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Ukraine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ukraine (English pronunciation /juːˈkreɪn/; Ukrainian: Україна, Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/) is a country in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev (Kyiv) is Ukraine's capital.
From at least the ninth century, the territory of present-day Ukraine was a center of the medieval East Slavic civilization forming the state of Kievan Rus' that disintegrated in the twelfth century. From the 14th century on, the territory of Ukraine was divided among a number of regional powers and by the nineteenth century the largest part of Ukraine was integrated into the Russian Empire with the rest being under the Austro-Hungarian control. After a chaotic period of incessant warfare and several attempts at independence (1917–1921) following the Russian Revolution and the Great War, Ukraine emerged in 1922 as one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's territory was enlarged westward shortly before and after the Second World War, and again in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the co-founding members of the United Nations.[3] Ukraine became independent again after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This began a transition period to a market economy, in which Ukraine was initially stricken with eight straight years of economic decline.[4] But since approximately the turn of the century, the economy has been experiencing a stable increase, with a real GDP growth averaging approximately 7% annually.[4]
Ukraine is a unitary state composed of 24 oblasts (provinces), one autonomous republic (Crimea), and two cities with special status (Kiev, its capital, and Sevastopol, which houses the Russian Black Sea Fleet under a leasing agreement[5]). Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. At the end of 2004, the country underwent an extensive constitutional reform that has changed the balance of power between the Parliament, Prime Minister, the Cabinet and their relationship vis-a-vis the president.
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The Ukrainian word Ukrayina is from Old East Slavic ukraina "borderland", from u "by, at" and the Slavic root kraj "edge; region" [6]. In the Ukrainian language krayina simply means "country". In English, the country was often referred to with the definite article as the Ukraine. However, usage without the article is now predominant (conforming to proper English grammar [7]) and has become established in diplomacy[8] and journalism since the country's independence. [9][10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Human settlement on the territory of Ukriane dates back to at least 4500 BC, when the Neolithic Tripillian culture flourished. During the Iron Age, the land was inhabited by Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians.[15]
Colonies of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Byzantine Empire were founded starting from the 6th century BC on the north-eastern shore of the Black Sea, and thriving well into the AD 6th century. Tyras, Olbia, and Hermonassa are just a few examples of the settlements.
During the 10th and 11th centuries the territory of Ukraine became the center of a European state, the Kievan Rus', laying the foundation for the national identity of Ukrainians, as well as other East Slavic nations, through subsequent centuries.[16] Its capital was Kiev, which later became the capital of modern Ukraine, wrested from Khazars by Askold and Dir in about 860 AD. According to the Primary Chronicle, the Kievan Rus' elite initially consisted of Varangians from Scandinavia. The Varangians later became assimilated into the local Slavic population and became part of the Rus' first dynasty, the Rurik Dynasty.[16]
Kievan Rus' was composed of several principalities, ruled by the interrelated Rurikid Princes. The seat of Kiev, the most prestigious and influential of all principalities, became the subject of many rivalries between Rurikids as the most valuable prize in their quest for power, sometimes through intrigue, but often through bloody conflicts. The Golden Age of Kievan Rus' began with the reign of Vladimir the Great (Volodymyr, 980–1015), who turned Rus' toward Byzantine Christianity. During the reign of his son, Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054), Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural development and military power. This was followed by the state's increasing fragmentation as the relative importance of regions rose again. After a final resurgence under the rule of Vladimir Monomakh (1113–1125) and his son Mstislav (1125–1132), Kievan Rus' finally disintegrated into separate principalities following Mstislav's death. The 13th century Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus'. Kiev was totally destroyed in 1240.[16][17]
On the Ukrainian territory, the state of Kievan Rus' was succeeded by the principalities of Halych and Volodymyr-Volynskyi, which were merged into the state of Halych-Volynia.
- See also: Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Crown of the Polish Kingdom, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Russian Empire
In the mid-fourtheenth century, Halych-Volhynia was subjugated by Casimir the Great of Poland, while the heartland of Rus', including Kiev, fell under the Gediminids of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Following the 1386 Union of Krevo, a dynastic union between Poland and Lithuania, most of Ukraine's territory was controlled by the local as well as increasingly Ruthenized Lithuanian nobles as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At this time, the term Ruthenia and Ruthenians as the Latinized versions of "Rus'", became widely applied to the land and its people, respectively.
