Ukraine

Statistics

President: Leonid D. Kuchma (1994)

Prime Minister: Anatoli Kinakh (2001)

Area: 233,089 sq mi (603,700 sq km)

Population (2001 est.): 48,760,474 (average annual rate of natural increase: �0.7%): birth rate: 9.3/1000; infant mortality rate: 21.4/1000; density per sq mi: 209

Capital: Kyiv (Kiev), 2,637,000

Other large cities: Kharkiv, 1,622,000; Donetske, 1,121,000; Odessa, 1,104,000; Lviv, 803,000

Monetary unit: Hryvnia (since Sept. 2, 1996)

Language: Ukrainian

Ethnicity/race: Ukrainian 73%, Russian 22%, Jewish 1%, other 4%

Religions: Orthodox 76%, Ukrainian Catholic (Uniate) 13.5%, Jewish 2.3%, Baptist, Mennonite, Protestant, and Muslim 8.2%

Literacy rate: 100% (1979)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (1999 est.): $109.5 billion; per capita $2,200. Real growth rate: �0.4%. Inflation: 20%. Unemployment: 4.3% officially registered; large number of unregistered or underemployed workers (December 1999). Arable land: 58%. Agriculture: grain, sugar beets, sunflower seeds, vegetables; beef, milk. Labor force: 22.8 million (yearend 1997); industry and construction, 32%; agriculture and forestry, 24%; health, education, and culture, 17%, trade and distribution 8%, transport and communication 7%, other 12% (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: $11.6 billion (1999 est.): ferrous and nonferrous metals, fuel and petroleum products, machinery and transport equipment, food products. Imports: $11.8 billion (1999 est.): energy, machinery and parts, transportation equipment, chemicals. Major trading partners: Russia, E.U., China, Turkey, U.S.

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): 35 (1999).

Transportation: Railways: total: 23,350 km. Highways: total: 176,310 km; paved: 170,139 km (including 1,770 km of expressways); note: these roads are said to be hard-surfaced, meaning that some are paved and some are all-weather gravel-surfaced; unpaved: 6,171 km (1998 est.). Waterways: 4,400 km navigable waterways, of which 1,672 km were on the Pryp'yat' and Dnistr (1990). Ports and harbors: Berdyans'k, Illichivs'k, Izmayil, Kerch, Kherson, Kiev (Kyyiv), Mariupol', Mykolayiv, Odesa, Reni. Airports: 706 (1994 est.).

International disputes: dispute with Romania over continental shelf of the Black Sea under which significant gas and oil deposits may exist; agreed in 1997 to two-year negotiating period, after which either party can refer dispute to the ICJ; has made no territorial claim in Antarctica (but has reserved the right to do so) and does not recognize the claims of any other nation.

Geography

Located in southeastern 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. There are forest lakes in the north. Ukraine is bordered by Belarus on the north, by Russia on the north, northeast, and east, by the Sea of Azov and 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 Church Slavonic written language, and the Cyrillic alphabet during that period. 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 United 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 during 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 new 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 allows 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. Ukraine and Russia also signed a 10-year political treaty three days later, by which, among other provisions, Russia recognized the political and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula.

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 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 ordinary Ukrainians. In April of 2001, however, 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 protestors demanding the resignation and impeachment of authoritarian President Leonid Kuchma. Critics accuse 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.

See Also: BRAMA - Gateway Ukraine http://www.brama.com/

(Source: www.infoplease.com )

(this website was designed using Microsoft Notepad, and is best viewed using a computer of some kind.) - Alex Martindale, for Kerry McGregor, 7/11/2001