Difference between revisions of "Ukraine"
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{{Country | {{Country | ||
|name =''Україна<br/>Ukrayina'' | |name =''Україна<br/>Ukrayina'' | ||
| − | |map =Ukraine. | + | |map =Ukraine after 2022 referendums.jpg |
| − | |map2 = | + | |map2 =Ukraine location.png |
| − | |flag =Flag of Ukraine. | + | |flag =Flag of Ukraine.svg |
|arms =Arms of Ukraine.png | |arms =Arms of Ukraine.png | ||
|capital =Kyiv | |capital =Kyiv | ||
|capital-raw = | |capital-raw = | ||
| − | |government = | + | |government = |
| − | |government-raw = | + | |government-raw =[[Semi-presidential republic]] |
|language =Ukrainian | |language =Ukrainian | ||
| − | |language2 = | + | |language2 =Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Turkic, Greek, Yiddish;<br>banned by official decree: Russian |
|king = | |king = | ||
|queen = | |queen = | ||
|monarch-raw = | |monarch-raw = | ||
| − | |president = | + | |president = |
| − | |president-raw = | + | |president-raw =[[Volodoymr Zelensky]] (de jure)<br/>[[Ruslan Stefanchuk]] (Acting)<ref>https://inews.co.uk/uncategorized/who-is-ruslan-stefanchuk-ukrainian-politician-takeover-volodymyr-zelensky-if-killed-1501700</ref> |
|chancellor = | |chancellor = | ||
|chancellor-raw = | |chancellor-raw = | ||
| − | |pm = | + | |pm = |
|pm-raw = | |pm-raw = | ||
|area =209,193 sq mi | |area =209,193 sq mi | ||
| − | |pop = | + | |pop =18,000,000 (2023 estimate)<br/>36,744,636 (including disputed territories) |
|pop-basis = | |pop-basis = | ||
| − | |gdp =$ | + | |gdp =$195,000,000,000 (2021) |
|gdp-year = | |gdp-year = | ||
|gdp-pc =$3,429 (2020) | |gdp-pc =$3,429 (2020) | ||
|currency =Hryvnia | |currency =Hryvnia | ||
| − | |idd = | + | |idd =+380 |
|tld =.ua | |tld =.ua | ||
}} | }} | ||
| − | '''Ukraine''' is | + | '''Ukraine''' is the name of a territory in [[Eastern Europe]] meaning "borderlands". The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) was a former constituent republic of the [[Soviet Union]] created by the [[Bolshevik]]s. Its administrative center was [[Kyiv]]. The land bordered [[Belarus]], [[Poland]], [[Slovakia]], [[Hungary]], [[Romania]], [[Moldova]] and the [[Russian Federation]]. |
| − | Ukraine | + | Post-1945 Ukraine, which was a member state of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, became a patchwork of lands and territories annexed from what was known in [[the West]] as the "Captive Nations" - [[Poland]], [[Hungary]], [[Romania]], [[Czechoslovakia]] and [[Russia]]. The [[NATO]] alliance was created in the [[Cold War]] era to "liberate" the "Captive Nations". In an irony of history, in the post-[[Cold War]] 21st century, the [[NATO]] alliance provoked war to maintain Soviet Ukraine's [[Stalinist]] borders. |
| − | + | Recent research by [[nationalist]] scholars claim the Cossack Hetmanate [[state]] occupied similar borders during the 1600s and 1700s during which some referred to it as Sloboda Ukraine.<ref>Kryzhanivsky, S.A.; Hajda, L.A.; Yerofeyev, I.A.; Zasenko, O.E.; et. al. (2025, July 17). "[https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/The-autonomous-hetman-state-and-Sloboda-Ukraine The Autonomous Hetman State and Sloboda Ukraine.]" ''Encyclopædia Britannica.''</ref> The current [[Ukrainian regime]] officially claims to be the only "racially pure" legitimate successor to the [[Kievan Rus]], viewing ethnic [[Russian]]s as [[subhuman]] [[Asia]]tic hordes. According to the Historian Kathryn David: "The Catholic presence in Lviv is not simply a historical curiosity. The [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church]] has played an outsized role not just in the local culture, but in the creation of the Ukrainian nation".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/breach|title=Into the Breach - The role of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church|date=January 18, 2023|website=Commonweal Magazine}}</ref> | |
| − | + | As in [[East Germany]] behind the [[Berlin Wall]], males between 16 to 60 can be shot for attempting to escape under the [[Zelensky regime]]. | |
| − | + | It was artificially carved out of the [[Russian Empire]] by the [[Bolsheviks]] as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1922<ref>[https://davidstockman.substack.com/p/the-ukrainian-border-war-folly The Ukrainian Border War Folly], [[David Stockman]], June 17, 2024. "The only time the borders of Ukraine have been redrawn at the barrel of a gun is when Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev did it between 1922 and 1954. That’s right, this [[Ursula von der Leyen|bureaucratic half-wit]] wants to embroil the world in [[WWIII]] in order to enforce borders drawn by a trio if history’s most blood-thirsty [[tyrant]]s." davidstockman.substack.com</ref> having the precedent of the Ukrainian People's Republic claims which were rejected at the [[Paris Peace Conference]] (1918-20) by the victorious powers after WWI,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://shs.cairn.info/journal-materiaux-pour-l-histoire-de-notre-temps-2014-1-page-180?lang=en|title=Identification, Legitimation, and