By the 1569, the Union of Lublin formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from largely Ruthenized Lithuanian rule to the Polish administration, as it was transferred to the Polish Crown. Under the cultural and political pressure of Polonization much of the Ruthenian upper class converted to Catholicism and became indistinguishable from the Polish nobility.[18] At the same time, the common people, especially the peasants, retained their old ways and their historic allegiance to the Eastern Orthodoxy. This led to increasing social tension and the 1596 Union of Brest, an attempt by King Sigismund III to bring the Orthodox population under the Catholicism through creation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, failed to alleviate the unrest. Resisted even by some Ruthenian magnates, otherwise loyal to the Polish kings (Ostrogskis being the most notable example), the new "intermediate" religion was unnecessary for most of the upper class, much of which increasingly turned directly toward Catholicism with each subsequent generation. Thus, the Ukrainian commoners, deprived of their native protectors among Ruthenian nobility, turned for protection to the Cossacks, who remained fiercely Orthodox at all times and tended also to easily turn to violence against those they perceived as their enemies, particularly the Polish state and its representatives.[19]
From 1569, the southeast of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth suffered a series of Tatar invasions, the goal of which was to loot, pillage and capture slaves into jasyr (slavery). The borderland area to the southeast was in a state of semi-permanent warfare until the 18th century.
In the mid seventeenth century, a Cossack quasi-state, the Zaporozhian Sich, was established by the Dnieper Cossacks and the Ruthenian peasants fleeing Polish serfdom.[20] Poland had little real control of this land in what is now central Ukraine, which became an autonomous military state, at times allied with the Commonwealth in the military campaigns. However, the enserfment of peasantry by the Polish nobility, overall emphasis of the Commonwealth's agricultural economy on the fierce exploitation of the workforce, and, perhaps most importantly, the suppression of the Orthodox church pushed the allegiances of Cossacks away from Poland. Their aspiration was to have a representation in Polish Sejm, recognition of Orthodox traditions and the gradual expansion of the Cossack Registry, all being vehemently denied by the Polish kings. The Cossacks turned toward Orthodox Russia, which was one reason for the later downfall of the Polish-Lithuanian state.[20]
In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish king John II Casimir. [21] This uprising finally led to a partition of Ukraine between Poland and Russia.[22] Left-bank Ukraine was eventually integrated into Russia as the Cossack Hetmanate, following the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav and the ensuing Russo-Polish War. After the partitions of Poland at the end of the eighteenth century by Prussia, Habsburg Austria, and Russia, Western Ukrainian Galicia was taken over by Austria, while the rest of Ukraine was progressively incorporated into the Russian Empire.
Despite the promises of Ukrainian autonomy given by the treaty of Pereyaslav, Ukrainians never received the freedoms they were hoping for from Imperial Russia. Because of its geographic location, Ukraine played an important role in the frequent wars between East European monarchies and the Ottoman Empire. As a result of Russian successes in the wars against Ottoman Empire and Crimean Khanate of 1768–74 and 1787–1792, the territories along the Black Sea coast were annexed to the Russian Empire as well.
Within the Empire Ukrainians frequently rose to the highest offices of Russian state (e.g., Aleksey Razumovsky, Alexander Bezborodko, Ivan Paskevich), and the Russian Orthodox Church (e.g., Stephen Yavorsky, Feofan Prokopovich, Dimitry of Rostov). At a later period, the tsarist regime was implementing a harsh policy of Russification, suppressing the use of the Ukrainian language in print, and in public.[23]
- See also: Ukraine in World War I , Ukraine after the Russian Revolution , and Ukrainian War of Independence
During World War I Austro-Hungarian authorities established the Ukrainian Legion, along with the Polish Legion, to fight against the Russian Empire. These legions were the foundations of the successful Polish Army and the abortive Ukrainian Galician Army that fought against the Bolsheviks and Poles in the post World War I period (1919-1923).
Those suspected of the Russophile sentiments were treaty harshly. Up to 20,000 supporters of Russia from Galicia were detained and placed in an Austrian internment camp in Talerhof, Styria, and in a fortress at Terezín (now in the Czech Republic).[24]
With the collapse of the Russian and Austrian empires following World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917, a Ukrainian national movement for self-determination reemerged. During 1917–20, several separate Ukrainian states briefly emerged: the Ukrainian People's Republic, the Hetmanate and the Directorate successively came and went in the territories of the former Russian Empire and while the West Ukrainian People's Republic emerged briefly in the former Austro-Hungarian territory. However, with the defeat of the latter in the Polish-Ukrainian War and the failure of the Polish Kiev Offensive (1920) aimed at wrestling the control over Ukraine from the Soviets, the Peace of Riga concluded in March 1921 between Poland, Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine left Ukraine split again. The western part of Ukraine had been incorporated into the newly organized Second Polish Republic. The larger central and eastern part, established as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in March of 1919, later became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union in December 1922.
