Ukraine

Ukraine, located in Eastern Europe, is the second-largest European country after Russia, with a population of around 44 million as of 2021. Strategically at the junction of Europe and Asia, Ukraine covers 603,548 square kilometers and is therefore a major actor in the geopolitical scene of the area. Russia to the east and northeast; Belarus to the north; Poland and Slovakia to the west; Hungary, Romania, and Moldova to the southwest; the country borders several other countries. Furthermore, giving Ukraine significant maritime access is its sizable coastline along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast.

Kyiv, a historic city serving as the political, economic, and cultural center of Ukraine, is its capital and biggest city. Other important cities are Dnipro, a major economic center; Kharkiv, known for its industrial and intellectual strength; and Odesa, a busy Black Sea port city. Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine; a Slavic language that captures the rich cultural legacy and unique national character of the nation.

Ukraine’s past is a tapestry of many influences and key events that have molded its national character. Early Slavic colonies that thrived in the area during the Middle Ages provide the foundation of Ukrainian culture. Rising in the 9th century, Kievan Rus’ medieval East Slavic state developed into a furnace of East Slavic culture. Powerful Kievan Rus’ was the basis for the linguistic and cultural growth of the Ukrainian people.

Still, Kievan Rus’ stability was not going to last. The terrible Mongol invasions of the 13th century broke up the state into competing regional powers. This launched a protracted period of outside control and influence over Ukrainian territory. The area that is now modern Ukraine was contested, split, and under control by several outside nations for the next 600 years. From different times, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia all exercised control over different areas of Ukraine, so imprinting themselves on its political scene, society, and culture.

In the middle of this convoluted history of foreign rule, an original Ukrainian identity kept developing. Early Ukrainian statehood was embodied in the Cossack Hetmanate, a semi-autonomous polity that first emerged in central Ukraine in the 17th century. Eventually, though, Poland and Russia split this territory; the Russian Empire absorbed most of Ukraine.

As intellectuals and activists started to communicate a unique Ukrainian cultural and political identity, Ukrainian nationalism grew in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, this movement acquired momentum and resulted in the brief life of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. But this time of freedom was fleeting as the Bolsheviks solidified their hold over most of the former Russian Empire.

Beginning with the founding of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as a constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922, Ukrainian history underwent a fresh turn. Although this era marked great industrialization and modernization, the Ukrainian people suffered greatly as well. One of the worst events in Ukrainian history, the Holodomor—a man-made famine killing millions of people—was experienced in the early 1930s. This catastrophe permanently changed the national consciousness and still shapes Ukraine’s connection with its past.

Ukraine suffered still more destruction during the Second World War. Particularly ruthless, the German occupation claimed the lives of almost 7 million Ukrainian people, including almost total annihilation of Ukraine’s Jewish population in the Holocaust. Ukraine suffered greatly from the war, both physically and psychologically, leaving severe marks on its landscape.

The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked Ukraine’s road toward freedom. Declared its neutrality and starting the difficult process of nation-building, the recently independent state. Adoption of a new constitution in 1996 marked a turning point in this path since it prepared Ukraine’s political and legal framework.

Following independence has been a time of both opportunities and difficulties. Ukraine has battled political tensions, economic uncertainty, and corruption. With the Euromaidan, a series of mass demonstrations that resulted in a government change and a reorientation of Ukraine’s foreign policy toward closer ties with the West, these tensions peaked in 2014.

This change has not, however, been without effects. Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty have been seriously challenged by Russia’s acquisition of Crimea in 2014 and the ensuing conflict in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a conflict with far-reaching consequences for regional and world security, the scenario worsened sharply in February 2022.