Stigmatization: The Ukrainian Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference (1918-20) through its Written Materials|author=Thomas Chopard|quote=In late 1918, a struggle was taking place on the Ukrainian territory of the former Russian empire, between the Soviet authorities, White Russian nationalists, and partisans of Ukrainian independence, over the reconfiguration and control of the state. At the same time, the Ukrainian People’s Republic decided to send a delegation to the Paris Peace Conference (1918-1920), at which it had only observer status. The written documents produced on this occasion, of which the BDIC’s Klotz archive has a particularly significant collection, give an insight into the cognitive horizon of the Ukrainian pro-independence elite of the time.|date=January 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv05/d79|title=Notes of a Meeting Held at President Wilson’s House in the Place des Etats-Unis, Paris, at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21, 1919|publisher=Office of the Historian|date=May 21, 1919}}</ref> or the short-lived monarchist anti-Bolshevik and defeated pro-[[Central Powers]] Hetmanat, Atamanat or Ukrainian State from 1918 with substantially different borders.<ref name=Hetmanat/> Its borders from 1922 to 2014 were drawn by [[Soviet]] [[dictator]]s [[Vladimir Lenin]], [[Joseph Stalin]], and [[Nikita Khruschev]] without the [[democracy|democratic]] consent of the inhabitants' resident there. Ukraine's territories were taken from neighbouring countries by the [[communist]] [[dictator]]s. While the Ukrainophile view of history talks about the [[Kievan Rus]]' as the precedent of Ukraine as a state, the Russophile view rejects it (view the [[#Historiography|historiography section]]), thus the existence of Ukraine as a separate entity inside the USSR is sometimes referred to as the "Lenin's mistake" by the latter. [[American foreign policy]] since 1991 has been to uphold the illegal, arbitrary and undemocratic decrees of Soviet dictators. The Historian Hryhoriy Pivtorak claims that: "On 22 October 1721, Peter I renamed his state Tsardom of Moscow to the Russian Empire and its inhabitants Muscovites to Russians".<ref>{{cite book|title=Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians: Three Peoples, Three Paths|author=Hryhoriy Pivtorak|date=2025|url=https://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/Pivtorak_Hryhorii/UkrainiansBelarusiansRussiansThreePeoplesThreePaths_anhl.pdf?PHPSESSID=9prdav18tpl6m8v1p8f7317351|page=7}}</ref> | |
| − | + | Critics regard it as a failed state and puppet regime<ref>When a [[nation state]] cannot pay for its own defense in money or manpower, it has lost its independence and [[sovereignty]], and is commonly referred to as a "stooge state" or "puppet regime."</ref> since coming under the tutelage of [[NATO]] and the [[United States]] in an illegal [[coup]] in 2014. In 2015 it was rated as the most [[corrupt]] government in [[Europe]] due to corruption from Yanukovych holdovers; former President Yanukovych now being sheltered from accountability in Russia.<ref>Bullough, O. (2015, February 6). "[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/04/welcome-to-the-most-corrupt-nation-in-europe-ukraine Welcome to Ukraine, the Most Corrupt Nation in Europe.]" ''The Guardian.''</ref> After the [[violent]] [[coup]] organized, financed, and supported by the [[Obama/Biden administration]] in 2014, the Ukrainian regime became openly [[fascist]] and [[xenophobic]]. On the first day after the coup, the [[CIA]] and [[MI6]] formed a partnership with the [[intelligence agencies]] in Ukraine, which were rebuilt from scratch to be used as a partner against [[Russia]].<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/world/europe/cia-ukraine-intelligence-russia-war.html The Spy War: How the C.I.A. Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin], Feb 2 1015, ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref> As late as 2020, the UK Counter Terrorism Policing agency listed the Ukrainian Trident, the country's official coat of arms, next to the [[swastika]] as "symbols commonly associated with [[white supremacy]]" since Neonazis have used the symbol.<ref name=AntiTerror>[https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-51174898 Ukraine coat of arms in UK anti-terror list furore], By Georgina Rannard, [[BBC News]], 21 January 2020.</ref> Ukraine uses the symbol in reference to its historical kinship with Kievan Rus' which used it as Coat of Arms and in the coins which have been found by archeologists.<ref name=KievanRusCoins>[https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coins-of-the-kievan-rus.394099/ Coins of the Kievan Rus]</ref> Ukraine is one of Europe's most notorious human and child trafficing centers.<ref>[https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-human-traffciking-416319 Ukraine's Shame: An Epidemic of Human Trafficking], LUKE A. DRABYN, ''Newsweek'', 1/16/16.</ref> | |
