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. Nonetheless, Ukraine is a major middle power and possesses the fifth largest and one of the best-funded armed forces in the world. The Ukrainian Armed Forces also operates one of the largest and most diverse drone fleet 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
- 21 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Eastern Ukraine campaign
- Russian forces capture the villages of Andriivka in Luhansk Oblast and Pishchane in Kharkiv Oblast. (Anatolia Agency) (RTL)
- 20 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Southern Ukraine campaign
- Five people, including a child, are killed in Russian missile strikes on Mykolaiv and Kherson, Ukraine. (Euronews) (The Moscow Times)
- 19 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Eastern Ukraine campaign
- Ukrainian forces retreat from Urozhaine in Donetsk Oblast. (The Independent)
- The Russian Ministry of Defence announces that its troops captured the village of Yuryivka in Donetsk Oblast. (Al Arabiya)
- 19 July 2024 –
- Ukrainian linguist, nationalist politician, and former People's Deputy Iryna Farion is shot and killed in Lviv, Ukraine by an unknown assailant. (Reuters)
- 18 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Southern Ukraine campaign
- Dnieper campaign
Featured pictures
Did you know (auto-generated)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Nuvola_apps_filetypes.svg/47px-Nuvola_apps_filetypes.svg.png)
- ... that Lesia Vasylenko founded a human-rights non-governmental organization to assist servicemen and veterans before becoming a People's Deputy of Ukraine?
- ... that more than 200 Nobel Prize laureates have signed a letter against the war in Ukraine?
- ... that the Dvorichna settlement hromada has remained divided between Russia and Ukraine since the 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive?
- ... that Valeriy Chybineyev was honored as a Hero of Ukraine in 2016 for his actions during the war in Donbas?
- ... that Love, a sculpture by Ukrainian artist Alexander Milov, represents two wire-frame adults who appear to be alienated, but inside their bodies two children reach out to each other?
- ... that military volunteer Maria Berlinska led the report that let women hold combat positions in the Ukrainian military?
More did you know -
- ... 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?
- ... 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 the married Western Ukrainian Clergy became a hereditary caste that dominated western Ukrainian society?
- ... 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 Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych (pictured), known for the "Carol of the Bells", was nicknamed "Ukrainian Bach" in France?
- ... that Ukrainian naturalist, lecturer, artist and author John Lhotsky was credited as the first discoverer of gold in New South Wales?
Selected article -
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Yana_Klochkova_2010_001.jpg/220px-Yana_Klochkova_2010_001.jpg)
Sports in Ukraine as in any other country throughout the World plays an important role in shaping the popular view of Ukraine and Ukrainian popular culture to its residents and the rest of the World. Sports in Ukraine while it is voluntary and spontaneous, it is regulated and standardized by the government and respected government agency as well as legislation. According to the Law of Ukraine "About physical culture and sports", sports is an activity of subjects of the sphere of physical culture and sport directed to identification and the unified comparison of achievements of people in physical, intellectual, and other preparation by holding sports competitions and preparation for them. The sport has such directions: children's sports, sports for children and young people, reserve sports, elite sports (sports of higher achievements), professional sports, sports of veterans of physical culture and sport, veterans of war, the Olympic sport, not Olympic sport, office and applied and military and applied sport, sports of persons with disability and so forth.
Being dominated by Russia since the 18th century, sports in the bigger portion of Ukraine as the rest of popular culture in Ukraine has been overshadowed by Russian culture as its regional deviation. As part of Ukrainian culture, sports began its development in Austria-Hungary and were influenced by various European physical culture movements such as pan-Germanic Turners, pan-Slavic Sokol movement, and others (such as all-Jewish Maccabiah sports). In the Russian Empire, the Ukrainian nation was never recognized and was criminally prosecuted, while the Little-Russian culture was allowed to exist only as folk culture. Only after dissolution of the Soviet Union, in 1992 the Ukrainian anthem first sounded at Olympic Games starting with the Olympic victory of Oleh Kucherenko and immediately followed by victories of Tetiana Hutsu and Oleksandra Tymoshenko. (Full article...)In the news
- 21 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Eastern Ukraine campaign
- Russian forces capture the villages of Andriivka in Luhansk Oblast and Pishchane in Kharkiv Oblast. (Anatolia Agency) (RTL)
- 20 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Southern Ukraine campaign
- Five people, including a child, are killed in Russian missile strikes on Mykolaiv and Kherson, Ukraine. (Euronews) (The Moscow Times)
- 19 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Eastern Ukraine campaign
- Ukrainian forces retreat from Urozhaine in Donetsk Oblast. (The Independent)
- The Russian Ministry of Defence announces that its troops captured the village of Yuryivka in Donetsk Oblast. (Al Arabiya)
- 19 July 2024 –
- Ukrainian linguist, nationalist politician, and former People's Deputy Iryna Farion is shot and killed in Lviv, Ukraine by an unknown assailant. (Reuters)
- 18 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Southern Ukraine campaign
- Dnieper campaign
Selected anniversaries for July
![A 1943 Soviet stamp commemorating Lyudmila Pavlichenko.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/Pav-Stamp.jpg/100px-Pav-Stamp.jpg)
- July 12, 1916 — Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a Soviet sniper during World War II, was born in Bila Tserkva.
- July 21, 1774 — Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca was signed between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire after the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774.
- July 24, 1990 — The first ceremonial raising of the Ukrainian national flag took place on Khreschatyk, on the large flagstaff of the Kiev City Council.
- July 27, 2002 — An airplane crashed at the Sknyliv airshow; 84 people were killed and over 100 injured.
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