Ukraine

Entry rules
Citizens of the CIS countries, the European Union, the USA and some others can visit Ukraine without a visa. After the outbreak of hostilities, the entry of Russian citizens is practically impossible; from July 1, 2022, it is additionally necessary to obtain a visa, which is not yet issued. For a long time, nothing more than a passport was needed to enter the country, but in 2014, due to the aggravation of the political situation, Ukrainian border guards began to treat visitors quite meticulously, demanding strict adherence to all the rules of visa-free entry.

Travelers entering Ukraine without a visa must confirm the purpose of their stay and the availability of funds. For the first one, an invitation from friends/relatives or hotel reservations is enough (printouts from booking.com are quite satisfactory for border guards). The second requires cash or an account statement. The amount of necessary financial support is calculated according to a rather tricky formula: two-thirds of the monthly living wage per day of stay, and five should be added to the number of days - apparently in case you like it so much that you want to stay. In the spring of 2017, the cost of living is UAH 1,624. For a week of stay, therefore, you need to have 1624x(2/3)x12 = 13000 UAH with you. In reality, you will not spend this amount even close, unless you become chic. You should also have a return ticket with you - the border guards are also actively interested in it.

Visiting Crimea and Donbass: those who have previously violated the internationally recognized state borders of the country are not allowed into Ukraine, that is, they entered the Crimean Peninsula (annexed by Russia) or the Donbass (unrecognized DNR and LNR) through the territory of Russia (it is legal to enter these territories from Ukraine to a foreigner is almost impossible). Border guards can ask a direct question about this and check for the presence of DPR and LPR stamps in the passport, or they can also use their own database, which recently acquired the “inform on a neighbor” function, thanks to which concerned citizens have the opportunity to report violators to the Ukrainian authorities. If you have been to Crimea or the unrecognized republics, and information about this is available in the public space, you should not travel to Ukraine. The minimum that threatens you is a ban on entry or deportation (maybe plus a fine), although the law allows for more severe punishments up to imprisonment (which, fortunately, has not happened to ordinary travelers so far).

By plane
Almost all international flights arrive in Kyiv. Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, LOT and Turkish Airlines operate flights to some other Ukrainian airports - these are Lviv, Odessa, Kharkiv and Dnepropetrovsk. Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) offers, in turn, connections via Kyiv to all the cities listed and not only, although the total travel time is often indecently long, since domestic flights fly no more than 1-2 times a day.

Direct flights to Russia have been suspended. From Moscow, Belavia offers numerous and generally quite convenient connections via Minsk to all those airports where Russian airlines used to fly directly. For residents of other cities, and even more so countries, these connections are less suitable, since Belavia itself has a very modest route network.

By train
From Russia: after 2014, the number of trains has noticeably decreased, although on the Moscow-Kyiv line they still run 5-6 times a day, all of the Ukrainian formation. Trains from Russia to Moldova go through Ukraine, the rest of the international trains of Russian Railways have been canceled or redirected to Belarus. There are two daily trains on the Moscow-Belgorod-Kharkov line, commuter trains have been cancelled. On other lines there is no passenger service at all.

From Belarus: usually trains run along the Gomel-Chernigov line, no more than 2 times a day (only long-distance, no suburban). On the other lines, only episodic and very uncomfortable messages.

From the west: a night train Lviv-Wroclaw runs to Poland via Krakow. In addition, InterCity Kyiv-Lviv daytime trains have been extended to Polish Przemysl, from where, in turn, Polish ICs run to Rzeszow and Krakow. There is also a night train Kyiv-Warsaw, going through Volyn, but for some reason not making a single stop in Ukraine. From Chop several times a day commuter trains run to Slovakia (Csjerna nad Tisou, docking at Kosice) and the Hungarian Zahony, from where you can go to Budapest. There are also carriages of the Kyiv-Budapest direct communication, clinging to one of the border suburban ones.

From Romania: from Chernivtsi to Suceava you can leave by commuter trains once a day, Kyiv-Bucharest carriages occasionally go there. There is no communication on the Transcarpathian border lines. The best thing you can do is go to Hungary and break through to Satu Mare from there.

From Moldova: Moldovan trains in the direction of Russia cross the border at Mogilev-Podolsky (2-3 times a day). The Russian train Moscow-Chisinau runs every other day and follows the southern route through Tiraspol and Bendery. Another train, this time again from Moldova, connects Odessa with Chisinau and also passes through Transnistria.

By car
The quality of the roads, of course, leaves much to be desired. Although most major highways are still in relatively good condition.

Keep in mind that fuel prices in Ukraine are somewhat higher than in Russia (usually around +5-15%). Especially after November 2009, the price of liquefied gas “took off”. In general, gas stations are quite common along any route.

From Russia
Border crossings between Russia and Ukraine are divided into three types:

international - open to all travelers;
bilateral, or interstate - open only to citizens of Russia and Ukraine. Since it is Russians and Ukrainians who make up the vast majority of people crossing the border between Russia and Ukraine, for them bilateral crossings are no different from international ones, although, for example, the Lomakovka-Nikolaevka bilateral crossing effectively cuts off the flow of Belarusian cars.
local - open only to those living in the border areas and only for trips to the adjacent border area of a neighboring country. All of them represent a booth of a sleepy border guard on a rural road between two villages that are on opposite sides of the border. It is difficult to get to such a checkpoint by accident, and it makes no sense to purposefully go there even at the peak of the season: on broken rural roads you will spend more time, nerves and suspension resources than standing in line at an international or two-way crossing.

On May holidays, as well as from the second half of June to the end of August, popular checkpoints are overcrowded, in the worst case, you can stand at the border for 5-7 hours. Many checkpoints have webcams that allow you to find out the size of the queue here and now: at the entrance to the border, it will be useful to assess the traffic situation and choose the least loaded crossing.

By bus
Brands of long-distance lines have been formed: Autolux, Gunsel, UkrBus, Sheriff, ImperiyaAvto and many others. The more expensive the tickets, the more comfortable and modern the buses, which are equipped with a TV (video monitor) for each passenger, headphones, general air conditioning, and so on.

If you are heading to the central part of Ukraine, use international buses going to Kyiv or in transit through the capital to regional centers. Most likely they will bring you to the central bus station or maybe to the bus station at the railway station.

In the western regions of Ukraine, the main transit point is the Lviv bus station. Sustainable communication with European countries and especially with Poland.

In the eastern region, you can use buses from Russia, usually traveling to Kharkov, Luhansk or Donetsk. However, the last two points are difficult to access due to the difficult military and political situation.

In the south of Ukraine, the largest bus service center is Odessa, where buses from Bulgaria, Romania, Transnistria, Moldova, Russia, Poland and some other countries go.

By ship
to seaports in the south of the country. The largest of them is Odessa - "the sea gates of Ukraine", etc.

On foot
From the final stop of bus number 1 in the city of Donetsk (RF) to the Ukrainian customs in the village of Izvarino, about 300 meters. After customs, you can try to take the Donetsk (RF)-Krasnodon minibus, but it’s easier to leave with passing gazelles, which charge about the same as a minibus (in 2004 - 1-2 hryvnia)

Transport

By train
Railways cover the entire territory of Ukraine, the only operator is the state enterprise UkrZaliznytsya. In general, the system of organization of Ukrainian railway transport is very reminiscent of Russia. All trains are divided into long-distance and suburban, and tickets for them are sold at different ticket offices and often even in different buildings, since many stations have separate suburban stations. Tickets for long-distance trains are issued with a seat and the name of the passenger, but - unlike in Russia - without a passport number. When boarding a train, the conductor must verify the identity of the passenger, although in practice some conductors do not do this: either the rule is too new (registered tickets were introduced in the spring of 2013), or everyone is aware of its meaninglessness.

Tickets for long-distance trains can be bought at the ticket offices of railway stations, travel agencies and on the Internet on the Ukrzaliznytsia website or on the rather convenient e-ticket website. Tickets for Russian trains traveling through Ukraine can be bought through the Russian Railways website (however, do not forget to print the ticket before leaving for Ukraine!). Tickets for intra-Ukrainian trains are usually not “seen” by the RZD website. However, Russian ticket offices and travel agencies sell Ukrainian tickets, albeit at a premium. Any ticket purchased through the site must be printed on the form. Electronic tickets from the UZ website must be printed immediately. Tickets with an e-ticket must be received at the box office, that is, come to the box office and stand in line. Formally, you can print a ticket without a queue, but Ukrainian queues are no different from Russian ones, so your chances of success are usually small. There are no ticket printing machines in Ukraine. However, there are special ticket offices for tickets purchased online. Look for such a cash desk before getting up in the general queue.

