Ukraine

Україна Ukrayina Ukraine
Image:Flag of Ukraine.svg Image:Lesser Coat of Arms of Ukraine.svg Flag Coat of arms
Anthem Ще не вмерла України  (Ukrainian) Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy  (transliteration) Ukraine's glory has not yet perished
Image:Europe location UKR.png Location of  Ukraine  (orange) on the European continent  (white)
Capital (and largest city)		Kiev (Kyiv) 50°27′N, 30°30′E
Official languages		Ukrainian
Government		Parliamentary democracy
-	President	Viktor Yushchenko
-	Prime Minister	Viktor Yanukovych
Independence		from the Soviet Union
-	Declared	August 24 1991
-	Referendum	December 1 1991
-	Finalized	December 25 1991
Area
-	Total	603,700 km² (44th) 233,090 sq mi
-	Water (%)	7%
Population
-	2005 estimate	46,481,000 (27th)
-	2001 census	48,457,102
-	Density	77 /km² (115th) 199 /sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2005 estimate
-	Total	$390.306 billion (28th)
-	Per capita	$7,213 (86th)
Gini? (2003)		28.1 (low)
HDI (2004)		0.774 (medium) (77th)
Currency		Hryvnia (UAH)
Time zone		EET (UTC+2)
-	Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Internet TLD		.ua
Calling code		+380

Ukraine (Ukrainian: Україна, Ukraina, /ukraˈjina/), is a country in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north-east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the south-west, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The historic city of Kiev (Kyiv) is the country's capital.

From at least the ninth century, the territory of present-day Ukraine was a centre of medieval East Slavic civilization forming the state of Kievan Rus, and for the following several centuries the territory was divided between a number of regional powers. After a brief period of independence (1917–1921) following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ukraine became one of the founding Soviet Republics in 1922. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's territory was enlarged westward after the Second World War, and again in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, Ukrainian SSR became one of the co-founder members of the United Nations. It became independent again after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

Etymology of the name

Main article: Name of Ukraine

According to one theory, the Ukrainian word Ukrayina stems from the Old Slavic root kraj-, meaning "land", "region", "country", but also "edge" or "borderland" (see below). In particular, in Ukrainian krayina means simply "country". Opinions vary as to the immediate derivation, but the first known mentioning in the Kyiv Chronicle of 1187^{[citation needed]} probably uses the word in the meaning of "region", "principality", which might be defined as "land cut out for a Prince" (maybe referring to the general feudal practice of a prince dividing land between his sons). Over time, as the dominant self-identification paradigms were changing, the word's initial meaning ‘the land of the prince’ may have transformed to a wider meaning.

According to another theory, kraj- in the meaning of "borderland", "frontier" formed the basis for the modern name of the country (cf. Russian okraina, ‘outskirts’^[1]; a semantic parallel to -mark in Denmark, cf. Marches; cf. also Krajina). The voivodship of Kyiv, which was called Ukraina from the sixteenth century on, was on the south-eastern border of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In English, the country is sometimes referred to with the definite article, the Ukraine, as in the Netherlands, the Gambia, the Sudan or the Congo. However, usage without "the" has become more frequent in journalism and diplomacy since the country's independence.^[2]

History

Main article: History of Ukraine

Human settlement in the territory of Ukraine has been documented into distant prehistory. The late Neolithic Trypillian culture flourished from about 4500 BCE to 3000 BCE.

Early history of Ukraine (700 BCE–700 CE)

In antiquity, the southern and eastern parts of modern Ukraine were populated by nomads called Scythians. The Scythian Kingdom existed on this land between 700 BCE and 200 BCE. In the third century CE, the Goths arrived, calling their country Oium, and formed the Chernyakhov culture before moving on and defeating the Roman empire. In the seventh century, the territory of modern Ukraine was the core of the state of the Bulgars (often referred to as Great Bulgaria) who had their capital in the city of Phanagoria.

