Ukraine Background:
Ukraine was the center of the first eastern Slavic state, Kyivan Rus, which during the 10th and 11th centuries was the largest and most powerful state in Europe. 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 through subsequent centuries. 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, most Ukrainian ethnographic territory was absorbed by the Russian Empire. Following the collapse of czarist Russia in 1917, Ukraine was able to bring about a short-lived period of independence (1917-20), but was reconquered and forced to endure a brutal Soviet rule that engineered two artificial famines (1921-22 and 1932-33) in which over 8 million died. In World War II, German and Soviet armies were responsible for some 7 to 8 million more deaths.
Although final independence for Ukraine was achieved in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR, democracy remained elusive as the legacy of state control and endemic corruption stalled efforts at economic reform, privatization, and civil liberties. A peaceful mass protest "Orange Revolution" in the closing months of 2004 forced the authorities to overturn a rigged presidential election and to allow a new internationally monitored vote that swept into power a reformist slate under Viktor YUSHCHENKO. Subsequent internal squabbles in the YUSHCHENKO camp allowed his rival Viktor YANUKOVYCH to stage a comeback in parliamentary elections and become prime minister in August of 2006. He was made president in 2010 but was subsequently ousted in a coup in 2014 and was replaced by Petro Poroshenko who has now been replaced by Volodymyr Zelensky.
Some Details about Ukraine:-
Area: 603,700 sq. km.
Population (2003): 47.66 million
Average annual rate of increase: -0.73%
Birth rate: 9.7 births / 1,000 population
Infant mortality rate (2002): 10.5 / 1,000 live births
Capital (2001 census): Kiev (2.61 million)
Other large cities (2001 census): Kharkiv (1.47 million), Dnipropetrovsk (1.07 million), Odessa (1.03 million), Donetsk (1.02 million), Zaporizhya (820,000), Lviv (730,000)
Currency: Hryvnya, since Sept. 1996; 1USD = 5.33 UAH
Languages: Ukrainian (official language), Russian
Ethnic composition (2001): Ukrainian 77.8%, Russian 17.3%, Moldovan/Romanian 0.8%, Belarusian 0.6%, Crimean Tatar 0.5%, Bulgarian 0.4%, other 2.9%
Religions: Orthodox 55%, Ukrainian Catholic (Uniate) 13.5%, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2002): $218 billion
Real growth rate (2003): 8.5%
Inflation (2003): 8.2%
Unemployment (2003): 3.6%
Natural resources: Coal, iron ore, manganese, salt, sulphur, uranium, natural gas, graphite, titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel, mercury, timber
Industry: Metallurgy, machine-building, petrochemical, chemical, nuclear energy
