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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 country in Europe after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the north; Poland and Slovakia to the west; Hungary, Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast. Kyiv is Ukraine's capital and largest city, followed by Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipro. The official language of the country is Ukrainian. Ukraine covers an area of 603,628 km2 (233,062 sq mi) with an estimated total population of 32.3 million in 2026.

Humans have inhabited Ukraine since 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, it was the site of early Slavic expansion and later became a key centre of East Slavic culture under the state of Kievan Rus', which emerged in the 9th century. Kievan Rus' became the largest and most powerful realm in Europe in the 10th and 11th centuries, but gradually disintegrated into rival regional powers before being destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century. For the next 600 years the area was contested, divided, and ruled by a variety of external powers, including the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland, 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 before being gradually absorbed by the Russian Empire in the 18th century. 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 in 1922. In the early 1930s, millions of Ukrainians died in the Holodomor, a human-made famine. During World War II, Ukraine was occupied by Germany and endured major battles and atrocities, resulting in 7 million civilians killed, including most Ukrainian Jews.

Ukraine gained independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved, declaring itself neutral. A new constitution was adopted in 1996 as the country transitioned to a free market liberal democracy amid endemic corruption and a legacy of state control. The Orange Revolution of 2004–2005 ushered electoral and constitutional reforms. Resurgent political crises prompted a series of mass demonstrations in 2014 known as the Euromaidan, leading to a revolution, at the end of which Russia unilaterally occupied and annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and pro-Russian unrest culminated in a war in Donbas with Russia and Russian-backed separatists. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine began the current phase of the war. (Full article...)

In the news

4 July 2026 – Russo-Ukrainian war
Eastern front of the Russo-Ukrainian war
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces deny Russia's claim that it captured Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, yesterday, saying Ukrainian forces still control the city and continue defensive operations there. (Reuters)
4 July 2026 –
Nine people are killed and eight others injured after a minibus collides with a truck between Krasne and Nechayane, Ukraine. (Xinhua)
3 July 2026 – Russo-Ukrainian war
Russian attacks on civilians in the Russo-Ukrainian war
Kyiv strikes
Ukraine declares a day of mourning for the victims of the Russian bombardment of Kyiv on July 2 as the death toll rises to 30. (DW)
Russian missile and drone strikes kill at least five people and injure ten others across Ukraine, including three people in Sumy when a drone struck their apartment building. (Al Jazeera)
Crimea attacks
Ukrainian forces strike nine substations across Russian-occupied Crimea causing power outages. Saky air base and Gvardeyskoye air base are also targeted with seven jets destroyed or damaged. (The New Voice of Ukraine) (Reuters)
Eastern front of the Russo-Ukrainian war
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The Russo-Ukrainian war began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia occupied Crimea and annexed it from Ukraine. It then supported Russian separatist armed groups who started a war in the eastern Donbas region against Ukraine's military. In 2018, Ukraine declared the region to be occupied by Russia. The first eight years of conflict also involved naval incidents and cyberwarfare. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and began occupying more of the country, starting the current phase of the war, the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. The war has resulted in a refugee crisis and hundreds of thousands of deaths.

In early 2014, the Euromaidan protests led to the Revolution of Dignity and the ousting of Ukraine's pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. Immediately after, unmarked Russian troops occupied Crimea. In March 2014, Russia annexed Crimea after an illegitimate referendum. Meanwhile, pro-Russian protests began in parts of southeastern Ukraine. In April 2014, Russian-backed militants seized towns and cities in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and proclaimed the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) as independent states, starting the Donbas war. Russia covertly supported the separatists with its own troops, tanks and artillery, preventing Ukraine from fully retaking the territory. The International Criminal Court (ICC) judged that the war was both a national and international armed conflict involving Russia, and the European Court of Human Rights judged that Russia controlled the DPR and LPR from 2014 onward. In February 2015, Russia and Ukraine signed the Minsk II agreements, but they were never fully implemented in the following years. The Donbas war became a static conflict likened to trench warfare; ceasefires were repeatedly broken but the frontlines did not move. (Full article...)

In the news

4 July 2026 – Russo-Ukrainian war
Eastern front of the Russo-Ukrainian war
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces deny Russia's claim that it captured Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, yesterday, saying Ukrainian forces still control the city and continue defensive operations there. (Reuters)
4 July 2026 –
Nine people are killed and eight others injured after a minibus collides with a truck between Krasne and Nechayane, Ukraine. (Xinhua)
3 July 2026 – Russo-Ukrainian war
Russian attacks on civilians in the Russo-Ukrainian war
Kyiv strikes
Ukraine declares a day of mourning for the victims of the Russian bombardment of Kyiv on July 2 as the death toll rises to 30. (DW)
Russian missile and drone strikes kill at least five people and injure ten others across Ukraine, including three people in Sumy when a drone struck their apartment building. (Al Jazeera)
Crimea attacks
Ukrainian forces strike nine substations across Russian-occupied Crimea causing power outages. Saky air base and Gvardeyskoye air base are also targeted with seven jets destroyed or damaged. (The New Voice of Ukraine) (Reuters)
Eastern front of the Russo-Ukrainian war

Selected anniversaries for July

A 1943 Soviet stamp commemorating Lyudmila Pavlichenko.
A 1943 Soviet stamp commemorating Lyudmila Pavlichenko.

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