The majority of the Bulgar tribes migrated in several directions at the end of the seventh century and the remains of their state was swept by the Khazars, a Turkic semi-nomadic people from Central Asia which later adopted Judaism. The Khazars founded the independent Khazar kingdom in the southeastern part of today's Europe, near the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. In addition to western Kazakhstan, the Khazar kingdom also included territory in what is now eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, southern Russia, and Crimea.

Golden Age of Kiev (800–1100)

Main article: Kievan Rus'

During the tenth and eleventh centuries the territory of Ukraine became the centre of a powerful and prestigious state in Europe, Kievan Rus, laying the foundation for the national identity of Ukrainians, as well as other East Slavic nations, through subsequent centuries. Its capital was Kiev, the capital of modern Ukraine, wrestled from Khazars by Askold and Dir in about 860. According to the Primary Chronicle, the Kievan Rus' elite initially consisted of Varangians from Scandinavia. The Varangians later became assimilated into the local Slavic population and gave the Rus' its first powerful dynasty, the Rurik Dynasty.

Kievian Rus' was comprised from several principalities, ruled by the interrelated Rurikid Princes. The seat of Kiev, the most prestigious and influential of all principalities, became a subject of many rivalries between Rurikids as the most valuable prize in their quest for power, sometimes through intrigue but often through bloody conflicts. The Golden Age of Kievan Rus' falls on the years of Kiev being ruled by Vladimir the Great (Volodymyr, 980–1015) who turned Rus' towards the Byzantine Christianity and his son Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054) during whose lengthy reign, Kievan Rus' reached a zenith of its cultural flowering and military power that was followed by the state's increasing fragmentation as the relative importance of regions rose again. After the one last resurgence under the rule of Vladimir Monomakh 1113–1125 and his son Mstislav (1125–1132) the Kievan Rus' finally disintegrated into the separate principalities following Mstislav's death. The thirteenth century Mongol invasion dealt Rus' a final blow from which it never recovered.

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1300–1600)

Main article: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

On the Ukrainian territory, the state of Kievan Rus' was succeeded by the principalities of Halych and Volodymyr-Volynskyi, which were merged into the state of Halych-Volynia. In the mid-fourteenth century it was subjugated by Casimir IV of Poland while the heartland of Rus', including Kiev, fell under the Gediminids of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Following the 1386 marriage of Lithuania's Grand Duke Jagiello to Poland's King Jadwiga (her title was "King" even though she was a woman), most of the Ukrainian territory was controlled by the increasingly Ruthenized Lithuanian rulers as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (the term Ruthenia and Ruthenians as the Latinized versions of "Rus'", became widely applied to the land and its people, respectively).

By the 1569 Union of Lublin that formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from largely Ruthenized Lithuanian rule to the Polish administration, as it was transferred to the Polish Crown. Under the cultural pressure of polonization much of the Ruthenian upper class converted to Catholicism (such transitions were beneficial for achieving political influence within the state), for example, King Michael of Poland, who reigned from 1669 to 1673, was of the Ruthenian Vishnevetsky Wiśniowiecki family. At the same time the common people, especially the peasants retained their old ways of especially, the allegiance to their historic Eastern Orthodox Church, which led to the increasing social tensions, visible in such events as the 1596 Union of Brest, created by Sigismund III Vasa, who attempted to bring the Orthodox population under the Catholicism through creation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. This controversial move failed to achieve its goals. Resisted even by some Ruthenian magnates, otherwise loyal to the Polish kings (Ostrogskis being the most notable example), the new "intermediate" religion was unnecessary for the most of the upper class, much of whom increasingly turned directly towards Catholicism with each subsequent generation. Thus, the Ukrainian commoners, deprived of their native protectors among Ruthenian nobility, turned for protection to the Cossacks who remained fiercely Orthodox at all times.

Rise of the Cossacks (1600–1800)

Main article: Cossack

In the mid of the seventeenth century, a Cossack state, the Zaporozhian Sich, was established by the Dnieper cossacks and the Ruthenian peasants fleeing Polish serfdom. Poland had little real control of this land in what is now central Ukraine, which became an autonomous military state, at times allied with the Commonwealth in the military campaigns. However, the enserfment of peasantry by the Polish nobility, overall emphasis of the Commonwealth's agricultural economy on the fierce exploitation of the unfree workforce, and, perhaps most importantly, the suppression of the Orthodox church pushed the allegiances of Cossacks away from Poland. Their aspiration was to have a representation in Polish Sejm, recognition of Orthodox traditions and the gradual expansion of the Cossack Registry, all being vehemently denied by the Polish kings. The cossacks turned toward Orthodox Russia, which was one reason for the later downfall of the Polish-Lithuanian state.

