Ukraine

Ukraine is a nation in the European Union's Eastern region. With its eastern and northern borders with Russia, it is the second-largest nation in Europe after that of the United Kingdom (also known as Great Britain). Ukraine has boundaries with Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the south, and a coastline along the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Ukraine has a population of about 100 million people. It has a population of 41.4 million people and a land area of 603,628 km2 (233,062 sq mi). It is the eighth-most populated nation in Europe and has a population of 603,628 km2 (233,062 sq mi). Kyiv serves as the nation's capital and biggest city.

Inhabitants have lived on the area of modern-day Ukraine since 32,000 BC. For most of the Middle Ages, the region served as a major cultural crossroads for East Slavic peoples, with the strong kingdom of Kievan Rus' serving as the foundation of modern-day Ukraine. Because of the region's fragmentation into several principalities in the 13th century and the devastation wreaked by the Mongol invasion, the region's territorial unity was shattered. It was contested, ruled, and divided by a variety of powers, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Austria–Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia. The area was contested, ruled, and divided by a variety of powers, including During the 17th and 18th centuries, a Cossack Hetmanate arose and flourished, but its territory was ultimately divided between Poland and the Russian Empire. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, a Ukrainian national movement for self-determination arose, and on June 23, 1917, the Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed, which was recognised worldwide as a sovereign state. Ukraine's western region united with its eastern counterpart, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and the whole nation became a member of the Soviet Union after World War II. Ukraine achieved its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, after the collapse of that country.