If you are going to buy a ticket at the box office, remember that there are different ticket offices: advance and daily sale. This archaism is accompanied by an intricate schedule of technical breaks, so that at large stations the choice of the right cash desk and the right queue turns into an exciting lottery. By default, tickets for reclining places are sold with linen (with bills), even if the journey is only 1-2 hours. Linen is inexpensive, but if ₴10-15 is critical for you, do not forget to refuse linen when buying a ticket. Recently there was a fun opportunity to include tea and other drinks in the ticket price. Why this is done is still unknown to science.

Ukrainian trains have three-digit numbers: from 001 to 099 fast, from 151 to 190 high-speed, from 200 passenger/baggage and other slow. High-speed trains are usually seated, and the rest are recumbent, but there is no logic in this: there are daytime trains with recumbents, and there are night trains exclusively with seated cars - always check what type of cars are on the train. Lying places can be a reserved seat, compartment and SV (luxury), and seated - a common carriage based on a reserved seat or a seated carriage with chairs. The carriages are generally similar to Russian ones, with the exception of a few daytime high-speed routes, which are operated by modern trains manufactured by Hyundai. These trains are the only truly high-speed trains, while the rest travel at almost the same - not very high - speed. Sometimes Ukrainian trains have modern cars with dry closets and air conditioners, but most often a Ukrainian train is a train without air conditioning or with an inoperative air conditioner and a dirty toilet, which the conductors close at the stations. The inconvenience is partly offset by low prices: a reserved seat ticket in Ukraine rarely costs more than ₴100, a coupe is on average only half the price. SV cars are expensive by Ukrainian standards (₴400-500 for a night train), although they are also quite affordable on the international scale. New high-speed trains are significantly more expensive. Tickets for them cost ₴200-300.

Etymology

According to the most authoritative and widespread version, including in Ukraine itself, the name of the state comes from the Old Russian word ѹkraina - "border region" - which was originally applied to various border lands of Russia and the Old Russian principalities.

As reported in the dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron, after South-Western Russia entered the Polish Crown in 1569, a part of its territory stretching from Podolia in the west to the mouth of the Dnieper (“Ochakovsky field”) in the south and including a large part of the lands of the future Yekaterinoslav province in the east, became in this state unofficially referred to as "Ukraine". This was due to the border location of these territories in the Polish state.

Thus, in the 16th-18th centuries, "Ukraine" becomes the name of a specific geographical region among the names of other historical and ethnographic regions (Volyn, Podolia, Pokuttya, Severshchina, Chervonaya Rus, Zaporozhye). It is assigned to the Middle Dnieper (Southern Kiev region and Bratslav region) - the territory controlled by the Cossacks. The inhabitants of this territory began to be called Ukrainians or Ukrainians. The geographical, and not ethnic, connection of this concept is demonstrated by the fact that the Polish gentry serving in these territories were also called Ukrainians. The number of Ukrainians gradually increased, and the name "Ukraine" spread to regions beyond the original territory. During the Khmelnytsky uprising, it began to apply to the entire territory where hostilities took place. The concept was used in written sources and in works of oral folk art; Bogdan Khmelnitsky himself and his successors used it. It, however, did not spread to all the southern Russian lands and did not become the name of the state. After the Andrusovo truce (1667), which divided Ukraine along the Dnieper, the names “segogobnaya Ukraine”, “togogobnaya Ukraine” and “Little Russian Ukraine” appeared in use.

Since the 18th century, the concept of "Ukraine" has been used in a geographical sense and is well known along with the name "Little Russia". With the growth of national self-consciousness, the significance of the concept of "Ukraine" increased, and the word itself began to be perceived not only as a geographical term, but partly as the name of an ethnic space. This became especially noticeable towards the end of the 19th century. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the term "Ukraine" as the name of the entire ethnic territory became completely independent and self-sufficient, displacing other self-names that have since been used only at the regional level. In the course of the struggle of the Ukrainian national movement in the 1920s, in connection with the Bolshevik policy, indigenization and Ukrainization began.

Some Ukrainian historians and linguists put forward a version that the name "Ukraine" comes from the word "land", "land", that is, simply "country", "land inhabited by its people". This version, in particular, is given in school textbooks on the history of Ukraine. At the same time, it is argued that the terms "Ukraine" and "outskirts" have always clearly differed in meaning.

Geographical position

Ukraine is located in the southeastern part of Europe, within the East European Plain. The territory of the republic within its internationally recognized borders is 603,549 km², which corresponds to 5.7% of the territory of Europe and 0.44% of the world's territory (44th place in terms of area among the countries of the world and 1st among countries entirely located in Europe).

Ukrainian control over the Crimean peninsula and parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions was lost in 2014. Russia has de facto annexed almost the entire territory of Crimea (with the exception of the north of the Arabat Strelka, which has been the territory of the Kherson region since 1954), and certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions are controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, respectively; in addition, in 2022, Russia and the DPR and LPR supported by it conquered a number of other territories of Ukraine (parts of the Kherson, Zaporozhye and Kharkiv regions, the expansion of “pro-Russian” control in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions). Regardless of the form of administration in these territories, all of them, according to Ukrainian legislation, are a temporarily occupied part of the country.

The territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders measures 1,316 km from west to east and 893 km from north to south; lies approximately between 52°20' and 45°20' north latitude and 22°5' and 41°15' east longitude. The extreme northern point is the village of Gremyach, Novgorod-Seversky district of the Chernihiv region, the southern one is Cape Sarych (Sevastopol region) (according to other estimates, Cape Nikolai, 3.1 km east of Cape Sarych), the western one is the village of Solomonovo near the town of Chop, Transcarpathian region, eastern - the village of Early Zorya, Luhansk region.

The geographical center of Europe, according to measurements made in 1887 by the military department of Austria-Hungary, as well as by Soviet scientists after World War II, is located on the territory of modern Ukraine, not far from the city of Rakhiv, Transcarpathian region, although, according to other calculations, points in other states.

Ukraine is located in the zones of pine and mixed forests, forest-steppe and steppe. To the north of the chernozem belt, gray forest and soddy-podzolic soils under mixed forests are common, and to the south, dark chestnut and chestnut soils under dry steppes. The forest zone includes a variety of mixed and deciduous forests with white fir, pine, beech and oak; in the forest-steppe zone, the forests are mainly oak, and the steppe zone is characterized by grasses and belt forest plantations.

Borders

Ukraine has an official border with 7 UN member states: in the east, northeast and actually in the south (Crimean section) with Russia, in the north with Belarus, in the west with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, in the southwest with Moldova (part of controlled by the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic) and Romania. The length of the coastline is 2835 km. The total length of the borders is 6992 km, the length of the sea border is 1355 km (in the Black Sea - 1056.5 km; in the Sea of Azov - 249.5 km), the length of the land border is 5637 km. Part of the territories in the south of Ukraine (the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol) have actually been annexed to Russia since 2014. Part of the territories in the east of Ukraine (Donetsk and Lugansk regions) has been a zone of armed conflict since 2014 and is not controlled by Ukraine.

Relief

The relief of most of the territory has a flat character: lowlands occupy 70%, and hills and mountains - 25% and 5%, respectively. The mountains are located in the west (Ukrainian Carpathians, the highest point is Mount Hoverla, 2061 m above sea level) and the south (Crimean Mountains, the highest point is Mount Roman-Kosh, 1545 m above sea level).

The main lowlands are: in the south - the Black Sea lowland, in the north - Polesskaya, in the center - Pridneprovskaya, in the west - Transcarpathian.

In the south of Ukraine, on the territory of the Kherson region, there is one of the largest sandy massifs in Europe - Aleshkovsky Sands.

Climate

Throughout Ukraine, the climate is temperate continental, the degree of continentality increases in the direction from west to east and increases with an increase in the annual amplitude of air temperature, the eastern regions of Ukraine are characterized by the greatest continentality. The Carpathians are characterized by a mountainous type of climate, while the territory of the Crimea has a subtropical climate of the Mediterranean type.

Summer throughout Ukraine is long, warm or hot, the average temperature in July is + 18-24 ° C. Winter strongly depends on the region, the average temperature ranges from -8 ° C to + 2-4 ° C. west of the republic; the coldest winters are observed in the northeast. The average annual rainfall is 600 mm, while significantly varying depending on the region - up to 1600 mm of precipitation falls annually in the Carpathians, 400-300 mm in the south and southeast.

Flora and fauna

The nature of Ukraine is very diverse: despite the fact that Ukraine occupies less than 6% of the area of Europe, approximately 35% of the pan-European biodiversity is represented in the country due to the presence of several natural zones and the passage of migration routes of many animal species through its territory. Soil-vegetation zoning is well expressed, a combination of three natural zones is characteristic: forest, forest-steppe and steppe.

Flora of Ukraine has more than 27 thousand species of plants, and the fauna has more than 45 thousand species of animals.