In the early Soviet years, the Ukrainian culture and language enjoyed a revival as the Ukrainization became a local implementation of the Soviet-wide Korenization (literally indigenization) policy.[25] These policies were sharply reversed by the early-1930s.
Starting from the late 1920s, Ukraine was involved in the Soviet industrialization and the republic's industrial output quadrupled in the 1930s. However, the industrialization had a heavy cost for the peasantry, demographically a backbone of the Ukrainian nation. To satisfy the state's need for increased food supplies and finance industrialization, Stalin instituted a program of collectivization of agriculture as the state combined the peasants' lands and animals into collective farms and enforcing the policies by the regular troops and secret police. Those who resisted were arrested and deported and the increased production quotas were placed on the peasantry. The collectivization had a devastating effect on agricultural productivity. As the members of the collective farms were not allowed to receive any grain until the unachievable quotas were met, starvation became widespread. In 1932-33, millions starved to death in a man-made famine known as Holodomor.[a] Scholars are divided as to whether this famine fits the definition of genocide, but 15 governments and the Ukrainian parliament recognize it as the genocide of the Ukrainian people.[26]
The times of industrialization and Holodomor also coincided with the Soviet assault on the national political and cultural elite often accused in "nationalist deviations". These policies of Ukrainization were reversed at the turn of the decade. Two waves of purges (1929–1934 and 1936–1938) resulted in the elimination of four-fifths of the Ukrainian cultural elite.[27]
- See also: Eastern Front (World War II)
Following the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact in September 1939, German and Soviet troops divided the territory of Poland, including Galicia with its Ukrainian population. After France surrendered to Germany, Romania ceded Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to Soviet demands. The Ukrainian SSR incorporated northern and southern districts of Bessarabia, the northern Bukovina, and the Soviet-occupied Hertsa region, but ceded the western part of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to the newly created Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. All these territorial gains were internationally recognized by the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947.
Although the wide majority of Ukrainians fought alongside the Red Army,[28] some elements of the Ukrainian nationalist underground fought both Nazi and Soviet forces, forming the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in 1942. While other Ukrainians initially collaborated with the Nazis, having been ignored by all other powers. In total, about 4.5 million ethnic Ukrainians fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army[28][b] and another 43,500 Ukrainians as pro-Soviet partisan guerrilla units at their peak in 1943.[29] On the other hand, due to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's unconventional structure, estimates are much less accurate, ranging anywhere from 25,000 to 200,000 Ukrainians.[30] In 1941 the German invaders and their Axis allies initially advanced against desperate but unsuccessful efforts of the Red Army. In the encirclement battle of Kiev, the city was acclaimed by the Soviets as a "Hero City", for the fierce resistance of the Red Army and of the local population. More than 600,000 Soviet soldiers (or one quarter of the Western Front) were killed or taken captive.[31][32]
Initially, the Germans were received as liberators by some Ukrainians, especially in western Ukraine, which had been occupied by the Soviets only in 1939. However, German brutal rule in the occupied territories eventually turned even many of its supporters against the occupation. Nazi administrators of conquered Soviet territories made little attempt to exploit the population of Ukrainian territories' dissatisfaction with Soviet political and economic policies. Instead, the Nazis preserved the collective-farm system, systematically carried out genocidal policies against Jews, deported others (mainly Ukrainians) to work in Germany, and began a systematic depopulation of Ukraine to prepare it for German colonization,[33] which included a food blockade on Kiev. Under these circumstances, most people living in the occupied territory either passively or actively opposed the Nazis.
Total civilian losses inflicted upon the Ukrainian population during the war are estimated between five and eight million,[34][35] including over half a million Jews killed by the Einsatzgruppen, sometimes with the help of local collaborators. Of the estimated 7.5 to 10.6 million Soviet troops who fell in battle and in captivity against the Nazis,[36][37] about a quarter (2.5 million) were ethnic Ukrainians.[34][b] Ukraine is distinguished as one of the first nations to fight the Axis powers in Carpatho-Ukraine, and one that saw some of the greatest bloodshed during the war.
