Ukraine was the center of the first eastern Slavic state, Kyivan Rus, which was the largest and most powerful state in Europe during the 10th and 11th centuries. Weakened by internecine quarrels and Mongol invasions, Kyivan Rus was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and eventually into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The cultural and religious legacy of Kyivan Rus laid the foundation for Ukrainian nationalism. A new Ukrainian state, the Cossack Hetmanate, was established during the mid-17th century after an uprising against the Poles. Despite continuous Muscovite pressure, the Hetmanate managed to remain autonomous for well over 100 years. During the latter part of the 18th century, the Russian Empire absorbed most Ukrainian territory. After czarist Russia collapsed in 1917, Ukraine -- which has long been known as the region's \"bread basket\" for its agricultural production -- achieved a short-lived period of independence (1917-20), but the country was reconquered and endured a Soviet rule that engineered two famines (1921-22 and 1932-33) in which over eight million died. In World War II, German and Soviet armies were responsible for seven to eight million more deaths. In 1986, a sudden power surge during a reactor-systems test at Ukraine's Chernobyl power station triggered the worst nuclear disaster in history, releasing massive amounts of radioactive material. Although Ukraine overwhelmingly voted for independence in 1991 as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) dissolved, democracy and prosperity remained elusive, with the legacy of state control, patronage politics, and endemic corruption stalling efforts at economic reform, privatization, and civil liberties.
In 2004 and 2005, a mass protest dubbed the \"Orange Revolution\" forced the authorities to overturn a presidential election and allow a new internationally monitored vote that swept into power a reformist slate under Viktor YUSHCHENKO. Rival Viktor YANUKOVYCH became prime minister in 2006 and was elected president in 2010. In 2012, Ukraine held legislative elections that Western observers widely criticized as corrupt. In 2013, YANUKOVYCH backtracked on a trade and cooperation agreement with the EU -- in favor of closer economic ties with Russia -- and then used force against protestors who supported the agreement, leading to a three-month protestor occupation of Kyiv's central square. The government's use of violence to break up the protest camp in 2014 led to multiple deaths, international condemnation, a failed political deal, and the president's abrupt departure for Russia. Pro-West President Petro POROSHENKO took office later that year; Volodymyr ZELENSKYY succeeded him in 2019.
Shortly after YANUKOVYCH's departure in 2014, Russian President Vladimir PUTIN ordered the invasion of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. In response, the UN passed a resolution confirming Ukraine's sovereignty and independence. In mid-2014, Russia began an armed conflict in two of Ukraine's eastern provinces. International efforts to end the conflict failed, and by 2022, more than 14,000 civilians were killed or wounded. On 24 February 2022, Russia escalated the conflict by invading the country on several fronts, in what has become the largest conventional military attack on a sovereign state in Europe since World War II. Russia made substantial gains in the early weeks of the invasion but underestimated Ukrainian resolve and combat capabilities. Despite Ukrainian resistance, Russia has laid claim to four Ukrainian oblasts -- Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia -- although none is fully under Russian control. The international community has not recognized the annexations. The invasion has also created Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II, with over six million Ukrainian refugees recorded globally. It remains one of the two largest displacement crises worldwide (the other is the conflict in Syria). President ZELENSKYY has focused on boosting Ukrainian identity to unite the country behind the goals of ending the war through reclaiming territory and advancing Ukraine’s candidacy for EU membership.
