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Travel to Ukraine — Unbiased reviews and great
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National name: Ukrayina
President: Viktor Yushchenko (2005)
Prime Minister: Viktor Yanukovich
(2006)
Current government officials
Total area: 233,089 sq mi (603,700 sq km)
Population (2007 est.): 46,299,862
(growth rate: –0.7%); birth rate: 9.5/1000; infant mortality rate:
9.5/1000; life expectancy: 67.9; density per sq mi: 199
Capital (2003 est.):
Kyiv (Kiev), 3,296,100 (metro. area),
2,588,400 (city proper)
Other large cities: Kharkiv,
1,435,200; Odessa, 1,022,300; Donetske, 984,900; Lvov, 700,100
Monetary unit: Hryvna
Languages:
Ukrainian 67%, Russian 24%, Romanian, Polish,
Hungarian
Ethnicity/race:
Ukrainian 77.8%, Russian 17.3%, Belorussian
0.6%, Moldovan 0.5%, Crimean Tatar 0.5%, Bulgarian 0.4%, Hungarian
0.3%, Romanian 0.3%, Polish 0.3%, Jewish 0.2%, other 1.8% (2001)
Religions:
Ukrainian Orthodox (Kiev Patriarchate 19%,
Moscow Patriarchate 9%, no particular division 16%), Ukrainian Greek
Catholic 6%, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox 2%, Protestant,
Jewish, none 38% (2004)
Literacy rate: 100% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007
est.): $320.1 billion; per capita $6,900. Real growth rate:
7.3%. Inflation: 12.8%. Unemployment: 2.3% officially
registered; large number of unregistered or underemployed workers;
International Labor Organization est.: 7%. Arable land: 54%.
Agriculture: grain, sugar beets, sunflower seeds, vegetables;
beef, milk. Labor force: 21.58 million (2007 est.); industry
32%, agriculture 24%, services 44% (1996). Industries: coal,
electric power, ferrous and nonferrous metals, machinery and
transport equipment, chemicals, food processing (especially sugar).
Natural resources: iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas,
oil, salt, sulfur, graphite, titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel,
mercury, timber, arable land. Exports: $38.22 billion (2005
est.): ferrous and nonferrous metals, fuel and petroleum products,
chemicals, machinery and transport equipment, food products.
Imports: $37.18 billion (2005 est.): energy, machinery and
equipment, chemicals. Major trading partners: Russia,
Germany, Turkey, Italy, U.S., Turkmenistan (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 9.45 million (April 1999); mobile cellular: 236,000 (1998).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 134, FM 289, shortwave 4 (1998).
Radios: 45.05 million (1997). Television broadcast
stations: at least 33 (plus 21 repeater stations that relay
broadcasts from Russia) (1997). Televisions: 18.05 million
(1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 260 (2001).
Internet users: 750,000 (2001).
Transportation: Railways: total: 22,473
km (2002). Highways: total: 169,491 km; paved: 163,898 km;
unpaved: 5,593 km (2000). Waterways: 4,499 km (1990).
Ports and harbors: Berdyans'k, Feodosiya, Illichivs'k,
Izmayil, Kerch, Kherson, Kiev (Kyyiv), Kiliya, Mariupol', Mykolayiv,
Odesa, Reni, Sevastopol', Yalta, Yuzhnyy. Airports: 790
(2002).
International disputes: 1997 boundary
treaty with Belarus remains unratified over unresolved financial
claims, preventing demarcation and encouraging illegal cross-border
activities; land delimitation of boundary with Russia is complete,
but maritime regime of the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait remains
unresolved; difficulties in the Transnistria region of Moldova
complicate border crossing and customs, facilitating smuggling, arms
transfers, and other illegal activities; has not resolved Romanian
claims to Ukrainian-administered Zmiyinyy (Snake) Island and Black
Sea maritime boundary despite ongoing talks based on 1997 friendship
treaty to find a solution in two years.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Located in southeast Europe, the country consists largely of fertile
black soil steppes. Mountainous areas include the Carpathians in the
southwest and the Crimean chain in the south. Ukraine is bordered by
Belarus on the north, by Russia on the north and east, by the Black Sea on
the south, by Moldova and Romania on the southwest, and by Hungary,
Slovakia, and Poland on the west.
Government
Constitutional republic.
History
Ukraine was known as “Kievan Rus” (from which Russia is a
derivative) up until the 16th century. In the 9th century, Kiev was the
major political and cultural center in eastern Europe. Kievan Rus reached
the height of its power in the 10th century and adopted Byzantine
Christianity. The Mongol conquest in 1240 ended Kievan power. From the
13th to the 16th century, Kiev was under the influence of Poland and
western Europe. The negotiation of the Union of Brest-Litovsk in 1596
divided the Ukrainians into Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic faithful. In
1654, Ukraine asked the czar of Moscovy for protection against Poland, and
the Treaty of Pereyasav signed that year recognized the suzerainty of
Moscow. The agreement was interpreted by Moscow as an invitation to take
over Kiev, and the Ukrainian state was eventually absorbed into the
Russian Empire.
After the Russian Revolution, Ukraine declared its independence from
Russia on Jan. 28, 1918, and several years of warfare ensued with several
groups. The Red Army finally was victorious over Kiev, and in 1920 Ukraine
became a Soviet republic. In 1922, Ukraine became one of the founders of
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In the 1930s, the Soviet
government's enforcement of collectivization met with peasant resistance,
which in turn prompted the confiscation of grain from Ukrainian farmers by
Soviet authorities; the resulting famine took an estimated 5 million
lives. Ukraine was one of the most devastated Soviet republics after World
War II. (For details on World War II, see Headline History, World
War II.) On April 26, 1986, the nation's nuclear power plant at Chernobyl
was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident. On Oct. 29, 1991, the
Ukrainian parliament voted to shut down the reactor within two years' time
and asked for international assistance in dismantling it.