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| − | + | A "Ukrainian state" was created by the [[Bolshevik]]s with remnants of the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian empires. No entity known as "Ukraine" existed prior to 1918. Other territories were seized by Stalin from Romania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia - countries that provided troops to the German invasion of Russia during World War II. Later the Ukrainian-born Soviet communist and premier [[Nikita Khruschev]] severed the [[Crimean Peninsula]] from Russia proper, which had been a Russian territory for 400 years. The word itself, "Ukraine" literally means "border" or "borderlands". | |
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| − | + | Post World War I, Ukraine consisted of many nationalities, linguistic, and religious groups<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080418030322/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-30078/Ukraine Interwar Soviet Ukraine], ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref> with "ethnic Ukrainians" only dominating the western regions. Ukrainian nationalists led a wholesale [[genocide]] against Poles, Gypsies, Jews, and Russians residing in those same territories under Nazi tutelage during World War II. Many Ukrainian Nazis were resettled in Canada and the United States to avoid prosecution for [[war crime]]s. The Ukrainian diaspora community residing in [[North America]] became the core anti-Soviet and anti-Russian resistance organized by the [[CIA]] after 1947. The people who spoke the borderlands dialect of Russian, one of many groups occupying the borderlands, previously were known as Galicians. | |
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| − | + | The territories were ceded to Germany by [[Lenin]] and [[Trotsky]] after the [[October Revolution]] in 1917, were non-aligned after the French and [[Angelo-American powers]] redrew the map and stiped Germany of its territorial possessions at the [[Treaty of Versailles]] in 1919, a Bolshevik Republic from 1922 to 1941,<ref>[https://dzen.ru/media/id/5f073d34db00016bd74b3365/kak-unr-plavno-uvelichilas-do-ussr-6309bf75f90f894d66c1b6ce HOW UKRAINIAN PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC BECAME UKRAINIAN SSR], Yuri Turkul, 29 August 2022.</ref> a Nazi ally from 1941 to 1944, and again an independent Soviet Republic from 1944 to 1991 with a seat in the [[United Nations]] General Assembly. By the 21st century, Ukraine had no independent history or literature of its own outside of the [[Russian World]]. | |
| + | [[File:Einsatzgruppen 1941-1944.PNG|right|300px|thumb|The mobile [[German]] ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'' death squads were assisted by local Ukrainians who identified their Jewish neighbors and assisted in the mass killings.<ref>[https://ukrainianjewishencounter.org/en/the-ukrainian-auxiliary-police-in-kyiv-and-adjacent-areas-pt-1-formation-and-activities/ The Ukrainian Auxiliary Police in Kyiv and Adjacent Areas, pt. 1: Formation and Activities], June 24th, 2024. Daniil Sytnyk. ukrainianjewishencounter.org</ref>]] | ||
| + | Of the 50 million plus lives lost in [[World War II]], at least 30 million of various ethnicities came from, or will killed in, the territories of the borderlands, or "Ukraine". World War II was principally fought in Ukraine, and not in [[France]] or [[Belgium]] or in the skies over [[Great Britain]]. The war set neighbor against neighbor, with local Ukrainian, Lithuanian and [[Baltic group|Baltic]] [[partisan]] groups fighting with the Nazis against local Russian, Belarussian and other partisan resistance groups defending themselves from Nazi aggression. While the German [[SS]] overlords implemented [[Hitler]]'s policy of extermination, it was Ukrainian and [[Lithuanian]] collaborators who did much of the dirty work in fingering their neighboring [[Jews]] and assisting in executions. | ||
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| + | World War II did not end in Ukraine with the fall of [[Berlin]] and German surrender in 1945. Armed resistance by nationalists against the Soviet Union, aided by the [[CIA]] from its inception in 1947 until 1954,<ref>[[James Forrestal]], who was in charge of [[Operation Nightingale]], was likely murdered by [[Holocaust]] survivors or their relatives</ref> and thereafter continued covertly until the present day. Unlike [[East Germany]], the prevalence of [[Nazi]] [[ideology]] in Western Ukraine is a problem that the Soviet Union, and the 1991 successor Ukrainian state, never were able to fully de-nazify.<ref>[[Denazification]] were laws and legal precedents established by the [[Allied Powers of World War II]] through various denazification tribunals in post-World War II [[Germany]]</ref> Like modern Russians who take pride in their ancestors who served in the [[Red Army]] and defeated fascism, Ukrainian nationalists today boast of their grandfathers who collaborated with the [[Third Reich]] and resisted Soviet Communism. However, Ukrainian nationalism was never just a resistance to an ideology, but rather a [[xenophobic]] race-based hatred of [[Russian]]s and other groups they felt a superiority to. | ||