- See also: History of the Soviet Union (1953–1985)
The republic was heavily damaged by the war, and it required significant efforts to recover. More than 700 cities and towns and 28,000 villages were destroyed.[27] The situation was worsened by a famine in 1946–47, when the Soviet authorities were forcibly confiscating grain crops in accordance with a plan, ignoring drought conditions of 1946. Collected grain was distributed to the other regions of the Soviet Union, and 2.5 million tonnes were exported. In Ukraine, about one million people, predominantly in rural areas, died from the famine.[38][39]
In western Ukraine, some Ukrainians continued to resist Soviet rule. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army, formed in World War II to fight both Soviets and Nazis, continued to fight the USSR into the 1950s. Using guerilla war tactics, the insurgents were assassinating Soviet party leaders, NKVD and military officers. In particular, due to the resistance, the 1946-47 famine was less severe in Western Ukraine than in other Ukrainian regions.[38]
Following the death of Stalin in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became the new leader of the USSR. Being the First Secretary of Communist Party of Ukrainian SSR in 1938-49, Khrushchev played a role in Stalin's repressions, the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazis, organization of the man-made famine in 1946-47, and suppression of resistance in Western Ukraine. But after taking power, he found it best to propagandize the friendship between the Ukrainian and Russian nations. In 1954, the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav was widely celebrated, and in particular, Crimea was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.[40]
In the times of the Khrushchev Thaw of the 1960s, there were many dissident movements in Ukraine by prominent figures such as Vyacheslav Chornovil, Vasyl Stus, Levko Lukyanenko. As in the other regions of USSR, the movements were quickly suppressed. During the 1960s, it is estimated that over fifty percent of all political prisoners in the USSR were Ukrainians.[41]
Already by the end of the 1950s, the republic fully surpassed pre-war levels of industry and production. It also became the center of Soviet arms industry and high-tech research. Such an important role resulted in a major influence of the local elite. Many members of the Soviet leadership came from Ukraine, most notably Leonid Brezhnev who would later oust Khrushchev and become the Soviet leader from 1962 to 1984, as well as many prominent Soviet sportsmen, scientists and artists.
The rule of Shcherbytsky was characterized by the expanded policies of Russification. He used his influence as the First Secretary of CPU, and a Politburo member for over 25 years, to advocate economic interests of Ukraine within the USSR.
On April 26, 1986, a reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, resulting in the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history.[42][43] The disaster was the result of a flawed reactor design, and serious mistakes by plant operators. The explosions and the resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, resulting in mandatory evacuation or voluntary resettlement of about 350,000 people. At the time of the accident 7 million people lived in the contaminated territories, including 2.2 million in Ukraine.[44]
After the accident, a new city, Slavutych, was built outside the exclusion zone to house and support the employees of the plant, which was decommissioned in 2000. Around 150,000 people were evacuated from the contaminated area, and 300,000–600,000 took part in the cleanup. As of 2000, about 4,000 Ukrainian children have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer caused by radiation released by this incident.[45]
The wave of Gorbachev's perestroika arrived in Ukraine only in 1988–89. It was hindered initially by Shcherbytsky and party Nomenklatura. Also, the economic slowdown and product shortages were initially not as severe in Ukraine as in the other regions of the USSR.
In 1989, the national movement "People's Movement of Ukraine," known in short as Rukh was formed. In the parliamentary elections of the republic, which were held in March of 1990, Rukh obtained overwhelming support in western Ukraine, as well as in the cities of Kiev and Kharkiv.
On July 16, 1990 the new parliament adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine.[46] The declaration established the principles of the self-determination of the Ukrainian nation, democracy, political and economic independence, and the priority of Ukrainian law on the Ukrainian territory over Soviet law. A month earlier, a similar declaration was adopted by the parliament of the Russian SFSR. This started a period of confrontation between the central Soviet, and new republican authorities.
In March 1991, a referendum was organized by Soviet authorities, asking people whether they wanted to live in a "renewed" Soviet Union. The Ukrainian parliament added a second question, asking Ukrainian citizens whether they wished to live in the Soviet Union on the principles established in the Declaration of State Sovereignty. The citizens of Ukraine responded positively to both questions.
In August 1991, the conservative Communist leaders of the Soviet Union attempted a coup to remove Gorbachev and to restore the Communist party's power. After the attempt failed, on August 22, 1991 the Ukrainian parliament adopted the Act of Independence in which the parliament declared Ukraine as an independent democratic state.[47]
A referendum and the first presidential elections took place on December 1, 1991. That day, more than 90 percent of the Ukrainian people expressed their support for the Act of Independence, and they elected the chairman of the parliament, Leonid Kravchuk to serve as the first President of the country.
