Portal:Ukraine.html

Welcome to the Ukraine Portal

Ukraine [juˈkreɪn] (help·info) (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 both the capital and the largest city of Ukraine.

From at least the ninth century, the territory of present-day Ukraine was a centre of medieval East Slavic civilization that formed the state that became known as Kievan Rus' and for the following several centuries the territory was divided between a number of regional powers. After a brief period of independence (1917-1921) following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ukraine became one of the founding Soviet Republics in 1922. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's territory was enlarged westward after the Second World War and finally in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. Ukraine became independent again after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

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. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Since the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine continues to maintain the second largest military in Europe, after that of Russia. The country is home to 46.4 million people, 77.8 percent of whom are ethnic Ukrainians, with sizable minorities of Russians, Belarusians and Romanians. The Ukrainian language is the only official language in Ukraine, while Russian is also widely spoken and is known to most Ukrainians as a second language. The dominant religion in the country in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which has heavily influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature and music.

Featured article

St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery (Ukrainian: Михайлівський золотоверхий монастир; translit.: Mykhaylivs’kyi zolotoverkhyi monastyr) is a functioning monastery in Kiev, Ukraine. The monastery is located on the Western side of the Dnieper River on the edge of a bluff northeast of the St. Sophia Cathedral. The site is located in the historic and administrative Uppertown and overlooks the city's historical commercial and merchant quarter, the Podil neighbourhood.

Originally built in the Middle Ages by Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych, the monastery comprises the Cathedral itself, the refectory of St. John the Divine, built in 1713, the Economic Gates, constructed in 1760 and the monastery's bell tower, which was added circa 1716–1719. The exterior of the structure was rebuilt in the Ukrainian Baroque style in the 18th century while the interior remained in its original Byzantine style. The cathedral was demolished by the Soviet authorities in the 1930s, but was recently reconstructed after Ukraine gained its independence.

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Did you know...

Featured at Did you know section at the Wikipedia's Main Page

• ... that the dates of birth and death of the Ukrainian music theorist and composer Nikolay Diletsky remain unknown?
  
• ...that during the Shuliavka worker's uprising of 1905, groups of 150 armed men patrolled the streets of the Shuliavka neighborhood in Kiev to clean the area of any resistors to their movement?
• ...that Vasyl Krychevsky, a Ukrainian artist, designed the state emblem of the Ukrainian National Republic at the request of Mykhailo Hrushevskyi?
• ...that the Emperor of Russia, Alexander III bought the art of Ukrainian realist painter Volodymyr Orlovsky?
• ...that Swedish–Ukrainian relations have long traditions and that the Swedish king Charles XII was named protector of Ukraine in the first Ukrainian constitution of 1710 and that Hetman Pylyp Orlyk lived in Sweden 1716–1720?
• ...that the Russian composers Peter Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Serge Rachmaninoff used Ukrainian folk melodies in their works?
• ...that Polish–Ukrainian relations have been steadily improving since the fall of communism, and both countries now have a strong strategic relationship?
• ...that the Ukrainian Baroque architecture (pictured) is distinct from Western European Baroque in that its designs were more constructivist, had more moderate ornamentation, and were simpler in form?
• ...that according to Ukrainian folklore, the girl who finds Chervona Ruta, "Red Rue" in Ukrainian, on the Ivan Kupala Day, will be happy in love?
• ...that the 11th century Duke Yaropolk Izyaslavich is an Eastern Orthodox saint?
• ...that in 1956 the Pidhirtsi Castle in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine burned for three weeks costing US$12 million in damages?
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Selected painting

Konstiantyn Trutovsky was a Ukrainian realist painter and graphic artist. His artistic heritage includes numerous genre screens on Ukrainian themes. Trutovsky was interested in ethnography and depicted colorful Ukrainian folk customs, not shying away from "a dash of good humour".

Selected anniversaries for November

• November 11—November 12, 1918 — Battle of Przemyśl was fought between Polish and Ukrainian forces.
• November 24, 2007 - the official day of remembrance for people who died as a result of Holodomor and political repression.

In the news

News from Ukraine

• November 16, 2008 - Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church(UOC) headed by the Metropolitan Kyivan and all-Ukraine His Holyness Volodymyr fired the Yepiskop of Sumy and Okhtyrka Illariy (Shyshkovskyi). This decision was the Synod approved after hearing the report of the Church court of (UOC) from the Metropolitan of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna Onufriy.^(UNIAN)
• November 16, 2008 - Ukrainian Trade Union Federation (UTUF) informs that today November 16 in most of the oblast of Ukraine have taken place a series of attempts to overtake the buildings of the regional trade unions that are the members of the UTUF and the Building of Unions in Kyiv.^(UNIAN)
• October 13, 2008 — Relatives of crew members on a hijacked Ukrainian arms ship demanded that the Ukrainian government stop delaying and just pay a multimillion-dollar ransom to the Somali pirates holding the ship.^(IHT)
• October 13, 2008 — Ukraine's central bank on Monday limited bank lending and restricted withdrawals from some kinds of retail accounts as the government tried to stem growing doubts about the country's troubled banking sector.^(Forbes)
• October 13, 2008 — Ukrainian boxer Vitaliy Klychko reclaims WBC world champion title.^(NRCU)
• October 11, 2008 — Ukraine's feuding leaders intensified their power struggle, with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko seeking to undo President Viktor Yushchenko's decision on holding early parliamentary elections.^(WSJ)

Wikinews on Ukraine — Archive ...

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