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Portal:Ukraine

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The Ukraine Portal - Портал України

Ukraine
Україна (Ukrainian)
ISO 3166 codeUA

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast. It also borders Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; and Romania and Moldova to the southwest; with a coastline along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast. Kyiv is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Odesa. Ukraine's official language is Ukrainian; Russian is also widely spoken, especially in the east and south.

During the Middle Ages, Ukraine was the site of early Slavic expansion and the area later became a key centre of East Slavic culture under the state of Kievan Rus', which emerged in the 9th century. The state eventually disintegrated into rival regional powers and was ultimately destroyed by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. The area was then contested, divided, and ruled by a variety of external powers for the next 600 years, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia. The Cossack Hetmanate emerged in central Ukraine in the 17th century, but was partitioned between Russia and Poland, and ultimately absorbed by the Russian Empire. Ukrainian nationalism developed and, following the Russian Revolution in 1917, the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic was formed. The Bolsheviks consolidated control over much of the former empire and established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union when it was formed in 1922. In the early 1930s, millions of Ukrainians died in the Holodomor, a human-made famine. The German occupation during World War II in Ukraine was devastating, with 7 million Ukrainian civilians killed, including most Ukrainian Jews.

Ukraine gained independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved, and declared itself neutral. A new constitution was adopted in 1996. A series of mass demonstrations, known as the Euromaidan, led to the establishment of a new government in 2014 after a revolution. Russia then unilaterally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and pro-Russian unrest culminated in a war in the Donbas between Russian-backed separatists and government forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since the outbreak of war with Russia, Ukraine has continued to seek closer ties with the United States, European Union, and NATO.

Ukraine is a unitary state and its system of government is a semi-presidential republic. A developing country, it is the poorest country in Europe by nominal GDP per capita and corruption remains a significant issue. However, due to its extensive fertile land, pre-war Ukraine was one of the largest grain exporters in the world. Nonetheless, Ukraine is a major middle power and possesses the fifth largest and one of the best-funded armed forces in the world. The Ukrainian Armed Forces also operates one of the largest and most diverse drone fleet in the world. It is a founding member of the United Nations, as well as a member of the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization, and the OSCE. It is in the process of joining the European Union and has applied to join NATO. (Full article...)

In the news

9 August 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
August 2024 Kursk Oblast incursion
Russia declares a "federal-level" emergency in Kursk Oblast as Ukrainian forces continue to advance. (AP via ABC News)
Akhmat special forces commander Apti Alaudinov says that Ukrainian troops "simply passed-by" their positions without engaging them, with Akhmat troops choosing to retreat until more Russian reinforcements could arrive. Other reports indicate that Akhmat troops fled from Ukrainian forces. (The New Voice of Ukraine via MSN)
A Russian military convoy is destroyed on the E38 highway in Oktyabrsky District. (The Guardian)
Ukrainian troops capture the Gazprom gas facility in Sudzha. A video shows Ukrainian soldiers inside the natural gas facility, with much of the town reportedly under Ukrainian control. (Reuters via Al Arabiya)
Ukraine launches a "massive" drone attack on Lipetsk Oblast, Russia, with Lipetsk air base reportedly on fire. Several villages are evacuated, with six people reportedly injured. (Reuters)
Eastern Ukraine campaign
2024 Kostiantynivka supermarket missile attack
A Russian missile attack on a supermarket in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, kills 14 people and injures 43 others. (Reuters)
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A fragment of the “new and accurate map of Europe collected from the best authorities...” by Emanuel Bowen published in 1747 in his A complete system of geography. The territory around Voronezh and Tambov is shown as “Little Russia”. White Russia is located north-east of Smolensk, and the legend “Ukrain” straddles the Dnieper river near Poltava.

Little Russia (Russian: Малороссия, romanizedMalorossiya; Ukrainian: Малоросія, romanizedMalorosiia), also known in English as Malorussia, Little Rus' (Russian: Малая Русь, romanizedMalaya Rus; Ukrainian: Мала Русь, romanizedMala Rus), Rus' Minor (from Greek: Μικρὰ Ῥωσία, romanizedMikrá Rosía), and the French equivalent Petite Russie, is a geographical and historical term used to describe Ukraine. Since 1334, Yuri II Boleslav, the ruler of the Ruthenian Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, signed his decrees Natus dux totius Russiæ minoris, but the expression μικρὰ Ρωσσία is found as early as 1292, in the Byzantine writer Codinus. The distinction between "Great" and "Little" Rus' probably originated among Byzantine, Greek-speaking clerics who wanted to separate the two Ruthenian ecclesiastical metropolises of Halych and Moscow.

The specific meaning of the adjectives "Great" and "Little" in this context is unclear. It is possible that terms such as "Little" and "Lesser" at the time simply meant geographically smaller and/or less populous, or having fewer eparchies. Another possibility is that it denoted a relationship similar to that between a homeland and a colony (just as "Magna Graecia" denoted a Greek colony). (Full article...)
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In the news

9 August 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
August 2024 Kursk Oblast incursion
Russia declares a "federal-level" emergency in Kursk Oblast as Ukrainian forces continue to advance. (AP via ABC News)
Akhmat special forces commander Apti Alaudinov says that Ukrainian troops "simply passed-by" their positions without engaging them, with Akhmat troops choosing to retreat until more Russian reinforcements could arrive. Other reports indicate that Akhmat troops fled from Ukrainian forces. (The New Voice of Ukraine via MSN)
A Russian military convoy is destroyed on the E38 highway in Oktyabrsky District. (The Guardian)
Ukrainian troops capture the Gazprom gas facility in Sudzha. A video shows Ukrainian soldiers inside the natural gas facility, with much of the town reportedly under Ukrainian control. (Reuters via Al Arabiya)
Ukraine launches a "massive" drone attack on Lipetsk Oblast, Russia, with Lipetsk air base reportedly on fire. Several villages are evacuated, with six people reportedly injured. (Reuters)
Eastern Ukraine campaign
2024 Kostiantynivka supermarket missile attack
A Russian missile attack on a supermarket in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, kills 14 people and injures 43 others. (Reuters)

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