In 1648 Bohdan Khmelnytsky lead the largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish king John II Casimir. This uprising finally led to a partition of Ukraine between Poland and Russia. Left-Bank Ukraine was eventually integrated into Russia as the Cossack Hetmanate, following the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav and the ensuing Russo-Polish War. After the partitions of Poland in the end of the eighteenth century by Prussia, Habsburg Austria, and Russia at the end of the eighteenth century, Western Ukrainian (Galicia) was taken over by Austria, while the rest of Ukraine was progressively incorporated into the Russian Empire. Despite the promises of Ukrainian autonomy given by the treaty of Pereyaslav, Ukrainians never received the freedoms they were hoping for from Imperial Russia. The Ukrainians played an important role in the frequent wars between East European monarchies and the Ottoman Empire. As a result of Russian successes in the wars against Ottoman Empire and Crimean Khanate of 1768–74 and 1787–1792, the territories along the Black Sea coast were annexed to the Russian Empire as well. Within the Empire Ukrainians frequently rose to the highest offices of Russian state (e.g., Aleksey Razumovsky, Alexander Bezborodko, Ivan Paskevich), and dominated the Russian Orthodox Church (e.g., Stephen Yavorsky, Feofan Prokopovich, Dimitry of Rostov). At a later period, the tsar regime was implementing a harsh policy of Russification, banning the use of the Ukrainian language in print, and in public.

World War I and Austro-Hungarian rule

Main article: World War I

During World War I Austro-Hungarian authorities subjected Ukrainians in Galicia who sympathized with Russia to repression. Over twenty thousand supporters of Russia were arrested and placed in an Austrian concentration camp in Talerhof, Styria, and in a fortress at Terezín (now in the Czech Republic).

Division and early Soviet years

Main articles: Ukraine after the Russian Revolution and Soviet Union

With the Russian and Austrian empires' collapse following World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ukrainian national movement for self-determination emerged again. During 1917–20 several separate Ukrainian states briefly emerged: the Central Rada, the Hetmanate, the Directorate, the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic. However, with the defeat of the latter in the Polish-Ukrainian War and the failure of the Polish Kiev Offensive (1920) of the Polish-Soviet War, the Peace of Riga concluded in March 1921 between Poland and Bolsheviks left Ukraine divided again. The western part of Ukraine had been incorporated into newly organized Second Polish Republic, and the larger, central and eastern part, established as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in March of 1919, later became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, when it was formed in December of 1922.

The Ukrainian national idea lived on during the early-Soviet years and the Ukrainian culture and language even enjoyed a revival as the Ukrainization became a local implementation of the Soviet-wide Korenization ("indigenization") policy whose gains were sharply reversed by the early-1930s policy changes.

Ukraine saw its share of the Soviet industrialization starting from the late 1920s and the republic's industrial output quadrupled in the 1930s. However, the industrialization had a heavy cost for the peasantry, demographically a backbone of the Ukrainian nation. To satisfy the state's need for increased food supplies and finance industrialization, Stalin instituted a program of collectivization of agriculture as the state combined the peasants' lands and animals into collective farms and enforcing the policies by the regular troops and secret police. Those who resisted were arrested and deported and the increased production quotas were placed on the peasantry. The collectivization had a devastating effect on agricultural productivity. As the members of the collective farms were not allowed to receive any grain until the unachievable quotas were met, the starvation became widespread. Millions starved to death in a famine, known as the Holodomor.^[3]

The times also coincided with the Soviet assault on the national political and cultural elite often accused in "nationalist deviations" as the Ukrainization. These policies were reversed at the turn of the decade. Two waves of purges (1929–1934 and 1936–1938) resulted in the elimination of four fifths of the Ukrainian cultural elite.

