Portal:Ukraine
The Ukraine Portal - Портал України
Ukraine Україна (Ukrainian) | |
---|---|
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
- 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 in an effort to undermine military support for Ukraine. (Reuters)
- 17 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Chernihiv strikes
- 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)
- 12 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure
- Russia launches drone strikes across Ukraine. Critical infrastructure is damaged in Kherson Oblast and a fire occurs at the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station in Zaporizhzhia causing around half a tonne of oil products to leak into the Dnieper river. (Reuters) (Ukrainska Pravda)
- 11 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Mykolaiv strikes
- At least four people are killed and five others are injured in a Russian missile strike in Mykolaiv. (Reuters)
Featured pictures
Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that DeepStateMap.Live, an interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, received up to 120,000 visitors in 30 minutes during the Battle of Izium in the 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive?
- ... that a recent cyberattack on Ukrainian websites was disguised as ransomware?
- ... that Ukrainian actress Oksana Shvets, who was killed in the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, starred in the 2013 joint Ukrainian–Russian television family saga House with Lilies alongside Russian actors?
- ... that Inna Derusova was the first woman to be posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine?
- ... that Serhiy Kot was the editor of Ukrainian Question, a collection of articles on the status of Ukraine in the 1930s?
- ... that Ukrainians Nadia Smyrnytska, Maria Kalyuzhnaya and Maria Kovalevska joined other prisoners in committing suicide to protest against the abuse of imprisoned women in Kara katorga?
More did you know -
- ... that the married Western Ukrainian Clergy became a hereditary caste that dominated western Ukrainian society?
- ... that the Kryvbas economic region in Ukraine is one of the largest iron ore and steel industry centers in Europe?
- ... 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 Vasyl Avramenko is often referred as "The father of the Ukrainian dance"?
- ... that Ukrainian naturalist, lecturer, artist and author John Lhotsky was credited as the first discoverer of gold in New South Wales?
Selected article -
Kryvyi Rih (/ˈkrɪviː ˈriː/; Ukrainian: Кривий Ріг, IPA: [krɪˌwɪj ˈr⁽ʲ⁾iɦ] ⓘ), also transliterated as Krivoy Rog (Russian: Кривой Рог), is a city in central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Kryvyi Rih Raion and its subordinate Kryvyi Rih urban hromada in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The city is part of the Kryvyi Rih Metropolitan Region. Its population is estimated at 603,904 (2022 estimate),[1] making it the seventh-most populous city in Ukraine and the second largest by area. Kryvyi Rih is claimed to be the longest city in Europe.
Located at the confluence of the Saksahan and Inhulets rivers, Kryvyi Rih was founded as a military staging post in 1775. Urban-industrial growth followed Belgian, French and British investment in the exploitation of the area's rich iron-ore deposits, generally called Kryvbas, in the 1880s. Kryvyi Rih gained city status after the October Revolution in 1919. (Full article...)In the 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 in an effort to undermine military support for Ukraine. (Reuters)
- 17 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Chernihiv strikes
- 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)
- 12 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure
- Russia launches drone strikes across Ukraine. Critical infrastructure is damaged in Kherson Oblast and a fire occurs at the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station in Zaporizhzhia causing around half a tonne of oil products to leak into the Dnieper river. (Reuters) (Ukrainska Pravda)
- 11 April 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Mykolaiv strikes
- At least four people are killed and five others are injured in a Russian missile strike in Mykolaiv. (Reuters)
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.
Photo gallery
Related portals
Religions in Ukraine
Post Soviet states
Other countries
Topics
Categories
WikiProjects and collaborations
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
New articles
Ukrainian editions of Wikimedia projects
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha>
tags or {{efn}}
templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
template or {{notelist}}
template (see the help page).
- ^ 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.