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| + | Since the US-backed [[Maidan coup]] of 2014, monuments and memorials to Soviet soldiers who defeated fascism have been defaced and torn down while Ukrainian nationalists glorify their Nazi past. | ||
| + | [[File:Chechen leader addresses POWs.PNG|right|300px|thumb|Russian [[Chechen]] commander addresses Ukrainian [[POW]]s, 2022.]] | ||
| + | Unlike [[Russia]], Ukraine advances the [[Soros]]-backed [[homosexual agenda]] with [[gay pride]] parades.<ref>[https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/keep-spirit-maidan-alive George Soros Ukrainian youths sit near a fire late into the night in Kyiv's Maidan on February 25,]</ref> Also in contrast with Russia, Ukraine's leadership is [[liberal]] under the influence of western [[globalist]]s. | ||
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| + | Ukraine has always possessed much ethnic [[diversity]]. It is the crossroads of East and West, Europe and Asia, North and South, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, Christendom and Islam. It had a significant Russian population in its eastern provinces, and many of these Russians declared independence after the Maidan coup and the NATO-backed ethninc cleansing campaign. Ukraine has significant Tatar, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Romanian, Greek, and Rusyn populations in its southern and western provinces. Throughout history Ukraine has been the site of some of the worst [[human rights]] atrocities on the planet. The former territory of Crimea was once populated by Crimean Tatars, but their presence was drastically reduced by the de-population policies of [[Joseph Stalin]]. | ||
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| + | To the north and east Ukraine shares a border with [[Russia]]; it shares a border with [[Belarus]] to the north and [[Poland]], [[Slovakia]] and [[Hungary]] to the west. The counties of [[Romania]] and [[Moldova]] are to the southwest. The [[Black Sea]] is to the south, offering access to the [[Mediterranean]] via the [[Dneiper River]]. The capital city is [[Kyiv]] and the main religion is [[Eastern Orthodox]] Christianity. Ukrainians accentuate Kyiv different from how Russians do (Keev, not the Russian KEY-ev).<ref>https://www.polygraph.info/a/hey-daily-mail-it-s-ky--yeev-not-keev-/30281142.html</ref> | ||
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| + | Ukraine is frequently in the news in the [[United States]] due to politicians, most notably [[Joe Biden]]'s family, personally profitting from the country since the U.S.-backed overthrow of the democratically elected government. President [[Donald Trump]] was criticized by [[liberal]]s for asking Ukrainian leaders to investigate the potential corruption, which Ukrainian leaders failed to do. The United States Department of Defense has funded 11 biological research laboratories in Ukraine. According to ''[[The New York Times]]'', the [[North Korean]] ballistic missile capable of a [[nuclear bomb]] attack on [[Seattle]] and [[Los Angeles]] is based upon a design that came from Ukraine.<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/world/asia/north-korea-missiles-ukraine-factory.html</ref> The [[Biden regime]] has argued that each nation is free to build military alliances with whatever nation is chooses. In 2022, Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky suggested Ukraine should acquire or base nuclear weapons there.<ref>https://www.rt.com/russia/550057-zelensky-dangerous-nuclear-ukraine/</ref> | ||
The Ukrainian government which was installed in a [[coup]] in 2014 by the [[Obama administration]] worked with the [[Democratic National Committee]] to gin up the [[Russia Collusion hoax]], demonize [[Vladimir Putin]], interfere in the [[2016 U.S. presidential election]], and turn American public opinion against [[Russia]] for [[propaganda]] purposes. Since the 2014 [[Maidan coup]], euphemistically referred to as the "revolution of dignity" by globalists and leftists, Ukrainian operatives working in the [[Democratic party]] of the United States and the U.S. [[intelligence community]] have sought to drive the United States to war with Russia to prevent the breakaway republics of Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk from seceding from the globalist-backed Kyiv regime and joining the [[Russian Federation]]. | The Ukrainian government which was installed in a [[coup]] in 2014 by the [[Obama administration]] worked with the [[Democratic National Committee]] to gin up the [[Russia Collusion hoax]], demonize [[Vladimir Putin]], interfere in the [[2016 U.S. presidential election]], and turn American public opinion against [[Russia]] for [[propaganda]] purposes. Since the 2014 [[Maidan coup]], euphemistically referred to as the "revolution of dignity" by globalists and leftists, Ukrainian operatives working in the [[Democratic party]] of the United States and the U.S. [[intelligence community]] have sought to drive the United States to war with Russia to prevent the breakaway republics of Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk from seceding from the globalist-backed Kyiv regime and joining the [[Russian Federation]]. | ||