World War II

Main article: World War II

During World War II, some elements of the Ukrainian nationalist underground fought both Nazi and Soviet forces, forming the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in 1942, while other Ukrainians initially collaborated with the Nazis, having been ignored by all other powers. In 1941 the German invaders and their Axis allies initially advanced against desperate but unsuccessful efforts of the Red Army. In the encirclement battle of Kiev, the city was acclaimed by the Soviets as a "Hero City", for the fierce resistance of the Red Army and of the local population. More than 650,000 Soviet males between 15-50 were taken captive.

Initially, the Germans were received as liberators by many Ukrainians, especially in western Ukraine which had only been occupied by the Soviets in 1939. However, German rule in the occupied territories eventually aided the Soviet cause. Nazi administrators of conquered Soviet territories made little attempt to exploit the population of Ukrainian territories' dissatisfaction with Soviet political and economic policies. Instead, the Nazis preserved the collective-farm system, systematically carried out genocidal policies against Jews, deported others (mainly Ukrainians) to work in Germany, and began a systematic depopulation of Ukraine to prepare it for German colonization[5], which included a food blockade on Kiev. Under these circumstances, most people living on the occupied territory passively or actively opposed the Nazis.

Total civilian losses during the war and German occupation in Ukraine are estimated between five and eight million, including over half a million Jews killed by the Einsatzgruppen, sometimes with the help of local collaborators. Of the estimated 8,6 million Soviet troops who fell in battle against the Nazis, about a quarter (2.7 million) were ethnic Ukrainians. Ukraine is distinguished as one of the first nations to fight the Axis powers in Carpatho-Ukraine, and one that saw some of the greatest bloodshed during the war.

The republic was heavily damaged by the war, and it required significant efforts to recover. The situation was worsened by a man-made famine in 1946–47, when the Soviet authorities were forcibly confiscating grain crops in accordance with a preset plan, ignoring drought conditions of 1946. Collected grain was distributed to the other regions of Soviet Union, and on the top, 2.5 million tonnes were exported abroad. In Ukraine about one million people, predominantly in rural areas, died from the famine.^[4]

In the Western Ukraine, Ukrainians continued to resist Soviet rule, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, formed in World War II to fight both Soviets and Nazis, continued to fight the USSR into the 1950s. Using guerilla war tactics, the insurgents were assassinating Soviet party leaders, NKVD and military officers. In particular, due to the resistance, the 1946-47 famine was much less severe in West Ukraine than in other Ukrainian regions.

Following the death of Stalin in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became the new leader of USSR. Being the First Secretary of Communist Party of Ukrainian SSR in 1938-49, Khrushchev played a role in Stalin's repressions, the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazis, organization of the man-made famine in 1946-47 and suppression of resistance in West Ukraine. But after taking the power, he found it best to propagandize the friendship between the Ukrainian and Russian nations. In 1954, the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav was widely celebrated, and in particular, the Crimea was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.

In the times of Khrushchev Thaw of 1960s, there were dissident movements in Ukraine by such prominent figures as Vyacheslav Chornovil, Vasyl Stus, Levko Lukyanenko. As in the other regions of USSR, the movements were quickly suppressed.

In the 1970s, the new Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev was gradually concentrating on power. In 1972, the First Secretary of Communist Party of Ukraine Petro Shelest lost his position, as he was seen as being "too independent" by the government in Moscow, and was replaced by Volodymyr Shcherbytsky.

The rule of Shcherbytsky was characterized by the expanded policies of Russification. At the same time he used his influence as the First Secretary of CPU, and a Politburo member for over 25 years, to advocate economic interests of Ukraine within the USSR.

Chernobyl disaster

Main article: Chernobyl disaster

On 26th April 1986, a nuclear reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The disaster was the product of a flawed Soviet reactor design coupled with serious mistakes made by the plant operators in the context of a system where training was minimal. Large areas of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and beyond were contaminated in varying degrees. Around 150,000 people were evacuated from the contaminated area, and 300,000–600,000 took part in the clean-up. By the year 2000, about 4000 cases of thyroid cancer had been diagnosed in exposed children.

