Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Central and Eastern Europe. Ukraine borders the Russian Federationto the east and northeast, Belarus to the northwest, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively. has It an area of 603, 628 km², making it the second largest contiguouscountryon the European continent, after the Russian Federation Established by the Varangians in the 9 th century, the medieval state of Kievan Rus, the first East Slavic state, emerged as a powerful nation in the Middle Ages until it disintegratedin the 12 th century. By the middle of the 14 th century, Ukrainian territorieswere under the rule of three externalpowers—the Golden Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Kingdomof Poland. After the Great Northern War (1700– 1721)Ukraine was divided between a number of regional powers and, by the 19 th century, the largest part of Ukraine was integrated into the Russian Empire with the rest under Austro-Hungarian control. A chaotic period of incessant warfare ensued, with several attemptsat independencefrom 1917 to 1921, following. World War I and the Russian Civil War. Ukraine emerged from this fighting on December 30, 1922 as one of the foundingrepublics of the Soviet. Union. The Ukrainian Soviet. Socialist. Republic's territory was enlarged westward shortly before and after World War II, and southwards in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding members of the United Nations.
Ukraine became independentagain when the Soviet. Union dissolvedin 1991. This dissolution started a period of transition to a market economy, in which Ukraine was stricken with an eight-year recession. Since then, however, the economyexperienceda high increase in GDP growth. Ukraine was caught up in the worldwide economiccrisis in 2008 and the economyplunged. GDP fell 20% from spring 2008 to spring 2009, then leveled off as analysts compared the magnitudeof the downturn to the worst years of economicdepressionduring the early 1990 s. However, the country remains a globally-importantmarket and supplier, particularly, the world's third biggest grain exporter (as of 2011). Ukraine is a unitary state composed of 24 oblasts (provinces), one autonomousrepublic (Crimea), and two citieswith special status: Kiev, its capital and largest city, and Sevastopol, which houses the Russian Black Sea Fleet under a leasing agreement. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Since the dissolutionof the Soviet. Union, Ukraine continuesto mainthe second largest militaryin Europe, after that of Russia. The countryis home to 46 millionpeople, 77. 8 percentof whom are ethnic Ukrainians, with sizable minoritiesof Russians (17%), Belarusians and Romanians. The Ukrainian language is the official language in Ukraine. Russian is also widelyspoken. The dominantreligionin the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which has heavily influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature and music.