When President Leonid Kravchuk was elected by the Ukrainian parliament
in 1990, he vowed to seek Ukrainian sovereignty. Ukraine declared its
independence on Aug. 24, 1991. In Dec. 1991, Ukrainian, Russian, and
Belorussian leaders cofounded a new Commonwealth of Independent States
with the capital to be situated in Minsk, Belarus. The new country's
government was slow to reform the Soviet-era state-run economy, which was
plagued by declining production, rising inflation, and widespread
unemployment in the years following independence. The U.S. announced in
Jan. 1994 that an agreement had been reached with Russia and Ukraine for
the destruction of Ukraine's entire nuclear arsenal. In Oct. 1994, Ukraine
began a program of economic liberalization and moved to reestablish
central authority over Crimea. In 1995, Crimea's separatist leader was
removed and the Crimean constitution revoked.
In June 1996, the last strategic nuclear warhead was removed to Russia.
Also that month parliament approved a new constitution that allowed for
private ownership of land. An agreement was signed in May 1997 on the
future of the Black Sea fleet, by which Ukrainian and Russian ships will
share the port of Sevastopol for 20 years.
The Russian financial crisis in fall 1998 led to severe problems for
the Ukrainian economy, which is dependent on Russia for 40% of its foreign
trade. Ukraine remains saddled with its Soviet-era economy, and most of
its major industries are still under state control. Corruption is rampant,
and as a result, Western investors have shown only minimal interest. The
election of the reform-minded Viktor Yushchenko as prime minister in Dec.
1999, however, was greeted with optimism by the West. He was also highly
popular among Ukrainians. But in April 2001, he was dismissed in a
no-confidence vote engineered by Communist hard-liners and Ukrainian big
business.
In the winter of 2001 violent demonstrations rocked Ukraine, with
protesters demanding the resignation and impeachment of authoritarian
president Leonid Kuchma. Critics accused Kuchma of involvement in the
murder of a journalist critical of government corruption. Kuchma was
recorded on tape urging that the journalist be disposed of.
In 2004, Kuchma announced he would be retiring. A presidential election
pitted Viktor Yushchenko, the former reformist prime minister, against
Viktor Yanukovich, the current prime minister and Kuchma's chosen
successor. The campaign was an especially dirty one. Yushchenko was nearly
fatally poisoned with dioxin and had to be hospitalized for several weeks
shortly before the election. His doctors predict that the poisoning will
affect his health for years to come. In the Nov. 21 runoff election, Prime
Minister Yanukovich received 49.5% of the vote and Yushchenko 46.5%.
International monitors declared the elections massively fraudulent.
Hundreds of thousands of Yushchenko's supporters took to the streets of
the capital and other cities in protest, and what became known as the
Orange Revolution (after Yushchenko's signature campaign color) continued
full strength over the next two weeks. On Dec. 3, the supreme court
invalidated the election results. On Dec. 8, parliament voted in favor of
an overhaul of Ukraine's political system, amending the constitution to
reform election laws and transferring some presidential powers to the
parliament. In the final presidential runoff on Dec. 26, Yushchenko won
52% of the vote to Yanukovich's 44.2%. On Jan. 23, 2005, Viktor Yushchenko
was sworn in. Fellow reformist Yulia Timoshenko became the prime minister.
But within the year Yushchenko's reformist reputation was tarnished by his
administration's infighting and allegations of corruption. He fired Prime
Minster Timoshenko and her entire cabinet in Aug. 2005. The crisis shook
the public's belief in the Orange Revolution, and Yushchenko's continued
inattentiveness to governmental corruption has further disillusioned the
public.
In Jan. 2006, Russia suddenly quadrupled the price of gas sold to
Ukraine, triggering an energy crisis in the country. Ukraine maintained
that Russia, angry at Ukraine's growing pro-Western stance and its loss of
influence in the region, was attempting to damage its economy. Russia
maintained that the rise in prices was purely a commercial consideration.
Russia briefly stemmed the flow of gas to Ukraine to force the country to
accept the higher prices, sending alarms throughout Europe—a quarter of
Europe's gas supplies come from Russia via Ukraine's pipelines. A
compromise was eventually reached, with Ukraine agreeing to pay about
double its current price. Furious at the unfavorable terms of the deal,
Ukraine's parliament then sacked the government of prime minister Yuri
Yekhanurov. The prime minister, however, maintained the vote was
nonbinding.
In parliamentary elections on March 26, 2006, Yushchenko's party fared
badly, receiving only 14% of the vote. His two major opponents did
considerably better: Viktor Yanukovich, the former prime minister whom
Yushchenko had defeated in 2004, received the largest percentage, 32%, and
Yulia Timoshenko, the former prime minister whom Yushchenko had sacked
earlier in 2005, won 32% of the vote. It took until August before a
strange ruling coalition was cobbled together: Yushchenko appointed his
arch-rival Viktor Yanukovich as prime minister—the very leader the Orange
Revolution had defeated in 2004. Yanukovich has vowed to strengthen
Ukraine's ties with Russia once again.
In April 2007, Yushchenko, accusing Yanukovich of attempting to
consolidate power, dissolved Parliament. After extended negotiations and
political posturing, the rivals agreed to hold parliamentary elections in
the fall. The elections in September proved inconclusive, and after weeks
of talks, the parties that rose to power during the Orange Revolution of
2004 formed a coalition. Yulia Tymoshenko is expected to resume her
position as prime minister.
See also Encyclopedia: Ukraine.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Ukraine
State Committee of Statistics (In Russian and Ukrainian)
http://www.ukrstat.gov.ua/
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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