" } }, "Geography": { "Location": { "text": "Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland, Belarus, Romania, and Moldova in the west and Russia in the east" }, "Geographic coordinates": { "text": "49 00 N, 32 00 E" }, "Map references": { "text": "AsiaEurope" }, "Area": { "total ": { "text": "603,550 sq km" }, "land": { "text": "579,330 sq km" }, "water": { "text": "24,220 sq km" }, "note": "note: Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, an area of approximately 27,000 sq km (10,400 sq miles)" }, "Area - comparative": { "text": "almost four times the size of Georgia; slightly smaller than Texas" }, "Land boundaries": { "total": { "text": "5,581 km" }, "border countries": { "text": "Belarus 1,111 km; Hungary 128 km; Moldova 1,202 km; Poland 498 km; Romania 601 km; Russia 1,944 km, Slovakia 97 km" } }, "Coastline": { "text": "2,782 km" }, "Maritime claims": { "territorial sea": { "text": "12 nm" }, "exclusive economic zone": { "text": "200 nm" }, "continental shelf": { "text": "200 m or to the depth of exploitation" } }, "Climate": { "text": "temperate continental; Mediterranean only on the southern Crimean coast; precipitation disproportionately distributed, highest in west and north, lesser in east and southeast; winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland; warm summers across the greater part of the country, hot in the south" }, "Terrain": { "text": "mostly fertile plains (steppes) and plateaus, with mountains found only in the west (the Carpathians) or in the extreme south of the Crimean Peninsula" }, "Elevation": { "highest point": { "text": "Hora Hoverla 2,061 m" }, "lowest point": { "text": "Black Sea 0 m" }, "mean elevation": { "text": "175 m" } }, "Natural resources": { "text": "iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas, oil, salt, sulfur, graphite, titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel, mercury, timber, arable land" }, "Land use": { "agricultural land": { "text": "71.2% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: arable land": { "text": "arable land: 56.1% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent crops": { "text": "permanent crops: 1.5% (2018 est.)" }, "agricultural land: permanent pasture": { "text": "permanent pasture: 13.6% (2018 est.)" }, "forest": { "text": "16.8% (2018 est.)" }, "other": { "text": "12% (2018 est.)" } }, "Irrigated land": { "text": "4,350 sq km (2020)" }, "Major rivers (by length in km)": { "text": "Dunay (Danube) (shared with Germany [s], Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Romania [m]) - 2,888 km; Dnipro (Dnieper) river mouth (shared with Russia [s] and Belarus) - 2,287 km; Dnister (Dniester) river source and mouth (shared with Moldova) - 1,411 km; Vistula (shared with Poland [s/m] and Belarus) - 1,213 kmdue to conflict - Ukraine continues to be a significant supplier of food commodities for the world; however, according to a 2023 analysis, at least 17.6 million people are estimated to be in need of multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance in 2023 due to the war, including over 11 million in need of food security and livelihood interventions; the harvest of the 2023 winter cereal crops, mostly wheat, is onging and will be concluded by August; as a result of a smaller planted area, the 2023 wheat harvest in areas under government control is estimated at 18.5 million mt, about 8% below the already war‑affected 2022 output; despite decreased cereal production, food availability at the national level is reported to be adequate, but access remains a major challenge; the country has already experienced elevated levels of food price inflation in the past, due to the economic impact of the conflict in eastern areas; in addition, rising energy costs, amidst high unemployment rates and limited livelihood opportunities, are reducing households’ purchasing power and driving more people into poverty
(2023)" } }, "Revenue from forest resources": { "text": "0.34% of GDP (2018 est.)" }, "Revenue from coal": { "text": "0.42% of GDP (2018 est.)" }, "Air pollutants": { "particulate matter emissions": { "text": "13.51 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)" }, "carbon dioxide emissions": { "text": "202.25 megatons (2016 est.)" }, "methane emissions": { "text": "63.37 megatons (2020 est.)" } }, "Waste and recycling": { "municipal solid waste generated annually": { "text": "15,242,025 tons (2016 est.)" }, "municipal solid waste recycled annually": { "text": "487,745 tons (2015 est.)" }, "percent of municipal solid waste recycled": { "text": "3.2% (2015 est.)" } }, "Major rivers (by length in km)": { "text": "Dunay (Danube) (shared with Germany [s], Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Romania [m]) - 2,888 km; Dnipro (Dnieper) river mouth (shared with Russia [s] and Belarus) - 2,287 km; Dnister (Dniester) river source and mouth (shared with Moldova) - 1,411 km; Vistula (shared with Poland [s/m] and Belarus) - 1,213 km" }, "subordinate courts": { "text": "
Courts of Appeal; district courts
" }, "note": "note: specialized courts were abolished as part of Ukraine's judicial reform program; in November 2019, President ZELENSKYY signed a bill on legal reforms" }, "Political parties": { "text": "Batkivshchyna (Fatherland)1,461,700 (Russian-sponsored separatist violence in Crimea and eastern Ukraine) (2021); 3.67 million (2023) (since Russian invasion that started in February 2022); note – the more recent invasion total may reflect some double counting, since it is impossible to determine how many of the recent IDPs may also include IDPs from the earlier Russian-sponsored violence in Crimea and eastern Ukraine
" }, "stateless persons": { "text": "36,459 (2022); note - citizens of the former USSR who were permanently resident in Ukraine were granted citizenship upon Ukraine's independence in 1991, but some missed this window of opportunity; people arriving after 1991, Crimean Tatars, ethnic Koreans, people with expired Soviet passports, and people with no documents have difficulty acquiring Ukrainian citizenship; following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, thousands of Crimean Tatars and their descendants deported from Ukraine under the STALIN regime returned to their homeland, some being stateless and others holding the citizenship of Uzbekistan or other former Soviet republics; a 1998 bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Uzbekistan simplified the process of renouncing Uzbek citizenship and obtaining Ukrainian citizenship" } }, "Illicit drugs": { "text": "