Ecological situation

Taking into account the geographical position of Ukraine and the varying degree of human development of its regions, the ecological situation in the country is heterogeneous, but in general it tends to worsen, primarily due to the almost universal expansion of economic activity. The main problems in this area are the growing volume of atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gases, massive deforestation, air and water pollution from industrial waste, and the growing consumption of fresh water. Huge environmental damage is caused by forest fires, periodically covering large areas: their consequence is not only the disappearance of large areas of vegetation along with the animals living in them, but also the smoke of settlements.

On the territory of Ukraine there are areas with unfavorable ecological conditions - the Donetsk coal and Krivoy Rog iron ore basins, the Chernobyl region.

Protection of Nature

Since the end of the 20th century, the authorities have been implementing a number of programs to limit the harmful effects of industrial and agricultural activities on the environment, but they, as a rule, have a limited effect. Thanks to conservation measures, often taken in cooperation with the IUCN and other specialized international structures, it was possible to stop the decline in the populations of some animal and plant species, and in some cases to achieve an increase in their number.

Protected areas occupy 14.63% of the land and 2.98% of the sea area.

History

Representatives of the genus Homo first appeared on the territory of Ukraine about 1 million years ago. On the territory of Ukraine, about 30 remains of early Paleolithic people were found, the oldest ones are Echki-Dag, Gaspra, Ai-Petri, Cape Mayachny (near Sevastopol) in the Crimea, Korolevo in the Transcarpathian region, Amvrosievka in the Donetsk region, Luka-Vrublevetska in Khmelnytsky region, Neporotovo in the Chernivtsi region.

Neanderthals came to the territory of modern Ukraine 150 thousand years ago, and Cro-Magnons - about 40-30 thousand years ago. The sites of Buran-Kaya III, Kirillovskaya, Pushkari I, Mezinskaya and others belong to the Upper Paleolithic.

The Eneolithic (Copper Age) and Neolithic period is represented by the Trypillia, Sredny Stog and a number of other cultures.

The period of the Bronze Age is characterized by Pit, Catacomb, Srubnaya, Belogrudovskaya, Chernolesskaya cultures and a number of other archaeological cultures.

Ancient era
Scythians, an Iranian-speaking people from Central Asia, in the 7th century BC. e. ousted the Cimmerians from the Ukrainian steppes.

Around the same period, the Greeks began to establish the first colonies in the Northern Black Sea region as part of the general Greek colonization movement of the 8th-6th centuries BC (Great Greek colonization). The time frame of the ancient Greek colonization of the Northern Black Sea region is the middle of the 7th-5th centuries BC. e. It took place in several stages and in several directions: western (Lower Bug and Lower Dnieper, Western and South-Western Crimea) and eastern (both banks of the Kerch Strait, the coast of the Caucasus). During the colonization, several dozens of policies and settlements were founded, among which the largest were the Cimmerian Bosporus, Olbia, Tauric Chersonese, Phanagoria, Tyra, Nymphaeum, Germonassa.

It is believed that the Scythians created the first state on the territory of modern Ukraine. About 200 B.C. The Scythians were replaced by the Sarmatians. In the III century, the Goths moved from the north-west to the territory of Ukraine, who created their kingdom of Oyum here - the second state formation on the territory of Ukraine. The Chernyakhov archaeological culture on the Right Bank and in the Black Sea region, which existed at the turn of the 2nd-3rd - the turn of the 4th-5th centuries, is also closely associated with the Gothic era.

In 375, the Goths were defeated by the Huns, who came from the depths of Asia, and moved beyond the Danube, within the boundaries of the Roman Empire, where they eventually created their kingdoms. The state of the Huns a century later gradually disintegrated into a number of Turkic states.

After the invasion of the Huns, the hegemony over the current territory of Ukraine at the end of the 5th century passed to the Slavic tribes of Antes and Sclavins, represented respectively by the Penkov (also partially Kolochinsky) and Prague-Korchak archaeological cultures. Soon, the left-bank part of the territory of Ukraine with Tavria became dependent on the Khazar Khaganate (Saltovo-Mayak archaeological culture).

The northwestern regions of Ukraine are currently considered the most likely place for the origin of the Slavs. The Slavic tribes on the territory of Ukraine at the end of the first millennium included the Polans, the Drevlyans, the northerners, the Buzhans, the Tivertsy, the Ulichs, the Volynians, and others.

Middle Ages
By 882 in Kyiv, according to the chronicle, the princes Askold and Dir ruled. Prince Oleg of Novgorod in 882 captured Kyiv, killing its princes, and moved his capital there from Novgorod - Kyiv became the capital of the Old Russian state, which included in its composition the land along the trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" north to Ladoga and the land of the upper Volga basin east to Murom. The newly created state entered into rivalry with the Khazar Khaganate and Byzantium (the wars began as early as 860). Under Olga, the amount of tribute was regulated, under Svyatoslav, the power of the Kyiv princes extended to all East Slavic tribes and Khazaria was defeated. Under Vladimir, Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium was adopted as the state religion (988) and defensive structures were built on the southern border to fight the Pechenegs.

For about two or three centuries in the 7th-10th centuries, numerous groups of Slavic settlers from the Moravian Danube continued to flow into various areas of the East European Plain already mastered by the Slavs, which played a significant role in the consolidation of the Slavic population of Eastern Europe and culminated in the formation of the Old Russian people.

Under Yaroslav the Wise, temples were erected in Kyiv, a library was opened, a code of laws was published - Russkaya Pravda. Deprived of hereditary rights (see ladder law), representatives of the branched Rurik dynasty fought for power in certain parts of the state, often entering into alliances with the Polovtsians who settled the southern Russian steppes in the 11th century. The rights of local dynasties were recognized at the Lyubech congress (1097), the gradual disintegration of Kievan Rus with the formation of a number of principalities, Kiev, Volyn, Chernigov (southwestern regions of the principality), Pereyaslav, and also Galicia (since 1140), appear on the territory of modern Ukraine, united in 1199 with Volyn into a single Galicia-Volyn principality, which existed until 1392, the principality of Kiev occupied a special place, which was due to the position of Kiev as the “oldest” principality for all Russian lands and principalities.

Fleeing from the Polovtsian raids and princely strife, which became more frequent after the death of Vladimir Monomakh, part of the population migrated during the 12th century to the calmer Rostov-Suzdal lands, where numerous new cities were founded and grew under the auspices of Yuri Dolgoruky. In 1169, a coalition of Smolensk, Chernigov and Suzdal princes, assembled by the Vladimir prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, for the first time in the history of civil strife, crushed Kyiv. A new defeat of the city took place in 1203. After the invasion of Batu in 1237-1240 and the pogrom of Kyiv (1240), the city fell into disrepair. In the second half of the 13th century, Kyiv was ruled by the governors of Vladimir, and later by the Horde Baskaks and local provincial princes, the names of most of whom are unknown.

The borderlands of Kyiv, Pereyaslav and Chernigov-Seversk lands after the invasion lost the pace of evolution compared to their neighbors. The princely elite, terrorized by the Mongols, degraded, urban life declined, and continuous territorial fragmentation intensified. In contrast, the Galician-Volyn princely branch, which emerged victorious from the war of 1205-1245, managed to lay the foundations of its own powerful state, which existed on the historical arena of Russia for another century.

In 1299, Kyiv lost its last attribute of the capital - the residence of the metropolitan, although the metropolitan himself continued to be called "Kyiv". At the same time, in order to manage the southwestern part of the metropolis of Russia, the Patriarch of Constantinople Athanasius in 1303 elevated the Bishop of Galicia Nifont to the rank of metropolitan, and formed the Galician metropolis.

In 1321, the Lithuanian prince Gedimin defeated the united army of the South Russian princes in the battle on the Irpin River, after which he conquered Kyiv, Pereyaslavl, Belgorod and other cities weakened by the Mongol invasion, which were forced to recognize his supreme authority. The Kyiv prince Stanislav, a descendant of the Olgovichi, recognized himself as a vassal of the Lithuanian prince Gediminas, while remaining dependent on the Horde. Nevertheless, the Basque style persists until the Battle of Blue Waters (1362), and the payment of tribute to the Golden Horde occurs after it.

In 1325, in the west, under the threat of war, local boyars removed Vladimir Lvovich, the last legitimate heir from the Rurik dynasty, from power. The Galician inheritance passed, at their choice, to Boleslav Troydenovich, after whom Lyubart Gediminovich ascended the princely throne, baptized under the name Dmitry. In reality, the power of Lubart was limited to Volhynia, since in 1344-1345, after the campaign of the Polish king Casimir III, Galicia gradually came under the rule of Poland. The Polish kingdom finally captured the Galician and Kholm lands in 1387.

In the XIII-XIV centuries, the lands of modern Ukraine were divided between neighboring states: for example, Bukovina from 1359 went to the Moldavian principality under the name of the Shipinskaya land, and Transcarpathia in the second half of the XIII century - to the Kingdom of Hungary.

