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 and Slovakia to the west; Hungary, 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 understood, 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, 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. Ukraine is a middle power and the Ukrainian Armed Force is the fifth largest armed force in the world in terms of both active personnel as well as total number of personnel with the eighth largest defence budget 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
- 10 September 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Ukraine launches drone attacks on multiple regions of Russia, including Moscow, prompting all flights to be suspended at Vnukovo International Airport and Moscow Domodedovo Airport. Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz says that at least 59 Ukrainian drones have been shot down over the region. Russia also reports that two people were killed in the Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow. (Reuters) (Times of Israel)
- Iran and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Iran–United Kingdom relations, France–Iran relations, Germany–Iran relations
- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claims that Russia has received a shipment of Fath 360 tactical ballistic missiles from Iran, and expects their deployment "within weeks". Iran denies the claim, calling it "psychological warfare". In response, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany announce new sanctions on Iran for supplying Russia with ballistic missiles. (BBC News) (The Telegraph)
- 10 September 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine, Netherlands–Ukraine relations
- The Netherlands lifts all of its weapons restrictions on military equipment that it provided to Ukraine, allowing the Ukrainian army to target Russia with deep strikes while also urging other nations to lift their weapons restrictions. (Kyiv Post)
- 9 September 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Eastern Ukraine campaign
- Russian troops capture the village of Memryk in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. (Al Jazeera)
- Russia–NATO relations
- The Latvian Defence Ministry confirms that a Russian military Shahed drone that crashed near the village of Gaigalava, Latvia, last week was carrying explosives and was likely intended to strike Ukraine. (Reuters)
- Use of incendiary weapons in the Russo-Ukrainian War
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 Ukrainian baritone Danylo Matviienko, who holds a master's degree in mathematics, appeared as Demetrius in Britten's opera A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Oper Frankfurt?
- ... that street artist TVBoy, known for his murals of footballers in Barcelona, painted uplifting art in regions of Kyiv ahead of the one-year anniversary of the 2022 Russian invasion?
- ... that the Dvorichna settlement hromada has remained divided between Russia and Ukraine since the 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive?
- ... 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 Yulia Tolopa, a single mother from Russia, has fought for Ukraine in the war in Donbas since she was 18 years old?
- ... that Ukrainian parties obtained only a fifth of the votes in the 1917 Kiev City Duma election?
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 Ukrainian naturalist, lecturer, artist and author John Lhotsky was credited as the first discoverer of gold in New South Wales?
- ... that the married Western Ukrainian Clergy became a hereditary caste that dominated western Ukrainian society?
- ... that the Khreschatyk is the main street of Ukrainian capital Kyiv on which Orange Revolution and other historical events mainly took place?
- ... that the Privat Group is one of the few Ukrainian companies that own industries in the United States?
- ... that Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych (pictured), known for the "Carol of the Bells", was nicknamed "Ukrainian Bach" in France?
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
- 10 September 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Ukraine launches drone attacks on multiple regions of Russia, including Moscow, prompting all flights to be suspended at Vnukovo International Airport and Moscow Domodedovo Airport. Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz says that at least 59 Ukrainian drones have been shot down over the region. Russia also reports that two people were killed in the Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow. (Reuters) (Times of Israel)
- Iran and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Iran–United Kingdom relations, France–Iran relations, Germany–Iran relations
- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claims that Russia has received a shipment of Fath 360 tactical ballistic missiles from Iran, and expects their deployment "within weeks". Iran denies the claim, calling it "psychological warfare". In response, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany announce new sanctions on Iran for supplying Russia with ballistic missiles. (BBC News) (The Telegraph)
- 10 September 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine, Netherlands–Ukraine relations
- The Netherlands lifts all of its weapons restrictions on military equipment that it provided to Ukraine, allowing the Ukrainian army to target Russia with deep strikes while also urging other nations to lift their weapons restrictions. (Kyiv Post)
- 9 September 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Eastern Ukraine campaign
- Russian troops capture the village of Memryk in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. (Al Jazeera)
- Russia–NATO relations
- The Latvian Defence Ministry confirms that a Russian military Shahed drone that crashed near the village of Gaigalava, Latvia, last week was carrying explosives and was likely intended to strike Ukraine. (Reuters)
- Use of incendiary weapons in the Russo-Ukrainian War
Selected anniversaries for September
- September 4, 1985 — Vasyl Stus died of beating in a Soviet forced labor camp for political prisoners near the village of Kuchino, Perm Oblast, Russian SFSR.
- September 14, 1911 — Dmitry Bogrov shot and killed the Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin in the Kiev Opera theater in front of Tsar Nicholas II.
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