At the meeting in Brest, Belarus on December 8, followed by Alma Ata meeting on December 21, the leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, formally dissolved the Soviet Union and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States.[48]
Ukraine was initially viewed as a republic with favorable economic conditions in comparison to the other regions of the Soviet Union.[49] However, the country experienced deeper economic slowdown than some of the other former Soviet Republics. During the recession, Ukraine lost 60 percent of its GDP from 1991 to 1999,[50][51] and suffered five-digit inflation rates.[52] Dissatisfied with the economic conditions, as well as crime and corruption, Ukrainians protested and organized strikes.[53]
In 1994, President Kravchuk agreed to hold presidential elections ahead of schedule, in which he lost the presidential post to former Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma who served two terms as the president.
The Ukrainian economy stabilized by the end of 1990s. A new currency, the hryvnia, in was introduced in 1996. Since 2000 the country has enjoyed steady economic growth averaging approximately seven percent annually,[54][4] which is one of the highest growth rates in Europe and the world. A new Constitution of Ukraine was adopted in 1996, which turned Ukraine into a semi-presidential republic and established a stable political system. Kuchma was, however, criticized by opponents for concentrating too much of power in his office, corruption, transferring public property into hands of loyal oligarchs, discouraging free speech, and electoral fraud.[55][56]
The first astronaut of the National Space Agency of Ukraine to enter space under the Ukrainian flag was Leonid Kadenyuk on May 13, 1997. Ukraine became an active participant in scientific space exploration and remote sensing missions. Between 1991 and 2007, Ukraine has launched six self made satellites and 101 launch vehicles, and continues to design spacecraft.[57]
In 2004, Viktor Yanukovych, then Prime Minister, was declared the winner of the presidential elections, which had been largely rigged, as many observers agreed. The results caused a public outcry in support of the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, who challenged the results and led the peaceful Orange Revolution. The revolution brought Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko to power, while casting Viktor Yanukovych in opposition.
In late March and early April 2007, Ukraine dealt with yet another constitutional crisis. President Viktor Yushchenko dissolved the Ukrainian parliament and ordered an early election to be held May 27, 2007. This decision rallied wide spread support from the 'Orange' opposition, and wide spread denial from Yanukovych's fraction, the Party of Regions.[58] Eventually, a compromise between Yushchenko and Yanukovych was reached to hold early parliamentary elections.[59] The early elections were held on September 30, 2007. In the elections, the combined parties of Yulia Tymoshenko and 'Our Ukraine' emerged victorious. On December 18, 2007, Yulia Tymoshenko once again became the prime minister of Ukraine. [60]
On April 18, 2007 in Cardiff, Wales, Ukraine won a joint bid with Poland to host the UEFA Euro 2012 football championship, which is the third-largest sporting event in the world after the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics. This is the first time in Ukrainian history that the country got a chance to host such a major international event. Experts and politicians have noted that it will boost Ukrainian infrastructure development, tourist attractiveness and overall investments into the country. Among the most significant developments that will take place in the process of preparation are the road infrastructure improvement, expanding hotel networks in at least six major cities, in particular Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Odessa and Lviv, modernization of airports and construction of modern football stadiums. One of the stadiums (under construction) is the Shakhtar Stadium in Donetsk, which received a five-star FIFA rating as one of the best in the world. [61]
Ukraine is a republic under a mixed semi-parliamentary semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The President is elected by popular vote for a five-year term and is the formal head of state.[62]
Ukraine's legislative branch includes the 450-seat unicameral parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.[63] The parliament is primarily responsible for the formation of the executive branch, the Cabinet of Ministers, which is headed by the Prime Minister.[64]
Laws, acts of the parliament and the cabinet, presidential decrees, and acts of the Crimean parliament may be abrogated by the Constitutional Court, should they be found to violate the Constitution of Ukraine. Other normative acts are subject to judicial review. The Supreme Court is the main body in the system of courts of general jurisdiction. Local self-government is officially guaranteed. Local councils and city mayors are popularly elected and exercise control over local budgets. The heads of regional and district administrations are appointed by the president.
Ukraine has a large number of political parties, many of which have tiny memberships and are unknown to the general public. Small parties often join in multi-party coalitions (electoral blocs) for the purpose of participating in parliamentary elections.
The system of Ukrainian subdivisions reflects the country's status as a unitary state (as stated in the country's constitution) with unified legal and administrative regimes for each unit.