In 1362, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Olgerd, defeated the Tatars at the Battle of the Blue Waters (the left tributary of the Southern Bug) and occupied Podolia and Kyiv.

In 1368-1372, Olgerd, in alliance with Tver, made 3 campaigns against Moscow, but the forces of the rivals turned out to be approximately equal and the matter ended with an agreement that divided the "spheres of influence". Some of the children of the pagan Olgerd converted to Orthodoxy. Dmitry Donskoy offered the undecided Jagiello a dynastic union - marriage to his daughter, but he was not destined to take place. In the conditions of the struggle against the crusaders, the Moscow principality and due to internal conflicts, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania entered into an alliance with the Kingdom of Poland, signed the Union of Krevo (1385). In 1386, the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiello married the Polish princess Jadwiga, was baptized according to the Catholic rite and became the Polish king under the Christian name Vladislav. In 1387, Lithuania adopted Catholicism. The descendants of Jagiello (Jagellons) reigned in both powers for the 3rd century - from the 14th to the 16th centuries.

The Lithuanian state was called the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russian and Samogitian, which reflected the multi-ethnic composition of its population. An important role in it at a certain period of time was played by ancient Russian culture and customs. In the XIV-XV centuries, Kyiv, Vladimir-Volynsky and other cities received Magdeburg law (city self-government). However, in the second half of the 15th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania turned from a kind of federation of Russian and, in fact, Lithuanian principalities into a centralized state, in which Catholicism, adopted by the ruling Jagiellonian dynasty, played an increasingly important role. The rivalry with Moscow for the heritage of Kievan Rus and the oppression of the Orthodox led to the transition of many Western Russian princes to the service of the Grand Duke of Moscow, serious military defeats (the Battle of Vedrosh) and the reduction of the territory of the state. Around 1434, the Russian province was formed from the lands of the Galicia-Volyn principality (Russian kingdom) with the administrative center in Lviv.

From 1503 to 1618 Chernihiv land was part of the Russian state.

Early Modern
The weakness of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Livonian War led in 1569 to the Union of Lublin - the unification of Lithuania into one state with Poland and the formation of the Commonwealth with a single Senate and Sejm; the monetary and tax systems were also merged. Volhynia, Podlachie, Podolia, Bratslavshchina and Kievshchina came under the rule of Poland. As a result of the Russian-Polish war, the Deulino truce was signed, under the terms of which the Smolensk, Chernihiv and Seversk regions also became part of the Commonwealth.

After the Union of Lublin, the crown nobility actively settled in the rich and sparsely populated lands of Ukraine. Latifundia appeared - Zamoisky, Zholkievsky, Kalinovsky, Konetspolsky, Pototsky, Vishnevetsky, Branitsky, Danilovichi.

Since the fall of Constantinople, the authorities have been looking for ways to reunite Christians of the Western and Eastern rites: in 1458, the Kyiv Metropolis was founded (but in 1470 the San Kyiv Metropolitan was recognized as the Patriarch of Constantinople), and in 1596 the Brest Union of the Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Metropolis with the Catholic Church took place . The basis of the union was the recognition by the Orthodox of Catholic dogmas and the supreme authority of the Pope of Rome, while the Orthodox Church preserved rituals and services in Slavic languages. The oppression of the Orthodox was associated with the union, which led to the transition to the Uniate of a significant part of the Ukrainian nobility. The union did not resolve religious contradictions: the clashes between the Orthodox and the Uniates became more and more violent. The authorities closed Orthodox churches, and priests who refused to join the union were expelled from parishes.

The lands of the south of present-day Ukraine in the second half of the 15th century were a steppe uninhabited by a settled population, called the Wild Field. A kind of "gate" in the Field from the more populated Middle Dnieper region was the Dnieper rapids - natural outcrops of bedrock, crossing the course of the Dnieper between the modern cities of Dnieper and Zaporozhye.

Below the rapids, the Dnieper was divided into branches, creating numerous islands, lakes, bays and straits, rich in game and fish, and where it was convenient to hide and defend. At this time, groups of fugitives from the territory of the Commonwealth began to form, who arrived here for various reasons. These people called themselves Cossacks and were mainly engaged in hunting, fishing, agriculture, trade and military affairs. The ethnic composition of these groups was not homogeneous.

At the end of the 16th and the first half of the 17th century, the number of Cossack uprisings became more frequent. All of them, however, were suppressed with the help of Polish and Polonized Ukrainian magnates.

In 1648, the Zaporozhye Cossacks, led by hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky, raised a great uprising in the Commonwealth, which resulted in the creation of an autonomous political unit in the Dnieper region - the Hetmanate. Due to the difficulties of waging war and the unreliability of his ally, the Crimean Khan, Bogdan Khmelnitsky at the Pereyaslav Rada accepted the citizenship of the Russian kingdom, after which the Russian-Polish war of 1654-1667 began. During the war, a civil war broke out in the Hetmanate (Ruin) and a political situation developed in which the Left-Bank Ukraine wanted to be part of Russia, and in the Right-Bank Ukraine, the Cossack foreman gravitated towards an agreement with the Commonwealth, which was accompanied by the election of various hetmans. This split was recorded in the Andrusovo truce between Russia and the Commonwealth.

During the Russian-Turkish war of 1676-1681, the Russian-Cossack army with joint forces reflected the expansion of the Ottoman Empire to the Left-Bank Ukraine. As part of Russia in Ukraine, the economy is recovering, the population is growing, Orthodox churches are being built freely. During the Great Northern War, hetman Ivan Mazepa goes over to the side of the Swedish king Charles XII, with whom he is defeated in the Battle of Poltava. The consequence of this event is the curtailment of the autonomy of the Hetmanate and its management through the Little Russian Collegium. Throughout the 18th century, the integration of the Cossack nobility into the Russian nobility is observed, immigrants from Ukraine occupy high positions in the Russian Empire, among them such influential politicians as the head of the Synod Feofan Prokopovich, Field Marshals Alexei and Kirill Razumovsky, Chancellor Alexander Bezborodko.

In order to unify the state, Empress Catherine II abolished the Hetmanate in 1764 and the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775. The Cossack nobility is equated to the Russian nobility, the Cossacks are allocated for settlement the vast lands annexed to Russia (Kuban, Stavropol, Novorossia). As a result of the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774, the Crimean Khanate was recognized as independent of any outside power, and in 1783 its lands were included in Russia.

18th century
After the partitions of Poland in 1772-1795, Galicia becomes the possession of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria of the Austrian Habsburg Empire, and the rest of the Right-Bank Ukraine, including Podolia, Volhynia, becomes the possession of the Russian Empire.

On the steppe lands of Zaporozhye, the Northern Black Sea region and Taurida, annexed to Russia, cities were founded on the site of Cossack and Tatar settlements, including such large cities as Zaporozhye (1770), Krivoy Rog (1775), Dnieper (founded in 1776 as Yekaterinoslav) , Kherson, Mariupol (1778), Sevastopol (1783), Simferopol, Melitopol (1784), Nikolaev (1789), Odessa (1794), Lugansk (founded in 1795 as the Lugansk plant).

19th century
Until the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, Ukraine was predominantly an agrarian region, and from the middle of the 19th, the current eastern regions of Ukraine, and then the Kiev region, began to develop as industrial ones.

Not only Ukrainian peasants, but also German colonists, whose number in Ukraine amounted to about half a million, played an important role in establishing the production of marketable grain in the south of Ukraine, which was massively exported through the Black Sea ports. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Carpathian region was the second largest oil production area in the world after Baku.

20th century
During 1917-1921, a chain of political and military conflicts took place in Ukraine between various political, ethnic and social groups.

In the spring of 1917, Ukrainian parties created a representative body in Kyiv - the Central Rada, which took over the functions of the state parliament. The Central Rada in Kyiv from June 1917 to January 1918 issued 4 Universals, the first three of which proclaimed the federal nature and autonomy of Ukraine, and the fourth (January 22, 1918) proclaimed the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

In parallel with these, a system of soviets began to form on the territory of Ukraine from the middle of 1917, by the end of the year in which the Bolsheviks received the main power. After an unsuccessful attempt in Kyiv, on December 24-25, 1917, the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets took place in Kharkov under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, proclaiming the creation of the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets, which is in federal relations with Soviet Russia.

The presence in Ukraine of two authorities at the same time provoked an armed conflict between the Bolsheviks and the Central Rada. On January 29, 1918, the Battle of Kruty took place on the outskirts of Kyiv, after which the Bolsheviks occupied the capital of the UNR.

After the signing of the Brest peace treaties of February 3 and March 8, the territory of the UNR came under the control of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies. Due to the inability of the Ukrainian government to achieve stabilization of the internal political situation in Ukraine and guarantee the implementation of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Central Rada of the UNR was dissolved, and the Ukrainian state was proclaimed under the leadership of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky.