After the accident a 30km exclusion zone was established around the power plant. A new city Slavutych was built outside the exclusion zone to house and support the employees of the plant.

The Chernobyl facility includes four reactors. Unit 4 was destroyed in the accident. Units 1 and 2 were decommissioned. Unit 3 was upgraded to make it safe and continued to produce power supplying about 2% of Ukraine’s electrical power until 15 December 2000. At that time then-President Leonid Kuchma personally turned off Reactor 3 in an official ceremony, effectively shutting down the entire plant.

Independence

The wave of Gorbachev’s perestroika came to Ukraine only in 1988–89. It was hindered initially by Shcherbytsky and party nomenclature. Also, the economic slowdown and product shortages were initially not as severe in Ukraine as in the other regions of USSR.

In 1989, the national movement "People's Movement of Ukraine", known in short as Rukh was formed. In the elections to the parliament of republic, which were held in March of 1990, Rukh obtained overwhelming support in West Ukraine, as well as in the cities of Kiev and Kharkiv.

In January of 1990, hundreds of thousand Ukrainians organized a human chain for Ukrainian independence in memory of 1919 unification of Ukrainian People's Republic and West Ukrainian National Republic. Citizens came out to the streets and highways forming live chains by holding hands in support of unity. On July 16, 1990 the new parliament adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine. The declaration established the principles of the selfdetermination of Ukrainian nation, the democracy, the political and economic independence, and the priority of Ukrainian law on the Ukrainian territory over Soviet law. A month earlier, a similar declaration was adopted by the parliament of Russian SFSR. It opened a period of confrontation between the central Soviet, and new republican authorities.

In March of 1991, a referendum was organized by the central Soviet authorities, asking people to express the desire to live in "renewed" Soviet Union. The Ukrainian parliament added a second question, asking Ukrainian citizens the desire to live in the Soviet Union on the principals established in the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. The citizens of Ukraine responded positively on both questions.

In August of 1991, the conservative Communist leaders of Soviet Union attempted a coup to remove Gorbachev and to restore Communist party power. In response, on 22 August 1991 the Ukrainian parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine in which the parliament declared Ukraine as independent democratic state.

A referendum and the first presidential elections had been scheduled on December 1, 1991. That day, more than 90% of Ukrainians expressed their support for the Act of Independence, and they elected the chairman of the parliament, Leonid Kravchuk to serve as the first president of the country.

At the meetings in Brest (8 December) and Alma Ata (21 December) the leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, formally dissolved the Soviet Union, and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Modern history

Ukraine was initially viewed as a republic with favorable economic conditions in comparison to the other regions of the Soviet Union. However, the country experienced deeper economic slowdown than the other republics. Over the time of the recession Ukraine lost 60% of its GDP, and suffered five-digit inflation rates.

Dissatisfied with the economic conditions, as well as crime and corruption, Ukrainians protested and went on strikes. In 1994 the President Kravchuk agreed to hold presidential elections ahead of schedule, in which he lost the presidential post to former Prime-Minister Leonid Kuchma.

Under Kuchma, who served two terms as the President, the Ukrainian economy stabilized by the end of 1990s, and started to grow in early 2000s. A new Constitution of Ukraine was adopted in 1996, which turned Ukraine into a semi-presidential republic, and established a stable political system. Kuchma was, however, criticized by opponents for concentrating too much of power in his office, corruption, transferring public property into hands of loyal oligarchs, discouraging free speech, and vote manipulations.

In 2004, Kuchma's government was removed through the peaceful Orange Revolution. The revolution brought Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko to power, while casting Viktor Yanukovych in opposition.

In 2006 Verkhovna Rada elections took place in March, and three months later the official government was formed by the "Anti-Crisis Coalition" among the Party of Regions, Communist Party, and Socialist Party of Ukraine. The latter party switched from the "Orange Coalition" with Our Ukraine, and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. The new coalition nominated Viktor Yanukovych for the post of Prime Minister, while the leader of Socialist Party, Oleksander Moroz managed to secure the Chairman of parliament position.

