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, 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. 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
- 20 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The Governor of Smolensk, Russia, says a Ukrainian drone attack set fire to a fuel depot. (Reuters)
- 19 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure
- Russian missile strikes kill seven civilians in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, including five in Synelnykove and two in Dnipro, with several others critically injured. (BBC News)
- A Russian Air Force Tupolev Tu-22M3 aircraft is shot down in Russian airspace over Stavropol Krai after launching missiles at targets in Ukraine. (BBC News)
- 18 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Foreign involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Germany arrests two German-Russian nationals for an alleged military sabotage plot on behalf of Russia to undermine military support for Ukraine. (Reuters)
- 17 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- April 2024 Chernihiv missile strike
- At least 18 people are killed and 60 others are injured in a Russian missile strike which damaged an eight-storey building in a densely populated area of Chernihiv. (BBC News) (Reuters)
- 16 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signs a new army draft law. (Reuters)
- 13 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The Russian Ministry of Defence claims that the village of Pervomaiske near Donetsk has been captured by Russian troops. (Barron's)
Featured pictures
Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine, said that Ukrainians care less about her being transgender than Americans do?
- ... that when public radio stations aired Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in solidarity with Ukraine on 10 March 2022, the bass voice of Anthony Robin Schneider was heard live from Frankfurt and recorded from Auckland?
- ... that Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of Ukrainian Railways, who runs the iron diplomacy program that brings world leaders to Kyiv by rail, carries his gun and his son's stuffed owl with him?
- ... that when a Russian warship asked the Ukrainian defenders of Snake Island to surrender, their response was "Russian warship, go fuck yourself"?
- ... that Sofia Halechko's first language was Polish, but she fought in World War One to create a country for Ukrainian-speaking people?
- ... that the Zunda Towers in Riga, Latvia, changed their name from "Z-Towers" to avoid being associated with Russia's invasion of Ukraine?
More did you know -
- ... that among many historic landmarks at the Andrew's Descent in Kyiv, there is a medieval Gothic style castle that locals call the "Castle of Richard the Lion Heart" due to the legend the 12th century King of England had visited the building?
- ... 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 the married Western Ukrainian Clergy became a hereditary caste that dominated western Ukrainian society?
- ... 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 according to legend, a tunnel leads from the Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle to the Khotyn Fortress which is 20 kilometres (12 mi) away?
- ... 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?
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
- 20 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The Governor of Smolensk, Russia, says a Ukrainian drone attack set fire to a fuel depot. (Reuters)
- 19 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure
- Russian missile strikes kill seven civilians in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, including five in Synelnykove and two in Dnipro, with several others critically injured. (BBC News)
- A Russian Air Force Tupolev Tu-22M3 aircraft is shot down in Russian airspace over Stavropol Krai after launching missiles at targets in Ukraine. (BBC News)
- 18 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Foreign involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Germany arrests two German-Russian nationals for an alleged military sabotage plot on behalf of Russia to undermine military support for Ukraine. (Reuters)
- 17 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- April 2024 Chernihiv missile strike
- At least 18 people are killed and 60 others are injured in a Russian missile strike which damaged an eight-storey building in a densely populated area of Chernihiv. (BBC News) (Reuters)
- 16 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signs a new army draft law. (Reuters)
- 13 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The Russian Ministry of Defence claims that the village of Pervomaiske near Donetsk has been captured by Russian troops. (Barron's)
Selected anniversaries for April
- April 16, 2000 — Ukraine's national referendum takes place on the issue of reformation the governing system of Ukraine.
- April 22, 2006 — Two homemade bombs exploded in different supermarkets in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
- April 26, 1986 — Reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded at 01:23 A.M.
- April 29, 1918 — Constitution of the Ukrainian People's Republic, a constitutional document, was approved by the Central Rada, but never announced.
- April 29, 1918 — The Holiday of Ukrainian Sea. On this day the main parts of Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol hoisted ukrainian flags.
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