After the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) was formed on the territory of Eastern Galicia and at the same time the Polish-Ukrainian war broke out, which led to the defeat of the ZUNR and the transition of its territory under Polish and Romanian control (Pokutia). At the end of 1918, after the departure of German troops from the occupied territories, the army of the UNR Directory occupied Kyiv, overthrowing the hetman's government. On January 22, 1919, the Act of Zluka was proclaimed between the UNR and the ZUNR. At the beginning of 1919, the Bolsheviks entered the territory of Ukraine, occupying most of it by spring.

On March 10, 1919, at the III All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets in Kharkov, the Bolsheviks proclaimed an independent state of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, at the same time the first Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR was adopted.

In the spring and summer of 1919, the troops of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia entered the territory of Ukraine and on August 31, simultaneously with the Ukrainian troops, captured Kyiv. By November 1919, the forces of the White movement occupied most of the territory of Ukraine.

Since the autumn of 1919, in the Civil War in Central Russia, there has been a radical change in favor of the Red Army, and in Ukraine, in the rear of the Whites, the rebel troops of Nestor Makhno developed active activities, as a result of which the Soviet formations defeated the White armies, and at the end of 1919 entered the territory Ukraine. From the end of 1919 to the end of 1920, the troops of the Red Army occupied the entire main territory of Ukraine.

In April 1920, Polish troops entered the conflict in the main territory of Ukraine, and throughout 1920-1921, Central and Right-Bank Ukraine were the scene of the Soviet-Polish war, in which the UNR acted as an ally of Poland.

The chain of conflicts ended in 1920-1921 with the establishment of Soviet power and the establishment of the Ukrainian SSR in most of the territory of modern Ukraine (except for Western Ukraine, parts of which became part of the Polish and Czechoslovak Republics, as well as the Kingdom of Romania).

On December 30, 1922, the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR and the Transcaucasian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Formation of the USSR, which laid the foundation for the establishment of the USSR.

In the 1920s-1930s in Ukraine, the Soviet authorities pursued a policy of Ukrainization and indigenization of the party apparatus. By expanding the scope of the Ukrainian language in education, science, the media, the army and the party, the Bolsheviks tried to reduce the degree of hostility of Ukrainians to the Soviet regime. However, since 1930, at the initiative of the chairman of the Ukrainian communists, Lazar Kaganovich, a campaign of sharp criticism of Ukrainization and its supporters was launched.

In the late 1920s - early 1930s in Ukraine, as well as throughout the USSR, a policy of collectivization was carried out. Her mistakes, combined with crop failures and drought, led to the famine in the USSR of 1932-1933, which on the territory of Ukraine led to the loss in Ukraine - 12.92% of the population, in Russia - 3.17%, on average in the USSR - 5.42 %. The situation in Ukraine received the official name "Holodomor"), which engulfed many regions of the USSR, including the Ukrainian SSR in 1932-1933 and entailed significant human casualties. According to various estimates, as a result of the famine, the population of the Ukrainian SSR lost from 4 to 12 million people. He destroyed villages in the Dnieper, Sloboda, Zaporozhye and Kuban. The mass famine in the Ukrainian SSR of 1932-1933 is called in modern Ukraine a genocide and a crime against humanity.

In the 1930s, industrialization was carried out, including the Ukrainian SSR. In 1934, the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was moved from Kharkov to Kyiv.

The 1920s-1930s in the Western Ukrainian lands became the time of the formation of the anti-Polish liberation movement, which later took shape in the form of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).

In September 1939, after the German attack on Poland, Western Ukraine, according to the agreements between the USSR and Germany, was occupied by the Red Army and annexed to the Ukrainian SSR.

In 1940, by agreement with Romania, part of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertz Region were annexed to the Ukrainian SSR.

On December 18, 1940, Germany approved the Barbarossa plan and on June 22, 1941 attacked the USSR. The Great Patriotic War began, which lasted 4 years. On September 19, 1941, the troops of Germany and its allies captured Kyiv and the Right Bank, on October 24 - Kharkov and the Left Bank, and in June - July 1942 - the Crimea and Kuban. In August 1943, the USSR seized the offensive initiative after the victory at the Kursk salient. On November 6, 1943, Soviet troops liberated Kyiv, and in April-May 1944, the Right Bank and Crimea. At the end of August 1944, the USSR liberated Western Ukraine and launched an offensive against the countries of Europe occupied by Germany.

The war and the German occupation were accompanied by cruelty, large-scale destruction of settlements, the destruction of the Jewish population, and the forced removal of the population. The victims of this war were from 8 to 10 million inhabitants of Ukraine. Part of the Ukrainian nationalists fought both against the Red Army and against Germany as part of the UPA.

In 1945, following the results of the Second World War, the Transcarpathian region was annexed to the Ukrainian SSR in accordance with the agreement between the USSR and Czechoslovakia. The Ukrainian SSR, within the framework of the USSR, became one of the founding members of the UN. The first computer of the Soviet MESM was built at the Kiev Institute of Electrical Engineering and began to function in 1950.

The Ukrainian SSR was badly damaged during the war, more than 700 cities and 28 thousand villages were destroyed, so the restoration required significant efforts. The situation was complicated by the post-war famine of 1946-1947, which was caused by drought and military destruction of infrastructure. He claimed tens of thousands of lives. But by 1950, the republic had completely surpassed the pre-war level of industry and production.

After Stalin's death in 1953, N. S. Khrushchev became the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee. As the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian SSR in 1938-1949, Khrushchev was intimately familiar with the republic, and after coming to all-Union power, he began to emphasize the friendship between the Ukrainian and Russian peoples. In February 1954, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Crimean region was transferred from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.

On April 26, 1986, in the Kyiv region of the Ukrainian SSR, the catastrophe occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which became a man-made disaster on a global scale and caused radioactive contamination of vast territories.

On March 17, 1991, the All-Union referendum on the preservation of the USSR was held, which supported both the all-Union question “on the need to preserve the USSR as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics” (70.2%) and the republican question “that Ukraine should be part of the Union Soviet sovereign states on the basis of the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Ukraine” (80.2%).

After the defeat of the August Putsch of the State Emergency Committee in Moscow, on August 24, 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR proclaimed the independence of Ukraine. On December 1, 1991, an all-Ukrainian referendum was held, the ballot of which included the question "Do you confirm the act of declaring the independence of Ukraine?". The turnout for the referendum in the republic was 84.18% (31,891,742 people), of which 90.32% answered “yes, I confirm”, and 7.58% - “no, I do not confirm”.

On December 8, 1991, the heads of the three founding republics of the USSR L. M. Kravchuk (Ukraine), B. N. Yeltsin (Russia) and S. S. Shushkevich (Belarus) signed the Belovezhskaya agreements on the termination of the existence of the USSR and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Independent Ukraine
At the time of the collapse of the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR was one of the most developed union republics - in terms of education, a network of scientific and industrial enterprises, Ukraine had one of the most developed agriculture in the USSR, as well as a very powerful military-industrial complex, including leading enterprises in the USSR for the production of missile weapons, heavy transport aircraft, tanks. Ukraine had a sufficient number of scientific, engineering and managerial personnel.

In particular, by the beginning of 1992, 1,240 nuclear warheads, 133 RS-18 strategic missiles, 46 RS-22 strategic missiles, 564 cruise missiles for bombers, and about 3,000 tactical nuclear weapons were located on the territory of Ukraine. After the decision not to keep the unified armed forces in the CIS, they were dismantled (partially with US financial support) and taken to Russia.

The decline in production in Ukraine in the 1990s turned out to be much greater than in Russia, Belarus, and the Baltic republics. All this made the start of Ukrainian statehood difficult, and the way out of the crisis (which took place in the Ukrainian SSR, as well as throughout the USSR in the late 1980s and in the 1990s) protracted.

In 1996, the Constitution of Ukraine was adopted, which contributed to the stabilization of the political system and at the same time concentrated most of the power in the hands of the then President L. D. Kuchma. In September of the same year, a monetary reform was carried out and a new currency, the hryvnia, was introduced.

In 2004, the results of the second round of the presidential elections were not recognized by the opposition, accusing the winner V.F. Yanukovych's victory and scheduled a re-vote in the second round of the presidential election, as a result of which V. A. Yushchenko was elected president.

Yanukovych returned to power in 2006 when he became prime minister during the Anti-Crisis Coalition, which led to early parliamentary elections in September 2007. In 2010, Yanukovych was elected president and formed a new government headed by N. Ya. Azarov. On April 21, Viktor Yanukovych signed an agreement with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on extending the stay of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation in Sevastopol until 2042. On October 11, 2011, the Kyiv Pechersk Court sentenced Yu. V. Timoshenko, former Prime Minister of Ukraine and Yanukovych's main rival in the presidential elections, to 7 years in prison. On July 30, 2012, Ukraine became a member of the CIS Free Trade Area.