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| + | ==Etymology== | ||
| + | {{Cquote|The word "Ukraine" means "at the border". And in all the [[Slavic]] [[language]]s, it doesn't imply which side of the border, at the border. Its borders have been defined differently. Those borders, aside from [[Crimea]] that Ukraine had upon its independence, were actually created by [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Joseph Stalin]] in an agreement they made. So you've got [[the West]] in effect supporting a fight against [[Russia]] to preserve the heritage of Hitler and Stalin.|||[[Jack Matlock]]}} | ||
| + | [[File:Use of the word Ukraine in the 16th Century.jpg|400px|thumbnail|Use of the word Ukraine in the 16th Century]] | ||
| + | According to the Historian Serhii Plokhy, "The word “Ukraine,” which in [[Bolshevik]] and post-Bolshevik times has been used to define an independent country in [[Eastern Europe]], has medieval origins and was first used by the [[Kievan Rus|Kievan]] chroniclers of the twelfth century to define the areas of today’s supposed [[nation-state]] of "Ukraine" bordering on the Pontic steppes. In the second half of the seventeenth century the term “Ukraine” entered the international vocabulary as one of the names of the Cossack polity created in the course of the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–57) led by the notorious [[antisemite]] [[Bogdan Khmelnytsky]]. By that time, European geographers could already locate Ukraine on the maps produced by the French engineer and cartographer Guillaume Levasseur de Beauplan. His, however, was not the first depiction of the border on a European map".<ref>{{cite book |last=Plokhy |first=Serhii |chapter=2. Placing Ukraine on the Map of Europe |title=The Frontline: Essays on Ukraine’s Past and Present |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2021 |pages=15-36 |doi=10.4159/9780674268852-005 |url=https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/mapa/files/princescossaksarticle.pdf?m=1607093596}}</ref> | ||
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| + | In the 1187 chronicle of the death of Prince Volodymyr Hlibovych of Pereyaslav the word appears: "And all the people of Pereyaslav wept for him... Ukraine tried hard for him".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://visitukraine.today/blog/4339/how-the-name-ukraine-appeared-history-and-myths#the-first-appearance-of-the-name-ukraine|title=How the name "Ukraine" appeared: history and myths|publisher=Visit Ukraine}}</ref> | ||
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| + | The word "krai" has the same root origin as ''u kraya'' or "Ukraine", historically referring to the vast territories located along the periphery of the Russian state. The word krai means "border" or "edge", literally "cut off" or the end. The modern Russian state consists of 89 federal subjects. A federal subject can be a republic, oblast, krai, cities of federal status, or autonomous districts. There is almost no difference between an oblast and krai, the only difference is that the territory of a krai can include oblasts, and an oblast has no further subdivisions. | ||
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| + | The Radziwiłł map (early 17th century) is the first to explicitly label "Ukraine" (as "Outer Volhynia or Lower Dnieper") and mention "Cossacks," covering territories of the borderland. Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan's maps, including the 1648 "General Map of Ukraine" (Delineatio Generalis Camporum Desertorum vulgo Ukraina), depict Ukraine as a distinct region, influencing European cartography for centuries. Beauplan, a French engineer in Polish service, based it on surveys of Cossack lands.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oldworldauctions.com/info/article/2022-03-Heart-of-Ukraine-in-Early-Maps|title=The Heart of Ukraine in Early Maps|publisher=Old World Auctions|author=Eliane Dotson}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/Ukrainae1 Old map of Ukraine : Tabula geographica Ukrainska by Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan]</ref> | ||
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| + | [[File:Johann Baptist Homann’s Ukrania quae et Terra Cosaccorum, 1716..jpg|400px|thumbnail|Johann Baptist Homann’s ''Ukrania quae et Terra Cosaccorum'' map from 1716.]] | ||