In late March of 2007 and early April contradiction arose in the Ukrainian political system. It was rumored that President Viktor Yushchenko wanted to dissolve the Ukrainian parliament and to hold reelections. Crowds of about 70,000 gathered on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the central square of Kiev, and supported the dismissal of parliament, with 20,000 supporting Yanukovych's plan to keep the parliament together.^[5] On April 3, 2007, at approximately 16:00 President Yushchenko signed the bill into existence. Two hours later in Kyiv's Maidan, It was announced to the crowds that Parliament no longer existed.

Immediately the Verkhovna Rada was called in emergency session and declined Yuschenko's bill 255 to 0. Currently, Yushchenko is taking his case to the Supreme Court of Ukraine to be challenged.

Reelections are to be held May 27, 2007.

Government and politics

Main articles: Government of Ukraine, Elections in Ukraine, and Foreign relations of Ukraine

Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The President is elected by popular vote and is the head of state. The Prime Minister is appointed and dismissed by the 450-seat parliament, the unicameral Verkhovna Rada. The parliament also approves the members of the Cabinet of Ministers. The heads of regional and district administrations are appointed by the agreement between the President and the Prime Minister.

Laws, acts of the parliament and the Cabinet, presidential edicts, and acts of the Crimean parliament (Autonomous Republic of Crimea) may be nullified by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, when they are found to violate the Constitution of Ukraine. Other normative acts are subject to judicial review. The Supreme Court of Ukraine is the main body in the system of courts of general jurisdiction.

Local self-government is officially guaranteed. Local councils and city mayors are popularly elected and exercise control over local budgets.

Ukraine has a large number of political parties, many of which have tiny memberships and are unknown to the general public. Small parties often join in multi-party coalitions (electoral blocks) for the purpose of participating in parliamentary elections.

Military

Main article: Military of Ukraine

After the collapse of Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited a one-million-man military force on its territory, equipped with the third largest nuclear weapon arsenal in the world. In May of 1992, Ukraine signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in which the country agreed to give up all nuclear weapons, and to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state. Ukraine ratified the treaty in 1994, and by 1996 the country became free of nuclear weapons.

Ukraine also took consistent steps toward the reduction of conventional weapons. It signed the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which called for reduction of tanks, artillery, and armored vehicles. The army forces were reduced to 300,000 soldiers. The country plans to convert the current, mostly conscript, army into a professional army.

Following independence, Ukraine declared itself to be a neutral state. The country had limited military partnership with Russia and other CIS countries, as well as, since 1994, it established a partnership with NATO. In 2000s Ukraine was leaning toward NATO, and a deeper cooperation with the alliance was set by NATO-Ukraine Action Plan signed in 2002. As of 2006, this issue is a subject of extensive debates within Ukrainian society of whether the country should join NATO. In August of 2006, the leading political parties signed the Universal of National Unity, a non-binding document, in which they agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future.

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Ukraine

Ukraine is subdivided into twenty-four oblasts (provinces) and one autonomous republic (avtonomna respublika), Crimea. Additionally, two cities (misto), Kiev and Sevastopol, have a special legal status. The oblasts are subdivided into 494 raions (districts).

Geography

Main article: Geography of Ukraine

At 603,700 km² (233,074 mi²) and with a coastline of 2,782 km [6], Ukraine is the world's 44th-largest country (after the Central African Republic, before Madagascar). It is second largest country in Europe (after European part of Russia, before metropolitan France). It is somewhat smaller in size than the US state of Texas.

There is ongoing debate on where the geographical centre of Europe is, for instance, some claim the center is near the small town of Rakhiv, in western Ukraine;.

The Ukrainian landscape consists mostly of fertile plains, or steppes, and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the Dnieper, Seversky Donets, Dniester and the Southern Buh 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. The country's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest is the Hora Hoverla at 2,061 metres (6,762 ft), and those in the Crimean peninsula, in the extreme south along the coast.

Ukraine has a mostly temperate continental climate, though a more mediterranean climat