Dissatisfaction with the rule of Yanukovych resulted in numerous protests during 2010-2013, including the “Tax Maidan”, “Ukraine against Yanukovych”, and protests in Vradiyevka.

The events of Euromaidan, which began in November 2013 in connection with the decision of the Ukrainian government to suspend the process of preparing for the signing of an association agreement with the European Union, caused an acute political crisis and in February 2014 led to a change in state power. On February 22, President V. Yanukovych was declared by the Verkhovna Rada to have "self-withdrawn from the exercise of constitutional powers", and the next day, the duties of the President of Ukraine were entrusted to the Chairman of the Parliament A. Turchynov. On February 24, the ousted President V. Yanukovych, fearing for his life, left Ukraine for Russia. On February 27, the European Choice coalition was formed in the Verkhovna Rada, which formed a government headed by A.P. Yatsenyuk. The new leadership of Ukraine announced the resumption of the course towards European integration. On March 21, representatives of the European Union and A.P. Yatsenyuk signed the political bloc of the Association Agreement. On June 27, the economic part of the Agreement was signed.

In contrast to the countries of the West, which enthusiastically accepted the political changes in Ukraine, the Russian leadership refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new Ukrainian authorities, insisting that V. Yanukovych was the legitimate president of Ukraine, who, according to Russia, was ousted by the opposition as a result of a coup d'état. On the morning of February 23, the Russian leadership decided to “start work on returning Crimea to Russia”, but on the condition that “the people who live in Crimea want it” and during the subsequent events of February-March 2014, Russia supported the pro-Russian forces on the peninsula , including by its Armed Forces, having carried out the annexation of Crimea. It did not receive international recognition, and on April 15, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine declared Crimea a temporarily occupied territory.

Already in late February - early March, the cities of the South-East of Ukraine were seized by mass socio-political protests against the new Ukrainian authorities, in defense of the status of the Russian language, under federalist, separatist and pro-Russian slogans.

In April 2014, the creation of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic was announced. On April 14, the Ukrainian leadership launched a military operation against armed groups of supporters of the DPR and LPR. On May 11, the authorities of the self-proclaimed republics held referendums on independence, which did not receive international recognition.

On May 25, early presidential elections were held in Ukraine. The candidate from the Solidarity party P. A. Poroshenko, one of the leaders of the Maidan, was elected president in the first round.

Since April 2014, fierce battles have been going on in the eastern regions of Ukraine between the Ukrainian army, the national guard, the forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service of Ukraine, border guards, armed formations of Ukrainian volunteers, on the one hand, and the armed formations of the DPR and LPR with the support of Russia, on the other. On September 5, 2014, after negotiations, a ceasefire agreement was reached in Minsk, but mutual shelling continued.

On September 16, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada and the European Parliament simultaneously ratified the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU using video link.

Large-scale hostilities resumed in the Debaltsevo area and at Donetsk airport in January 2015. On February 12, a second Minsk ceasefire agreement was signed, but fighting continued as separatist leaders claimed that Debaltseve was the “inland region” of the DPR and therefore the agreement did not apply to it. On February 18, Debaltseve and its environs came under the control of the internationally unrecognized republics.

In 2017, the rating of President Poroshenko fell sharply, despite the fact that Ukraine received a visa-free regime with the EU. The “Democratic Coalition” quickly broke up, in which only the “Popular Front” and the “Petro Poroshenko Bloc” remained. On April 19, 2016, the Cabinet of Ministers of Yatsenyuk was dismissed and a new government headed by V. B. Groysman was appointed.

On January 6, 2019, with the active participation of President Poroshenko, Ukraine was awarded a tomos on the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine was created. However, its creation led to sharp discussions in church society. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) did not support the creation of the OCU and declared it a "group of schismatics."

On March 31, 2019, the first round of presidential elections in Ukraine took place, in which V. A. Zelensky, a famous showman and director of the Kvartal-95 humorous studio, won 30.24% of the vote. His closest pursuer was the incumbent President P. A. Poroshenko, who scored 15.95%. On April 21, the second round took place. According to the results of processing 100% of the ballots, the majority of votes (73.23%) was won by Zelensky. Incumbent President Poroshenko admitted defeat. On May 20, V. A. Zelensky was inaugurated.

On July 21, extraordinary parliamentary elections were held, in which the pro-presidential Servant of the People party gained 43.16%, which allowed it to form a mono-majority for the first time in the history of Ukraine.

Russian invasion

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine.

The events were preceded by a concentration of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border and a crisis in relations between Russia and Ukraine. On February 21, Russia recognized the independence of the previously unrecognized Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic, which since 2014 have been at war for parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions controlled by Ukraine, respectively.

Numerous warnings about the upcoming invasion have been published in the media since October 2021, but these statements have been consistently denied by top Russian officials. On the morning of February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an address on the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. The purpose of the invasion is called "demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine." As a justification for the invasion, Vladimir Putin uses the false representation of Ukraine as a neo-Nazi state. According to the Ukrainian leadership, the main goal of Putin's actions is the liquidation of Ukraine as a state. On March 5, 2022, Putin stated that if the Ukrainian government "continues to do what they are doing, they are calling into question the future of Ukrainian statehood."

Russian troops entered the territory of Ukraine from Russia, Crimea and Belarus. Rocket and bomb strikes were carried out on the Ukrainian military infrastructure, military airfields and aviation, air defense facilities. At the same time, the armed formations of the DPR and LPR began hostilities against the Armed Forces of Ukraine along the entire front line in the Donbass. During the clashes, the formations of the people's republics, together with the Russian army, went on the offensive in some places.

Almost immediately after the start of the war, Ukraine announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia. In connection with the outbreak of hostilities, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared martial law on the territory of Ukraine, and on February 25, general mobilization.

According to the United Nations as of August 7, at least 5,401 civilians have been killed and at least 7,466 civilians have been injured since the beginning of the invasion, with real losses expected to be much higher; hundreds of houses were destroyed or damaged; the city of Volnovakha by the beginning of March was almost completely destroyed. According to reports from the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, Russian troops are launching indiscriminate missile strikes on residential areas, hospitals and other social infrastructure in Ukraine. Also, strikes on residential areas in the DPR and LPR with the death of civilians are recorded.

A difficult humanitarian situation is developing in some settlements of Ukraine.

The invasion caused a major migration crisis: according to the UN, 6.8 million refugees left Ukraine (as of May 29), and about 8 million more people became internally displaced persons (as of May 3). A number of journalists called the invasion the largest military conflict in Europe since the end of World War II.

The invasion also caused a collapse in Ukraine's GDP, the collapse of foreign trade, the cessation of air and sea transport, the almost complete destruction of the military industry, a sharp reduction in wages in the private sector, and many other negative economic consequences.

On April 14, 2022, the Verkhovna Rada recognized Russia as a terrorist state.

Russia's actions were strongly condemned by most countries of the world community and international organizations. The resolution of the UN General Assembly ES-11/1, supported by the overwhelming majority of the countries of the world, condemned the actions of Russia and called on it to withdraw its troops from the territory of Ukraine.

A number of experts note that the resistance of the armed forces of Ukraine turned out to be much stronger than expected, which led to the prolongation of the war. At the same time, some experts note that the Russian army was unable to achieve its goals in the first days of the conflict, is experiencing problems with logistics, and also has low morale.

By June 2022, as a result of the invasion of the Russian Federation, it occupied more than 80 thousand km² of the territory of Ukraine, including most of the territory of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. Ukraine has lost access to the Sea of Azov.

Accession to the European Union

On February 28, 2022, Ukraine officially applied for EU membership. The corresponding document was signed by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. On March 7, the European Commission began considering the application. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she would speed up the process "as far as possible".

On June 23, 2022, the European Parliament supported granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for joining the European Union and adopted a corresponding resolution. On June 23, the European Council granted Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership.

Population

According to the results of the national census, as of December 5, 2001, the population of Ukraine was 48,240,902 permanent residents and 48,457,102 people in the present population, and according to estimates derived from the current population growth rate, by July 2012 its number decreased to 44 596,155 people; by January 1, 2017 - up to 42,414,900 permanent residents and 42,584,500 people in the present population. As of January 1, 2018, according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the population decreased to 42,216,766 permanent residents and 42,386,403 people in the present population. These data do not include Crimea and Sevastopol; with them, as of May 1, 2014 - about 45,363.3 thousand people of the present population and 45,182,900 permanent residents. Ukraine, therefore, ranks 37th in the world in terms of the number of inhabitants.

The average population density is about 77.3 people/km², while the population is unevenly distributed: the most densely populated are the industrial eastern regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkiv) and the Carpathian regions (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi). In particular, the population density of Donetsk region is 172.9 people/km², Lvov region - 117.8, Dnepropetrovsk region - 107.3. Certain areas of the Ukrainian Carpathians, Polissya and southern regions are relatively sparsely populated (in the Volyn region - 51.4 people / km², Zhytomyr - 44.1, Kherson - 39.2).

