the balance being coniferous. The most densely forested area of Ukraine is in the northwest in Polisia where pine, oak, and birch are the main tree specie. There are 45,000 faunal species reported, with approximately 385 endangered species listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine. Protected areas consist of 33 Ramsar sites covering an area of 7446.51 sqkm. Biosphere nature reserves and three national parks are all part of the GEF projects portfolio of conservation of biodiversity in the Danube Delta.

Politics
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Constitution
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National government
Ukraine is a parliamentary republic, like the majority of the other thirty member States of the Union of Sovereign European States. The executive, legislature and judiciary are all subject to the supremacy of the Constitution, and the superior courts have the power to strike down executive actions and acts of the Verkhovna Rada if they are unconstitutional (conflict with the constitution).

Legislature
The 408-member Verkhovna Rada, commonly shortened to just “Rada”, is the unicameral national Parliament of Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada is elected according to a system of open-list mixed member proportional representation, with 208 members seated based on the proportional share of the vote each party receives at parliamentary elections (“popular Rada election”), and the remaining 208 members are appointed by the Dumas of the 26 Oblasts of Ukraine (“legislative Rada election”): 8 deputies from each Oblast, including Kyiv, which, as a consolidated city-oblast, is by law both an oblast and a city; and deputies seated according to party share of the parliamentary vote serve a Term of two Years, and those appointed by the Oblasts a term of six Years —However, the elections for oblast-appointed deputies are staggered so that roughly one third of them are appointed every two Years, rather than all at once.

At the first session of the Verkhovna Rada following a biennial parliamentary election, Rada deputies proceed to elect from among their ranks the Speaker of of the Rada. The leader of the largest party or coalition tends to be the Prime Minister-designate; however, while somewhat a formality, the Speaker of the Rada puts the question to a vote of the full Rada as to their formal choice for Prime Minister. The person chosen by the Verkhovna Rada is then appointed by the President of Ukraine for a nominal term of five years, or until new popular Rada elections are called, notwithstanding legislative (oblast Duma-appointed) Rada members’ terms of office.

Executive
The President of Ukraine is the head of state of the Republic, and is chosen by direct, popular election, to a term of four years; and the incumbent can to succeed himself more than once consecutively. The Vice-President of Ukraine is elected at the same time, on the same ticket, and for the same term as the President; and while the President is the head of state, the Prime Minister of Ukraine is the country’s head of government. This official, the Prime Minister, is nominated by the Verkhovna Rada and formally appointed by the President of the Republic to a term equal to that of the length of the legislature of the Rada to which the person serving as Prime Minister was elected. Ministers and other senior-level government officials are appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister, and those appointments are not subject to Rada confirmation.

The President and-or Vice-President may be removed by the Verkhovna Rada on impeachment (by an absolute majority of Rada members) and conviction (by two-thirds of both popularly-elected, and oblast Duma-appointed Rada members). While the same body is responsible for both impeachment (akin to a grand jury indictment) and conviction (akin to a jury trial, with Rada members serving as jurors), different procedures are used for each portion of the removal process. While the President and/or Vice-President are subject to impeachment and removal by the Rada, the Prime Ministers, Ministers, and other members of Government are subject at all times to the continued confidence and supply of the Verkhovna Rada: if the Rada pass a motion of no confident in the Prime Minister, Minister(s), or the Government as a whole, the affected offical(s) must resign, effective upon their replacement being chosen and taking office. If the Rada vote no confidence in the Government as a whole, then Government resigns, effective on a new Government being sworn in. However, if the Rada is unable to send a new nomination for Prime Minister to the President, or if the new Prime Minister and his or her Government is unable to get the confidence of the Rada, and this process repeats one more time; then, the President dissolves the Rada, schedules new elections for the popularly-elected Rada members, and appoints a caretaker Government to carry on the administration of the state until a new Prime Minister and Government take office.

Judiciary
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Regional and local government


Ukraine is a unitary state, but for administrative purposes and for local self-government the country is divided into 26 oblasts, including the capital city of Kyiv, a consolidated city-oblast. Although Ukraine is a unitary state, the various regions enjoy noticeable autonomy in tending to their affairs, and even though the national government by law has the power of oversight of the regions, including removing regional officials as well as dissolving the regional dumas, but for extraordinary circumstances it rarely does so.

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Political parties and elections
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Politcal culture
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Military


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Homeland security


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Law enforcement


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Economy
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Infrastructure
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Demographics
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Education


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Health


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Culture


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Tourism


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