Ukraine is situated in the southeastern part of Europe. It is primarily made up of dark fertile soil steppes. The Crimean chain is found in its southernmost part. Mountainous areas are located in its southwest part. It is bordered by Slovakia, Poland and Hungary on the country’s west side. The Black Sea borders Ukraine in the south. The country is bordered by Russia in the northeast and Belarus in the north.
The Official Name:Ukrainians formally call their country Ukrayina. The rest of the world calls the country Ukraine. It was previously called Ukrainian Socialists Soviet Republic, and Carpathian Ukraine.
Ukrainian Time:Residents from other countries can derive Ukrainian time by adding two hours to the Coordinated Universal Time. For Daylight Saving Time from March to October, Ukrainian Time is three hours advance compared to UTC. Ukrainian calling code is +380.
Cities in Ukraine:The capital of Ukraine is Kiev (Kyiv). Other prominent cities in the country are Odessa, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk.
Climate in Ukraine:Ukraine has two climatic zones. These are subtropical and moderate zones. The subtropical zone is situated along Crimea’s southern shore.
Demographics:The people of Ukraine are officially called Ukrainians. In 2011, there were 45.6 million people in Ukraine. Several ethnic groups comprised the country’s diverse people. The most prominent among these groups are the Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, Jews, Crimean Tatars, Bulgarians, Belarusians, Hungarians and Moldovans. The major religions in Ukraine are Ukrainian Orthodoxy, Greek Catholicism, Roman Catholicism, Islam and Judaism. Ukrainian is the official language of the country. Aside from this, the people also speak Russian and some other languages. The population is 98% literate.
Agricultural products:Grain, sunflower seeds and sugar are the most significant agricultural products in Ukraine.
Natural resources:The most relevant natural resources in Ukraine are oil, natural gas, salt, iron, gravel and coal. Ukraine is acknowledged as the primary source of brimstone and ozocerite in the planet.
About Ukraine Independence…President Leonid Kravchuk promised to pursue the sovereignty of Ukraine in 1990 when he got appointed by the parliament of Ukraine. On August 24, 1991, Ukraine officially became independent. On December 1991, a new Commonwealth of Independent States got founded together by Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian governments. The capital of such commonwealth was intended to be located in Belarus.
Ukraine’s newly formed government was unable to adequately improve the Soviet-era state-operated economy. Such economy was heavily bombarded by decreasing productivity, prevalence of unemployment and worsening inflation. On January 1994, the United States declared an agreement with Ukraine and Russia for the complete termination of the country’s nuclear arsenal. On October 1994, the country commenced an economic liberalization program. The country also shifted its central government towards Crimea. In 1995, the separatist head in Crimea got displaced, and the Constitution of Crimea became invalidated.
On June 1996, Ukraine’s remaining strategic nuclear warhead got transferred to Russia. The Ukrainian government also enacted a new constitution, which permitted the possession of private lands. On May 1997, the agreement regarding the Black Sea fleet’s future was formalized. The agreement states that Russian and Ukrainian ships would share the Sevastopol port within two decades.
History of Ukraine…Until the 1600s, the country was called “Kievan Rus”. During the 9th century, Kiev acted as Eastern Europe’s primary cultural and political center. Kievan Rus attained the peak of its supremacy in 10th century. During that time, it absorbed Byzantine Christianity. Kievan dominance only lasted until 1240 because of Mongol invasion. Starting from the 13th and until the 16th century, Western Europe and Poland heavily influenced Kiev. Because of the 1596 Union of Brest-Litovsk compromise, Ukraine got separated into Catholic faithful and Orthodox Christians.
Ukraine sought the assistance of Muscovy’s czar in 1654 to defend the country from Poland. Ukrainians acknowledged Moscow’s sovereignty through the Treaty of Pereyaslav. Moscow considered the treaty as permission for dominating Kiev. The Russian Empire later obtained the state of Ukraine.
Ukrainians proclaimed their separation from Russia on January 28, 1918. After the declaration, warring years followed. Kiev was later defeated by the Red Army. In 1920, Ukraine was made into a Soviet republic. In the year 1922, it emerged as among USSR’s founders. During the 1930s, peasants explicitly disagreed with the Soviet authority’s implementation of collectivization. This caused the Soviet government to confiscate Ukraine’s grains. The confiscation caused a famine that killed at least 5,000,000 lives. When Second World War ended, Ukraine became among the most severely damaged Soviet republics.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant malfunctioned on April 1986, and it resulted in the most devastating nuclear catastrophe in history. The Ukrainian government decided to terminate the reactor’s operation on October 29, 1991. Ukraine sought the support of other countries in completely dismantling the tragic power plant.