Portal:Ukraine
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 and Slovakia to the west; Hungary, 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.
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, 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. Ukraine is a middle power and the Ukrainian Armed Force is the fifth largest armed force in the world in terms of both active personnel as well as total number of personnel with the eighth largest defence budget 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
- 14 September 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russia–NATO relations
- Russia says that the approval of Ukrainian use of long-range weapons to strike inside Russia will result in an "uncontrolled escalation" with the West and the "destruction" of Kyiv. (Reuters)
- NATO Chair Rob Bauer backs the use of long-range weapons by Ukrainian forces to strike targets inside Russia. (ABC News)
- Ukrainian conscription crisis
- Following a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, the foreign ministers of Poland and Ukraine call for ending social benefits for Ukrainian men in Poland, and for programs in the European Union to return them to Ukraine in order to stop draft evasion. (Reuters)
- 13 September 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russian artillery targets 15 areas in Sumy Oblast, Ukraine, killing two civilians near the village of Yampil and injuring nine others. (Reuters)
- China and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Reuters reports that Russia has begun production of thousands of Garpiya-A1 long-range combat drones used against Ukrainian civilian and military targets, that incorporate engines, parts, and technology from China. (Reuters)
- Humanitarian impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Featured pictures
Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that Halyna Kuzmenko promoted the Ukrainization of the Makhnovist movement, successfully increasing the use of the Ukrainian language by Russian speakers?
- ... that Ukrainian Sheriffs went to summer school after being shot?
- ... that in August 2022, Igor Mangushev spoke on a stage in a Russian nightclub with what he said was the skull of a Ukrainian soldier killed in the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works?
- ... that the Ukrainian violinist Diana Tishchenko played Skoryk's Melody on a tour of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra to Germany in April 2022?
- ... that the founder of the Guide to the Free World, helping people leave Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, said she was told: "It's good that you get out of Russia, but a pity that you won't be shot"?
- ... that a journalist dubbed Olena Shevchenko as "probably the most famous lesbian in Ukraine"?
More did you know -
- ... that the Privat Group is one of the few Ukrainian companies that own industries in the United States?
- ... 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?
- ... that Ukrainian naturalist, lecturer, artist and author John Lhotsky was credited as the first discoverer of gold in New South Wales?
- ... that the neo-classical Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv features a hundred-tonne glass dome over the chamber where the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine convenes to enact legislation?
- ... that the married Western Ukrainian Clergy became a hereditary caste that dominated western Ukrainian society?
- ... 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?
Selected article -
Lviv (/ləˈviːv/ lə-VEEV or /ləˈviːf/ lə-VEEF; Ukrainian: Львів [ˈlʲwiu̯] ; see below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the sixth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of 717,500 (2022 estimate).[1] It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. Lviv also hosts the administration of Lviv urban hromada. It was named after Leo I of Galicia, the eldest son of Daniel, King of Ruthenia.
Lviv emerged as the centre of the historical regions of Red Ruthenia and Galicia in the 14th century, superseding Halych, Chełm, Belz, and Przemyśl. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia from 1272 to 1349, when it was conquered by King Casimir III the Great of Poland. From 1434, it was the regional capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship in the Kingdom of Poland. In 1772, after the First Partition of Poland, the city became the capital of the Habsburg Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. In 1918, for a short time, it was the capital of the West Ukrainian People's Republic. Between the wars, the city was the centre of the Lwów Voivodeship in the Second Polish Republic. After the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, Lviv was annexed by the Soviet Union. (Full article...)In the news
- 14 September 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russia–NATO relations
- Russia says that the approval of Ukrainian use of long-range weapons to strike inside Russia will result in an "uncontrolled escalation" with the West and the "destruction" of Kyiv. (Reuters)
- NATO Chair Rob Bauer backs the use of long-range weapons by Ukrainian forces to strike targets inside Russia. (ABC News)
- Ukrainian conscription crisis
- Following a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, the foreign ministers of Poland and Ukraine call for ending social benefits for Ukrainian men in Poland, and for programs in the European Union to return them to Ukraine in order to stop draft evasion. (Reuters)
- 13 September 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russian artillery targets 15 areas in Sumy Oblast, Ukraine, killing two civilians near the village of Yampil and injuring nine others. (Reuters)
- China and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Reuters reports that Russia has begun production of thousands of Garpiya-A1 long-range combat drones used against Ukrainian civilian and military targets, that incorporate engines, parts, and technology from China. (Reuters)
- Humanitarian impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Selected anniversaries for September
- September 4, 1985 — Vasyl Stus died of beating in a Soviet forced labor camp for political prisoners near the village of Kuchino, Perm Oblast, Russian SFSR.
- September 14, 1911 — Dmitry Bogrov shot and killed the Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin in the Kiev Opera theater in front of Tsar Nicholas II.
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- ^ Чисельність наявного населення України на 1 січня 2022 [Number of Present Population of Ukraine, as of January 1, 2022] (PDF) (in Ukrainian and English). Kyiv: State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 July 2022.