| + | According to a Harvard article made by Brian J. Boeck, the term "Ukraine" (Ukraïna) originally meant "borderland" or "frontier" and was used by Ukrainians, Russians, and Poles. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it came to refer to the Cossack lands of the Dnieper River basin. The ethnonym "Ukrainian" (ukraïnets') was used as a national name by only a small number of educated people in the 1840s. In Bolshevik times, millions of people had adopted or acknowledged the name. Before its revitalization in the 1830s, ukraïnets' was a general term for frontiersmen and a regional name for residents of certain districts. The article states there is no evidence it was consistently used as a national name in the early modern period. The widespread adoption of the name ''Ukraina'' for the entire national territory and population began in the 1870s. The conscious adoption and promotion of ukraïnets' was an achievement of the national movement to replace a diversity of names<ref>{{cite journal |last=Boeck |first=Brian J. |title=What's in a Name? Semantic Separation and the Rise of the Ukrainian National Name |journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies |volume=27 |issue=1-4 |pages=33-65 |year=2004-2005 |url=https://www.husj.harvard.edu/articles/whats-in-a-name-semantic-separation-and-the-rise-of-the-ukrainian-national-name}}</ref> and competition for the hearts and minds of the people between the [[Catholic]] [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] and [[Orthodox]] [[Russian Empire]]. | ||
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| + | Historians and linguists in the 19–20th centuries explained the term "Ukraina" in the sense ‘borderland, frontier region, outskirts, marches’ etc. These meanings can be derived from the Proto-Slavic noun *krajь, meaning ‘edge, border’. Contemporary parallels for this are Russian okráina ‘outskirts’<ref>[https://www.google.com/search?q=google+traqnslate&sca_esv=63bae64319b805ad&sxsrf=ADLYWIKR4S1fgB0HxLn6X0pj3qCcvqY6TA%3A1725932233846&source=hp&ei=yaLfZpTeMKac0PEPz5KE6AU&iflsig=AL9hbdgAAAAAZt-w2fuN0BpX5ehOSPnn5PVC730m5EDa&ved=0ahUKEwjU5s7NnreIAxUmDjQIHU8JAV0Q4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=google+traqnslate&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6IhFnb29nbGUgdHJhcW5zbGF0ZTINEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEYCjINEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEYCjIHEAAYgAQYCjINEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEYCjIHEAAYgAQYCjINEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEYCjINEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEYCjINEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEYCjINEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEYCjINEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEYCkiLalCXTVj0ZHABeACQAQCYAXKgAe0LqgEEMTQuM7gBA8gBAPgBAZgCEqAC5QyoAgvCAgYQswEYhQTCAhAQLhgDGOUCGOoCGIwDGI8BwgIQEAAYAxjlAhjqAhiMAxiPAcICCxAAGIAEGLEDGIMBwgIREC4YgAQYsQMY0QMYgwEYxwHCAgUQABiABMICCBAAGIAEGLEDwgIKEAAYgAQYsQMYCsICEBAAGIAEGLEDGIMBGIoFGAqYAxSSBwQxMi42oAf-gQE&sclient=gws-wiz Google Translate] outskirts = okraina (''окраина'').</ref> and kraj ‘border district’ and Polish, u kraya, meaning ‘borderlands’. | ||
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| + | The historian Norman Davies adds: "The question ‘on the edge of what?’, however, sparks controversy. One answer, since the term first appears in mediaeval times when Ukraine lay within the Jagiellonian realms of Poland-Lithuania, would be: ‘the borderland of Poland-Lithuania’. Others might say that Ukraine was ‘the Edge of Christendom’ or possibly of civilised settlement before the endless steppe. Russians think that Ukraine is the borderland of Russia".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=56853|title=A short history of language in Ukraine|date=October 2, 2022|author=Norman Davies|publisher=Language Log | ||
| + | }}</ref> | ||
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| + | In the Muscovy Principality between the 16th and 18th centuries the word ukraina/ukrayna sometimes referred to border regions of the tsar’s realm (similar to okrayina, “outskirts”), it also consistently referred to the Ukrainian lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth — territories far from Moscow’s frontiers. In fact, Muscovite documents often applied Ukraine to areas stretching from Chernihiv and Kyiv to Podilia, showing it denoted core Ukrainian territories, not just peripheries. | ||
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| + | By the mid-17th century, during Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s uprising, Ukraine became the political-territorial name for the Cossack Hetmanate, used alongside "Rus’" and later even "Little Russia". Official Russian documents, including treaties and proclamations, referred to the Hetmanate as Ukraine, confirming its recognition as a distinct polity. Russian rulers themselves, from Tsar Michael to Peter I and Empress Elizabeth, employed the term in this sense, applying it to the Hetmanate and its people.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://localhistory.org.ua/texts/statti/ukrayina-ne-okrayina/|title=Україна – не окраїна. З історії назви Української держави|language=uk|publisher=Local History|author=Viktor Brekhunenko|date=April 26, 2022}}</ref> | ||
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| + | Ukrainian scholars, such as Serhiy Shelukhin, Fedir Shevchenko, Hryhoriy Pivtorak and Mykola Andrusyak propose that the name is derived from Ukraina in the sense of ‘region, principality, country’. Many medieval occurrences of the word can be interpreted as having that meaning. In this sense, the word can be associated with contemporary Ukrainian krajina, Belarusian kraina and Russian and Polish kraj, all meaning ‘country’ (see Translations, 'region of land').<ref>[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14124601]</ref> | ||
