UKRAINE

Ukraine (Ukrainian: Україна, romanized: Ukraïna, pronounced [ʊkrɐˈjinɐ] (listen)) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second largest country in Europe after Russia,^[12] which borders it to the east and north-east.^[a] Ukraine also shares borders with Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova^[b] to the south; and has a coastline along the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. It covers about 600,000 km² (230,000 sq mi),^[c] with a population of about 40 million.^[13][14][d] The nation's capital and largest city is Kyiv. The official and national language is Ukrainian, and most people are also fluent in Russian.^[15]

Ukraine During the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture under Kievan Rus', which was ultimately destroyed by the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. Over the next 600 years, the area was contested, divided, and ruled by external powers, 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 completely absorbed by the Russian Empire. The 19th century saw the growth of Ukrainian nationalism, particularly in Galicia, then part of Austria-Hungary. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution a Ukrainian national movement re-emerged, and the Ukrainian People's Republic was formed in 1917. This short-lived state was forcibly reconstituted into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a founding member of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1922. From 1932 to 1937 the Holodomor killed millions of Ukrainians. In 1939, Western Ukraine was annexed from Poland by the USSR, four weeks after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, and one day after the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union had approved the pact.[16] Between 1922 and 1991, Ukraine was the most populous and industrialized republic after the Russian SFSR. Relations between the two countries became hostile after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, which was followed by Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and due to Russia's backing for the separatist fighters of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic in a war, conflicts that had killed more than 13,000 people by early 2020, and brought Western sanctions on Russia.[5] Numerous bilateral agreements have been terminated and economic ties severed. Throughout 2021 and 2022, a Russian military buildup on the border of Ukraine escalated tensions between the two countries and strained their bilateral relations.[6][7] Ukraine broke diplomatic relations with Moscow in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Streets bearing the names of Russian figures and monuments symbolising Russia and Ukraine friendship were removed from various locations across Ukraine.[8] For more click on it GO