Ukraine is subdivided into twenty-four oblasts (provinces) and one autonomous republic (avtonomna respublika), Crimea. Additionally, the cities of Kiev, the capital, and Sevastopol both have a special legal status. Furthermore, the 24 oblasts and Crimea are subdivided into 490 raions (districts), or second-level administrative units.[65]
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After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited a 780,000 military force on its territory, equipped with the third-largest nuclear weapon arsenal in the world.[67] In May 1992, Ukraine signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in which the country agreed to give up all nuclear weapons to Russia for disposal and to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state. Ukraine ratified the treaty in 1994, and by 1996 the country became free of nuclear weapons.[68]
Ukraine also took consistent steps toward reduction of conventional weapons. It signed the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which called for reduction of tanks, artillery, and armored vehicles (army forces were reduced to 300,000). The country plans to convert the current conscript-based army into a professional volunteer army. [69]
Ukraine has been playing an increasingly larger role in peacekeeping operations. Ukrainian troops are deployed in Kosovo as part of the Ukrainian-Polish Battalion.[70] A Ukrainian unit is deployed in Lebanon, as part of UN Interim Force enforcing the mandated ceasefire agreement. There is also a maintenance and training battalion deployed in Sierra Leone. In 2003-2005, a Ukrainian unit was deployed in Iraq, as part of the Multinational force in Iraq under Polish command. The total Ukrainian military deployment around the world is about 2,800 troops.[71]
Following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state.[72] The country has had a limited military partnership with Russia, other CIS countries and a partnership with NATO since 1994. In the 2000s, Ukraine was leaning towards the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and a deeper cooperation with the alliance was set by NATO-Ukraine Action Plan signed in 2002. As of 2006, this issue is a subject of extensive debate within Ukraine as to whether the country should join NATO. In August of 2006, the leading political parties signed the Universal of National Unity, a nonbinding document, in which it was agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future.[69]
At 603,700 km² (233,074 sq mi) and with a coastline of 2,782 km (1,729 sq mi), Ukraine is the world's 44th-largest country (after the Central African Republic, before Madagascar). It is the second largest country in Europe (after European part of Russia, before metropolitan France). [2]
The Ukrainian landscape consists mostly of fertile plains (or steppes) and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the Dnieper (Dnipro), Seversky Donets, Dniester and the Southern Buh as they flow south into the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. To the southwest, the delta of the Danube forms the border with Romania. The country's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest is the Hora Hoverla at 2,061 m (6,762 ft), and those on the Crimean peninsula, in the extreme south along the coast. [73]
Ukraine has a mostly temperate continental climate, although a more Mediterranean climate is found on the southern Crimean coast. Precipitation is disproportionately distributed; it is highest in the west and north and lesser in the east and southeast. Western Ukraine, receives around 1,200 millimetres of precipitation, annually. On the other hand, Crimea, receives around 400 millimetres of precipitation. Winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland. Average annual temperatures range from 5.5°–7°C in the north, to 11°–13°C in the south. [74]
In Soviet times, the economy of the republic was the second largest in the Soviet Union, being an important industrial and agricultural component of the country's planned economy. With the collapse of the Soviet system, the country moved from a planned economy to a market economy. The transition process was difficult for the majority of the population which plunged into poverty.[27] Ukraine's economy contracted severely following the years after the Soviet collapse.[27] Day to day life for the average person living in Ukraine was a struggle.[27] A significant number of citizens in Ukraine survived by growing their own food, often working two or more jobs and buying the basic necessities through the barter economy.[27]
In 1991, the government liberalized most prices to combat widespread product shortages, and was successful in overcoming the problem. At the same time, the government continued to subsidize government-owned industries and agriculture by uncovered monetary emission. The loose monetary policies of the early 1990s pushed inflation to hyperinflationary levels. For the year 1993, Ukraine holds the world record for inflation in one calendar year.[75] Those living on fixed incomes suffered the most.[27] Prices stabilized only after the introduction of new currency, the hryvnia, in 1996.
The country was also slow in implementing structural reforms. Following independence, the government formed a legal framework for privatization. However, widespread resistance to reforms within the government and from a significant part of the population soon stalled the reform efforts. A large number of government-owned enterprises were exempt from the privatization process. In the meantime, by 1999, the output had fallen to less than 40 percent of the 1991 level,[76] but recovered to slightly above the 100 percent mark by the end of 2006.[77]
Ukraine's 2006 GDP (PPP) is ranke