BRIEF BACKGROUND
ON UKRAINE

Ukraine is located in Eastern Europe. It shares borders with Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the south; and has a coastline along the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
It is the second-largest country by area in Europe after Russia,
which it borders to the east and north-east.
Ukraine country is a member of the United Nations and the Council of Europe, but is not a member of NATO nor the European Union.

• Ukraine is a large nation in comparison to most other Eastern European countries. It covers 233,062 square miles

For comparison, the size of Texas is only slightly larger at 268,596 square miles.

• The population of Ukraine is over 43 million.

For comparison the population of Texas is 29 million and the population of California is 39 million

• The nation's capital and largest city is Kyiv with a population of 2,962,180.

For comparison, the population of Kyiv is slightly larger than the population of Chicago which is 2,746,388

IMAGES OF UKRAINE

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THE PEOPLE AND CULTURE OF UKRAINE

Ukraine is a diverse and vibrant nation with strong cultural traditions dating back centuries. Ukraine is an active member of the modern world developing new traditions, a new economy, and a new vision for the future as an independent nation.

in 2002, ethnic Ukrainians made up roughly 78% of the population, while Russians were the largest minority, at some 17.3% of the population. Small minority populations included: Belarusians (0.6%), Moldovans (0.5%), Crimean Tatars (0.5%), Bulgarians (0.4%), Hungarians (0.3%), Romanians (0.3%), Poles (0.3%), Jews (0.3%), Armenians (0.2%), Greeks (0.2%) and Tatars (0.2%).

The vast majority of people in Ukraine speak Ukrainian, which is written with a form of the Cyrillic alphabet. The language—belonging with Russian and Belarusian to the East Slavic branch of the Slavic language family—is closely related to Russian but also has distinct similarities to the Polish language. Significant numbers of people in the country speak Polish, Yiddish, Rusyn, Belarusian, Romanian or Moldovan, Bulgarian, Crimean Turkish, or Hungarian .

To understand a nation it is essential to learn about their culture.

A nation is far more than just politics and government.
A nation is "people"; and to understand the nation of Ukraine it's important to get to know the people of Ukraine.

One way of getting to know the people of Ukraine is to learn more about their culture, their art, their literature.

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to learn more about the past and present Art and Culture of Ukraine

TOURISM

Up until the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine was a safe country to travel to and a very popular tourist destination. The number of tourists visiting Ukraine was 8th in Europe, according to the World Tourism Organization rankings. Tourism used to be an essential part of the overall economy.

Ukraine has numerous tourist attractions: mountain ranges suitable for skiing, hiking and fishing: the Black Sea coastline as a popular summer destination; nature reserves of different ecosystems; churches, castle ruins and other architectural and park landmarks; various outdoor activity points. Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa and Kamyanets-Podilskyi were Ukraine's principal tourist centres each offering many historical landmarks as well as formidable hospitality infrastructure.

The Seven Wonders of Ukraine and Seven Natural Wonders of Ukraine are the selection of the most important landmarks of Ukraine, chosen by the general public through an Internet-based vote.

GEOGRAPHY

The landscape of Ukraine consists mostly of fertile plains (or steppes) and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the Dnieper (Dnipro), Seversky Donets, Dniester and the Southern Bug as they flow south into the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. Ukraine's various regions have diverse geographic features ranging from the highlands to the lowlands. The country's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west.

The Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains along it's western borders, constitute one of the most important and unique ecoregions in Europe. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) recognized the Carpathians as a natural treasure of global importance and included it in its "Global 200" list of the most significant ecosystems on our planet. The rich and unique flora and fauna of the region is being preserved within a network of national parks and nature preserves established with the specific aim of protecting the biological and landscape diversity of the Ukrainian Carpathians.

The Dnieper ( or Dnipro ) is one of the major rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and Belarus and the fourth-longest river in Europe, after the Volga, Danube, and Ural rivers. The total length is approximately 1,400 miles.

RELIGION

Religion in Ukraine is diverse, with a majority of the population adhering to Christianity. The predominant religion in Ukraine, practiced by almost half the population, is Eastern Orthodoxy. Historically, most adherents belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Kyiv Patriarchate, though the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Moscow Patriarchate was important as well. A smaller number of Orthodox Christians belonged to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

In January 2019 the Kyiv Patriarchate and Autocephalous churches were merged into a single body as the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In creating the new church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I formalized the independence of Ukraine’s Orthodox community, which had been under the jurisdiction of the patriarchate of Moscow since 1686. In western Ukraine the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church prevails. Minority religions include Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Islam (practiced primarily by the Crimean Tatars), and Judaism.

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CLICK HERE TO LEARN ABOUT THE HISTORY OF UKRAINE