The share of the urban population is 69.2%. As of January 1, 2017, 3 cities had a cash population of more than 1 million people: Kyiv (the capital of the country) - 2,925,760 people; Kharkiv - 1,439,036 people; Odessa - 1,010,783 people.

Growth rates, age and gender structure
At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, on the territory of modern Ukraine, there was a natural increase above the average for the Russian Empire (14.9), the highest values were noted in the Yekaterinoslav, Tauride, Volyn provinces and in the Don Army Region. Subsequent wars (World War I, Civil War, World War II, during which Ukraine became a war zone) and the famine of the 1920s, 1930s, late 1940s had the most negative impact on the demographic situation, as a result of these events millions of people died.

Among other things, the slowdown in population growth, characteristic of industrialized countries, affected. So, if from 1897 to 1913 (16 years) the population of Ukraine increased by 24%, then from 1959 to 1976 (17 years) - by only 17%, and from 1976 to 1992 (16 years) - by 6%.

The maximum population of Ukraine was noted in 1993, when it reached 52.2 million. Starting from this year, a constant decrease in the population is recorded with an increase in emigration abroad, a drop in the birth rate and an increase in mortality.

A decrease in the population is noted in all regions of Ukraine, including Kyiv. As of 2020, the smallest population decline was observed in Chernivtsi, Rivne and Volyn regions.

In 2011, not a single birth was recorded in 11 thousand settlements of Ukraine. In the same 2011, the birth rate exceeded the death rate only in 5 out of 25 regions of Ukraine - Kyiv, Transcarpathian, Volyn, Chernivtsi and Rivne regions. In 2012, Ukraine ranked 19th among countries in the world in terms of mortality per 1,000 population.

In 2013, Ukraine was in 23rd place in the world in terms of mortality per 1,000 population.

National composition
According to the latest all-Ukrainian census conducted in 2001, Ukrainians make up 77.8% of the population and are the majority in all regions, except for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol; Russians - 17.3%, make up a significant part of the population in the eastern and southern regions, especially in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as well as in large cities); Belarusians also live - 0.6%, Moldovans - 0.5%, Crimean Tatars - 0.5%, Bulgarians - 0.4%, Hungarians - 0.3%, Romanians - 0.3%, Poles - 0.3 %, Jews - 0.2%, Armenians - 0.2%, Greeks - 0.2%, Tatars - 0.2%, others - 1.2%.

In Ukraine, for almost 20 years, a population census has not been carried out, so it is difficult to assess the current ethnic composition of the population. Nevertheless, the study of the statistics of the registry offices, in the part where nationality is indicated in civil status acts, allows us to speak about the presence of a tendency to identify ethnicity and citizenship. So, in the registry office in 1993 in Kharkov, 43.6% indicated their ethnicity as Russians, and in 2014 there were only 7.3% of them; at the same time, the proportion of those who indicated the nationality of the Ukrainians increased from 49.9% to 90.1%.

Language

According to Art. 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the only state language is Ukrainian. The state ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life throughout the territory of Ukraine, while guaranteeing the free development, use and protection of Russian and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine.

According to research conducted by the Razumkov Center, in 2011, 61% of citizens of Ukraine considered Ukrainian their native language (in 2016 - 69%), Russian - 36% (in 2016 - 27%), other languages - 2%.

In Ukraine, in addition to Ukrainian, Russian is also widely spoken. Until August 10, 2012, the Law of Ukraine “On Languages in the Ukrainian SSR” was in force, according to which Russian was one of the languages of interethnic communication, knowledge of which was required from officials along with knowledge of Ukrainian.

According to a survey conducted in 2004 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), it is easier to communicate in Russian at home for 45% of the population of Ukraine, while in Ukrainian - 42%, it is equally easy to communicate in both languages - 13%. According to this KIIS survey, the absolute majority of the population of the southern and eastern regions use the Russian language for communication in the first place.

According to a survey conducted by Research & Branding Group, 68% of Ukrainian citizens are fluent in Russian (Ukrainian - 57%).

According to a 2008 study by the American Gallup Institute, 83% of the interviewed citizens chose Russian to communicate with the interviewer.

According to the All-Ukrainian census of 2001, 85.2% of the total population of Ukraine named their national language as their mother tongue (88.5% in 1979). The majority of the population of the state (32.6 million people), according to the census, called the Ukrainian language their native language. The number of Ukrainians who named the language of their nationality as their native language exceeds 85.2% (in 1979 - 93.5%).

Historically due to the wide distribution of other languages (mainly neighboring states and peoples). The most common of them is the Russian language, which, according to the 2001 census, was called native by 29.6% of the inhabitants of Ukraine (in 1979 - 31.3%), however, according to studies of the linguistic behavior of the Ukrainian population of KIIS, it is used by more than half of the population Ukraine (52.8%). The Ukrainian language is more common in the central part, in the north and west of the country, Russian - in the south and east. In large cities of the east and south of Ukraine, as well as in Kyiv, the predominance of the Russian language in daily communication is noticeable, despite a significant proportion of the population that indicated Ukrainian as their native language.

Religious composition

Ukraine is a secular state, art. 35 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion.

According to a study conducted in early 2015, the majority of respondents in Ukraine consider themselves Christian believers: 74% of residents are Orthodox, 8% are Greek Catholics, 1% are Roman Catholics and Protestants (evangelical Christians); about 9% of respondents simply called themselves Christians; do not consider themselves to any of the religious denominations 6%, and another 1% of respondents found it difficult to answer.

Since December 2018, 2 large jurisdictions have coexisted in Ukraine, calling themselves Ukrainian Orthodox Churches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (as part of the Russian Orthodox Church), the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (autocephalous since January 2019); smaller structures also exist.

The total number of Catholics (of all rites) in Ukraine, according to the Annuario Pontificio for 2009, is 4,801,879 people in 4,293 communities.

The most influential Protestant churches are the All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches, the All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Pentecostal Christian Churches, and the Ukrainian Union Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

As of the beginning of the 21st century, the proportion of Muslims, according to one of the leaders of the Muslim community, ranged from 1 to 4% of Ukrainians (mainly ethnic Crimean Tatars). Muslims live in the Crimea, the most significant communities are in Simferopol, Bakhchisarai and Stary Krym.

As of January 1, 2015, there were 87 registered religious centers and 292 religious administrations (eparchies, dioceses, etc.) in the country (without taking into account the data for Crimea), which represent more than 50 different confessional areas, there are 32,792 registered local religious communities, 516 monasteries, 365 religious missions, 78 brotherhoods, 198 religious educational institutions, 12,406 Sunday schools.

State and political structure

Ukraine is a unitary republic of a mixed type. The basic law of the state is the constitution.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, Ukraine was classified as a hybrid regime in 2018 on the Democracy Index, ranking 17th out of 29 countries in Eastern Europe.

Executive power
The head of state is the president, who is also the supreme commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and chairman of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. The post of president was established on July 5, 1991, the first president of Ukraine from 1991 to 1994 was Leonid Kravchuk. Volodymyr Zelensky has been in office since May 20, 2019.

The president is elected for a term of 5 years by secret ballot in general direct equal elections, the same person cannot hold the presidency for more than two consecutive terms. Leonid Kravchuk became the first popularly elected president in the country's history, having won the 1991 presidential election.

The highest body of executive power in Ukraine is the Cabinet of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister and composed of the First Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers and ministers. Since March 4, 2020, Denys Shmyhal has been the Prime Minister.

Legislature
The only body of legislative power in the country is the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The current convocation of the Verkhovna Rada is the ninth. It is a permanent structure and is convened at the session 2 times a year.

At its regular sessions, the Verkhovna Rada conducts the inauguration of the elected president and approves the main directions of the state course proposed by the president for a five-year term. The President is responsible to the Verkhovna Rada, the Parliament can impeach him in the manner prescribed by the Constitution.

The constitutional composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is 450 deputies.

Within the competence of Parliament, according to Art. 84 of the Constitution, includes the development, adoption and control over the implementation of laws, the approval of the state budget, the ratification of international agreements, the appointment of an all-Ukrainian referendum and other powers.

People's deputies of Ukraine are elected for a 5-year term in the course of direct general equal elections held according to a mixed system.

Judicial branch
Justice in Ukraine is administered exclusively by the courts. The jurisdiction of the courts extends to all legal relations that arise in the state. The system of courts of general jurisdiction in Ukraine is based on the principles of territoriality and specialization.

In the judicial system of Ukraine there are also economic (district, appellate) and administrative (district, appellate) courts. The highest judicial body in the system of courts of general jurisdiction is the Supreme Court. Previously, there were the High Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal Cases, the High Administrative Court and the High Economic Court, which were liquidated in the course of judicial reform. Currently, the Supreme Court has a Grand Chamber, as well as cassation administrative, civil, criminal and economic courts. Since December 1, 2021, Vsevolod Knyazev has been the Chairman of the Supreme Court.