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| + | Other Historians reject the notion of the word as "borderland" and link the word instead to kraj/krajina (native land, country), and another view connects it to ukraïty (to cut off), meaning "a piece of land separated from the whole". Linguist V. Sklyarenko, is that Ukraina derives from kraj/krajina, but with a more complex development. In Old Slavic, kraj meant “piece of land,” and with the suffix -ina formed krajina (“territory, land belonging to a tribe”). From this, ukraj and later ukraina emerged as “a separated part of land/territory.” Over time, during the [[Kievan Rus’]] period, the meaning shifted: from “part of a tribal land” to “part of a principality,” and later simply “principality.” In medieval chronicles, different “ukrainas” referred to specific principalities (Pereyaslav, Galicia, Volhynia, Kyiv, etc.). According to them "ukraina" and "okrayina" were distinct words: the former meant a complete territorial unit, while the latter meant only a border area.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://litopys.org.ua/pivtorak/pivt12.htm|title=«Україна» — це не «окраїна»|language=uk|publisher=ІЗБОРНИК}}</ref> | ||
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==Geography== | ==Geography== | ||
| − | The total area of Ukraine | + | The total area of Ukraine peior to 2014 was 603,700 km<sup>2</sup> (233,090 sq. mi), making it, after Russia, the second largest country in [[Europe]]. Its coastline was 2,782 km. |
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| + | The land of Ukraine is mostly [[steppe]]s and plateaus. There are mountains in the west of the country, the [[Carpathian Mountains|Carpathians]]. The main rivers in Ukraine are the [[Dnieper]] and the [[Dniester]]. | ||
| − | The | + | The Ukrainian climate is considered temperate continental. The levels of precipitation are highest in the west and north, and lower in east and southeast. The winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland, and the summers are warm across the greater part of the country, and hot in the south. |
| − | + | [[Kyiv]] and [[Lviv]] are important cities of the country. | |
==Demography== | ==Demography== | ||
| − | [[File: | + | [[File:Russian language in Ukraine.jpg|left|200px|thumb|Russian language spoken in Ukraine]] |
| − | + | [[File:Percentage of Ukrainians voting yes in the country's 1991 referendum on independence.jpg|200px|thumbnail|Percentage of Ukrainians voting "yes" in the country's 1991 referendum on independence from the [[USSR]], the majority of each oblast did, including the East, with different percentages. 94% of [[Crimea]]ns voted for independence from [[Kyiv]] in 2014, on a referendum that wasn't convocated by the Ukrainian State.]] | |
| + | [[File:Ukraine 2010 election.jpg|200px|left|thumb|2010 election results]] | ||
| + | There were at least 18 different nationalities totaling a pre-2014 population of about 46.5 million living within the territorial borders of the Ukraine in the early 21st century, with a population density of about 80 per square kilometer (200 people per square mile). Since the U.S.-backed [[Maidan coup]] in 2014, more than 10.5 million people fled the country, 3.5 million of those seeking refuge in [[Russia]], more than any other country. Another 11.2 million residents of [[Crimea]], [[Sevastopol]], the [[Donetsk]] and [[Lugansk]] people’s republics and the [[Zaporozhye]] and [[Kherson]] regions voted in open [[democracy|democratic]] referendums to join the [[Russian Federation]]. Like [[Peoples Republic of China]]'s dispute with [[Taiwan]], the undemocratic [[Kyiv regime]] considers separatism a violation of the territorial integrity of the country. Ukraine lost 53.7% of its population since 2014. | ||
| − | The population | + | The population was 73% Ukrainian and 22% Russian (with under 1% each of Poles, Jews, Bulgarians and others). Historically the countryside was heavily Ukrainian, while Russians dominated the cities, but in recent decades many Ukrainians have moved to the cities. |
The country has been in demographic crisis since the 1980s. The population is shrinking 150,000 a year because of the lowest birth rate in Europe combined with one of the highest death rates in Europe. Life expectancy is falling. The nation suffers high mortality from environmental pollution, poor diets, widespread smoking, extensive alcoholism, and deteriorating medical care.<ref>Hanna H. Starostenko, "Economic and Ecological Factors of Transformations in Demographic Process in Ukraine" ''Uktraine Magazine'' #2 1998 online at [http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/wumag_old/archiv/2_98/economic.htm]</ref> | The country has been in demographic crisis since the 1980s. The population is shrinking 150,000 a year because of the lowest birth rate in Europe combined with one of the highest death rates in Europe. Life expectancy is falling. The nation suffers high mortality from environmental pollution, poor diets, widespread smoking, extensive alcoholism, and deteriorating medical care.<ref>Hanna H. Starostenko, "Economic and Ecological Factors of Transformations in Demographic Process in Ukraine" ''Uktraine Magazine'' #2 1998 online at [http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/wumag_old/archiv/2_98/economic.htm]</ref> | ||
