As of: February 28, 2024, 4:51 p.m
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The St. Sofia Cathedral in Kiev.
© picture alliance/dpa/AP |
Efrem Lukatsky
Ukraine is considered the homeland of the Little Russians.
Together with the Great Russians and the Belarusians living in Russia today, they form the Russian national community.
Kiev – Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for more than two years.
There have been fighting in the east of the country since 2014, after Russia-backed separatists in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions broke away from Kiev.
On February 24, 2022, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion, bringing death and destruction to the neighboring country.
Ukraine is defending itself against the attack with military, financial and military assistance from the West.
country |
Ukraine |
|---|---|
Area |
603,700 km² |
population |
36,744,636 (2023 estimate) |
Population density |
61 inhabitants per km² |
Capital city |
Kyiv |
Official language |
Ukrainian |
Form of state and government |
Semi-presidential republic |
Head of State |
President Volodymyr Zelensky |
Head of Government |
Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal |
Ukraine: The Beginnings of History to the End of the Middle Ages
The history of the shattered country began in early times.
At that time, several Indo-European tribes settled in the region of today's Ukraine.
In the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.
A few Greek colonies arose in the area of the Ukrainian Black Sea coast in the 1st century BC, and a century later they merged to form the Bosporan Empire.
In the following centuries the country was settled by the following ethnic groups:
Slavs settled in the northwest of the country.
Like Great Russia and Belarus, Ukraine as Little Russia also has its origins in the historically first Russian state, Kievan Rus.
Vikings increasingly settled in this region from the 8th century onwards and helped found the state.
Kievan Rus, also known as the Old Russian Empire, experienced economic prosperity in the 10th and 11th centuries, and Christianization began around the turn of the millennium.
Increasing fragmentation since the 12th century resulted in a serious weakening of the state.
It made the Mongol invasion possible between 1237 and 1240. As a result, the Old Russian Empire became subject to tributaries and experienced an economic decline.
In the 16th century, parts of Ukraine also came under Polish rule.
During this time, the Crimean peninsula was ruled by Tatars.
Ukraine: From the beginning of modern times to the end of the 18th century
The population of Ukraine suffered under Polish foreign rule, which motivated them to revolt against the occupying power on several occasions.
These were regularly brutally suppressed.
It was not until 1648 that the eastern part of the country was liberated from Polish rule: the Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky organized this uprising and subsequently founded the Hetmanate as an independent state.
The Cossacks placed him under the protection and rule of the Russian Tsar.
This agreement existed until the 18th century.
In contrast, the western part of Ukraine remained under Polish-Ukrainian rule.
As part of the Polish partitions in the 18th century, territorial reorganizations were also decided with regard to Ukraine: Eastern Ukraine was integrated into Russia.
Western Ukraine with its regions of Galicia and Bukovina became part of the Habsburg Empire.
Under Catherine the Great (1729 to 1796), Crimea, which had previously been ruled by the Tatars, was taken over by Russia.
Ukraine: From the National Movement to the Holodomor
As in all European countries, a new national consciousness emerged in Ukraine at the beginning of the 19th century.
The Ukrainian population rejected foreign rule and sought to found their own nation state.
She turned away from the concept of a unified Russia, which consisted of Little Russians, Great Russians and Belarusians and was represented by the Russian Tsar.
The key representatives of the idea of a separate nation state included:
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However, the Ukrainian national movement was unable to achieve its goal of establishing a state because it was systematically suppressed by the authorities.
Only in the turmoil at the end of the First World War did two Ukrainian states temporarily emerge, the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic, which were united in 1919.
However, the territory of western Ukraine was heavily contested and, after military conflicts, fell to Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania later in 1919.
The Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin (1878 to 1953) conquered Ukraine.
The main focus was on using the land as a granary.
This led to the export of grain crops to the Soviet Union and communist agricultural reform.
The result was the so-called Holodomor in 1932 and 1933, one of the greatest famine disasters of modern times.
The exact number of starvation deaths could not be determined; it is estimated at up to 14 million.
Ukraine: From World War II to the Present
From 1941 to the turn of the year 1943/44, Ukraine was occupied by Hitler's Germany.
This period of history was marked by mass deportations of Jews.
In addition, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians were deported to Germany as forced laborers.
After the Red Army won the Second World War, extensive forced relocations were carried out as part of the reorganization of Poland: citizens of Polish origin were resettled from the western part of Ukraine to Poland, and citizens of Ukrainian origin had to move from eastern Poland to Ukraine.
Ukraine became the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear accident occurred, which still has repercussions today.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, voting residents of Ukraine held a referendum in 1991 to decide on their independence.
Over 90 percent of participants in this vote were in favor of Ukrainian independence.
But unlike the other Eastern European countries, which completely broke away from Russia's sphere of influence and turned westward, Ukraine has not yet taken this step (as of December 2020).
The state is neither a member of the EU nor NATO.
The Russian government still has strong influence over Ukraine.
This was evident, among other things, in the termination of the accession negotiations with the EU in 2013 under pressure from Russia. In addition, in 2014 there was an annexation of Crimea, which was carried out in violation of international law and has since become part of Russian territory.
Since then, skirmishes initiated by Russia have occurred continuously in the Russian-Ukrainian border area.
Ukraine: Today's state - politics and heads of government
Since gaining independence, Ukraine has had a semi-presidential system of government.
A new constitution was adopted on June 28, 1996.
Accordingly, Ukraine is a democratic republic and a constitutional state.
The President is the head of the state; since 2019 this has been Volodymyr Zelensky.
The government consists of the Prime Minister and his ministers.
The state's party landscape has been in a state of flux for decades.
In the past elections, different parties nominated the Prime Minister.
Presidents who have ruled Ukraine since 1991
Surname |
Term |
|---|---|
Leonid Kravchuk |
December 5, 1991 to July 19, 1994 |
Leonid Kuchma |
July 19, 1994 to January 23, 2005 |
Viktor Yushchenko |
January 23, 2005 to February 25, 2010 |
Viktor Yanukovych |
February 25, 2010 to February 22, 2014 |
Oleksandr Turchynov |
February 22, 2014 to June 7, 2014 (provisional) |
Petro Poroshenko |
June 7, 2014 to May 20, 2019 |
Volodymyr Zelensky |
since May 20, 2019 |
War in Ukraine: Russia invades the neighboring country
On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a military attack on Ukraine.
This followed the protracted conflict in Ukraine and a concentration of Russian troops on the borders of the neighboring country for several months.
The invasion, described by Russia as a “special operation,” aims to “demilitarize” and “denazify” the country.
The relationship between the two countries was already strained in 2014 by the Russian annexation of the Crimean peninsula in the south of Ukraine.
In addition, the propagandistic image of a neighboring country that was controlled by the West and developed into an anti-Russia emerged within Russia.
On February 21, 2022, Russia declared the two Donbass regions of Luhansk and Donetsk to be independent people's republics.
Three days later, more than a hundred thousand Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian border, signaling the start of the Ukrainian War.