The Constitutional Court of Ukraine is separate, independent from the courts of general jurisdiction. It cannot be a cassation, appellate or supervisory instance for courts of general jurisdiction. Since September 17, 2019, Oleksandr Tupytsky has been the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.

Political parties
Modern Ukraine is characterized by a multi-party system. Previously, until 1991, the Communist Party remained the main political force, the modern party system of Ukraine was formed in the early 1990s.

The activities of political parties are regulated by the current legislation. In 2001, the law "On Political Parties" was adopted, according to which any 100 citizens of the country have the right to form a party. The party is subject to registration with the Ministry of Justice. All parties are obliged to recognize the principles of the constitution of Ukraine as the fundamental law of Ukraine.

As of 2021, 365 political parties are officially registered in Ukraine. In the parliamentary elections held on July 21, 2019, 22 of them took part, 5 parties overcame the threshold of 5% of the votes established by law.

Legal system
The legal system of Ukraine has a mixed character. Most of the legal norms are established according to classical European models, and belong to the Romano-Germanic legal family.

After the collapse of the USSR, in the context of the process of democratic reforms, a large-scale reform of the legal system takes place, the main goal of which is proclaimed to ensure the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.

Provisions on ensuring fundamental human rights and freedoms were originally laid down in the Ukrainian constitution.

Measures to improve the human rights situation have become one of the main directions of liberal reforms carried out in Ukraine since the early 1990s. As part of these efforts, relevant legislation was adopted, the work of the National Commission on Human Rights was activated, and this direction in the work of the Ministry of Justice was strengthened. A number of investigations have been carried out into cases of human rights violations committed in the past.

State symbols
According to Art. 10 of the Constitution, Ukraine has 3 state symbols - the flag, coat of arms and anthem.

On January 15, 1992, the music of the national anthem of Ukraine was approved. On March 6, 2003, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the words (text of the first verse and chorus) of the anthem.

On January 28, 1992, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine decided to approve the national flag as the State Flag of Ukraine, which is a rectangular panel consisting of two horizontally spaced stripes of equal width: the upper one is blue, the lower one is yellow. The flag of Ukraine is a rectangular panel with an aspect ratio of 2:3 and consisting of two equal stripes - blue and yellow.

On February 19, 1992, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a resolution "On the State Emblem of Ukraine", according to which it approved the trident as a small coat of arms, considering it as the main element of the large coat of arms. On June 28, 1996, Article 20 of the Constitution of Ukraine approved the small coat of arms of the state - in an azure shield with a gold border, a golden trident. The trident during the times of Kievan Rus was the state emblem and the family seal of the Rurik princes. The small coat of arms is the main part of the large coat of arms, which was not adopted, which depicts a blue shield with a yellow trident.

Public holidays

January 1 - New Year.
January 7th is Christmas Day according to the Julian calendar.
March 8 is International Women's Day.
May 1-2 - Labor Day.
May 8 is the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation.
May 9 is Victory Day over Nazism in World War II.
June 28 - Constitution Day of Ukraine.
August 24 - Independence Day.
October 14 is the Day of Defenders and Defenders of Ukraine.
December 25 is Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar.
The passing date is Easter.
The passing date is the Day of the Holy Trinity.

Purchases

The national currency of Ukraine is hryvnia (UAH). In large cities, at exchange offices, you can exchange it for rubles, dollars and euros, however, it should be noted that the exchange for rubles is somewhat not so popular, and you can not buy rubles for hryvnias at all exchange offices (you can return rubles everywhere). In small towns, you can find an exchanger in bank branches, but you should not exchange currency in the markets. ATMs are quite widespread, including small towns. In most shopping centers, shops, as a rule, bank cards are accepted for payment. In small towns, the acquiring network is less developed.

Prices
In general, prices in Ukraine are much lower than in Russia, and for some categories of goods/services they are 2-3 times lower (purchase/rent of real estate, travel by public transport, etc.)

Standard prices:
fixed-route taxi within the region (up to 100 km) - 25-35 hryvnia (December 2008).
a reserved seat car in most of Ukraine - up to 200 hryvnia ($ 7.5), a compartment car - up to 500 ($ 19) (for 2017).
taxi - 5-8 UAH per 1 km.

It is always worth remembering that, as in other countries, in tourist-oriented places, prices for goods / services can be unreasonably high. For example, taxi drivers near the Kyiv railway station announce the price - 100-150 UAH in Kyiv. It will be cheaper to order the services of a taxi company by phone (50-70 UAH), advertising of which can be seen on billboards in the station building.

Restaurants

Ukrainian cuisine is diverse and can please both with a wide selection of meat and fish dishes, as well as with native Ukrainian vegetable dishes, as well as confectionery and pastries.

The national first course is borscht, a vegetable soup with meat, mostly pork. In Ukraine, there are more than 50 types of cooking borscht, which differ depending on the locality of preparation, but the most popular serving of borscht is with donuts with garlic. Among meat products, meatballs and cutlets (in Kiev, Poltava and others) are popular, as well as lard, which goes into many dishes and is a popular snack for vodka.

Food prices are below the Russian average, especially in markets and supermarkets. Practically in any settlement, and even more important for tourism, there is a sufficient choice of catering establishments: from small cafes to restaurants. In large or touristy cities, gourmets will always find a restaurant that suits their taste. A network of national cuisines is quite developed: from Eastern and European to traditional Slavic. However, the prices may be too high.

Of particular interest are restaurants of national Ukrainian cuisine, which are quite numerous in the cities of Ukraine, and the prices are very democratic. A good, tasty dinner for two with a glass of wine in such a restaurant will not exceed fifty dollars.

Hotels

Hotels oriented to European standards have appeared today in most of the regional centers of Ukraine. The hotel industry is most developed in million-plus cities and resort towns on the Southern Coast of Crimea. Five-star hotels are only in a few cities of Ukraine: Kyiv, Donetsk, Odessa, Kharkiv, Zaporozhye.

If for some reason the prospect of staying in a five-star hotel does not captivate you, then in recent years a large number of small private hotels have appeared in the country. A decent, large by Russian standards room with all amenities in such a hotel will cost between 1000-1200 Russian rubles (2010). In Kyiv and Lvov prices will be higher. In addition, there are a lot of companies (which may call themselves differently - “Private hotel” or “Apartments in the center of Kyiv”) that rent apartments of any class for any wallet - from 200 to 10,000 UAH / day (Kyiv).

Privatized Soviet-era hotels are now being actively renovated, but visitors still have a chance to get into nostalgic rooms with creaky antique Soviet-era beds with trodden mattresses and samples of the Soviet wallpaper industry of the 70s of the last century on the walls.

Customs

Many of the surviving customs are associated with religious celebrations. So, for Christmas in Western Ukraine, it is customary to set up nativity scenes and weave a traditional didukh amulet. The celebration of the cycle of New Year holidays from January 1 to January 19, the celebration of Easter, is also replete with traditions. There are also many traditions and superstitions preserved in wedding ceremonies.

Connection

Outside of Kyiv and large cities, payphone communications in Ukraine have almost completely disappeared, but the remaining payphones on the streets, in Ukrtelecom branches, hospitals and some government agencies work for free when calling to city numbers. You can also purchase a SIM card from a local operator (it will be more expensive to use your card while roaming anyway), which are sold everywhere, including remote villages. Presentation of a document for the purchase of a SIM card is not required. Starter packs and scratch cards are sold at face value in the operator's branded stores (of which there are enough in large cities), in other places - with a small extra charge of 3-5 UAH. You should beware of buying SIM cards from sellers on the street near railway stations, in underground passages and other crowded places - most often they sell "free" packages, which may require additional top-up to use. Calls in the network of "their" operator are often free, in addition, all operators provide favorable tariff plans for calls abroad.

Mobile operators: GSM900/1800: Vodafone (former MTS), Kyivstar, Life; 2100-UTEL. CDMA2000: PEOPLEnet, Intertelecom, Cdma-Ukraine. UTEL is the only Ukrainian operator providing 3G video communication services, however, it has WCDMA coverage only in regional centers and large cities, in the rest of the country it operates in Kyivstar (GSM) roaming.

Precautionary measures
You should not openly wear symbols associated with Russia or the Soviet Union (Russian, Soviet or imperial flag, the inscriptions "Russia", "Russia" or "USSR", St. George's and Guards ribbons), as well as the symbols of separatist formations and movements.
You can speak Russian as much as you like, but avoid talking about the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians (“we are brothers”, “one people”, etc.), even if it seems to you that the interlocutor is an ethnic Russian.

Telephone numbers in case of emergency:

State Emergency Service: 101
National Police: 102
ambulance: 103
gas network emergency service: 104
rescue service: 112