| − | The phenomenon of lowest-low fertility, defined as total fertility below 1.3, is emerging throughout Europe and is attributed by many to postponement of the initiation of childbearing. Ukraine, where total fertility (a very low 1.1 in 2001), is one of the world's lowest, shows that there is more than one pathway to lowest-low fertility. Although Ukraine has undergone immense political and economic transformations during | + | The phenomenon of lowest-low fertility, defined as total fertility below 1.3, is emerging throughout Europe and is attributed by many to postponement of the initiation of childbearing. Ukraine, where total fertility (a very low 1.1 in 2001), is one of the world's lowest, shows that there is more than one pathway to lowest-low fertility. Although Ukraine has undergone immense political and economic transformations during 1991–2004, it has maintained a young age at first birth and nearly universal childbearing. Analysis of official national statistics and the Ukrainian Reproductive Health Survey show that fertility declined to very low levels without a transition to a later pattern of childbearing. Findings from focus group interviews suggest explanations of the early fertility pattern. These findings include the persistence of traditional norms for childbearing and the roles of men and women, concerns about medical complications and infertility at a later age, and the link between early fertility and early marriage.<ref>Brienna Perelli-Harris, "The Path to Lowest-low Fertility in Ukraine" ''Population Studies'' 2005 59(1): 55-70. Issn: 0032-4728; not online</ref> |
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| + | According to data published by the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, Ukraine's fertility rate in 2023 dropped to 0.7.<ref>[https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/living-conditions-in-ukraine-are-resembling-a-new-slavery-a Living conditions in Ukraine are resembling a new slavery, a triumph of Western 'democracy' in the 21st century], Dmitri Kovalevich, Al Mayadeen, 20 Aug 2023</ref> | ||
| − | + | Despite high rates of poverty, Ukraine is in the forefront of the global high-tech information and propaganda war. | |
| + | {{clear}} | ||
==Language, Religion, Culture== | ==Language, Religion, Culture== | ||
| − | [[File: | + | [[File:Old and young woman from the Ukraine in traditional clothes.jpg|250px|frameless|right]] |
| − | + | Ukrainian people are mostly [[Eastern Orthodox]] Christians as of 2021, approximately 60% were. 9.6% identify as Ukrainian Greek Catholic. Approximately 8% identify as "just Christian", 1-2% Protestants and 0.5-1.5% as [[Roman Catholic]] ([[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church|Greek]] and Roman Catholics are part of the Catholic Church). Non-religious decreased from 11.9% in 2000 to a 5% in 2021. Since the fall of the URSS, religiosity has risen.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/ukrainian-culture/ukrainian-culture-religion|title=Ukrainian Culture - Religion|publisher=Cultural Atlas}}</ref> | |
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| + | *Population (2023 est.): 18,000,000. | ||
| + | *Males per 100 females: 96.5 | ||
| + | *People per sq. km: 61.6 | ||
| + | *Children per woman: 1.2<ref>[https://www.census.gov/popclock/world/up Population Clock - Ukraine]</ref> | ||
| + | {{clear}} | ||
| + | Ukraine's significant cultural contributions include a strong tradition of Ukrainian folk art - particularly intricate embroidery known as "vyshyvankas"; iconic "Pysanka" decorated Easter eggs; Petrykivka painting style, musical traditions such as the "Carol of the Bells", and a literary heritage. Ukrainian cultural contributions are all rooted in Slavic customs and influenced by both Western and Eastern European cultures. Additionally, Ukrainian cuisine and hospitality are important aspects of its cultural identity.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/Cultural-life Britannica - Ukrainian culture]</ref> | ||
| − | + | In terms of societal structure, the territory of Ukraine is often referred to as a [[cleft country]] sitting on a "civilizational" fault line. | |
| − | Ukraine | + | Despite the [[Zelensky regime]]'s [[war]] on the [[Russian Orthodox Church]], which is aligned with Russia,<ref>https://amuseonx.substack.com/p/zelenskys-tragic-mistake-waging-war</ref> [[Western Ukraine]] remains one of the most religious places of Europe having 85.1% of believers according to a recent poll.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://raz |