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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.
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.
An Independent Nation
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.
A Struggling Economy and a Troubled Government
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.
Violent demonstrations rocked Ukraine in the winter of 2001, 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 predicted
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.
https://www.infoplease.com/world/countries/ukraine/2012-language-bill-and-new-election
https://theweek.com/articles/449691/ukraines-fraught-relationship-russia-brief-history