Universities in Ukraine
Ukraine, the republic in Eastern Europe, bordered to the north by Belarus and Russia, to the east by Russia, on the south by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, on the south-west by Romania and Moldova, and to the west by Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. Formerly the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Ukraine is a founding member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which succeeded in December 1991 the USSR .
With a total area of approximately 603700 square kilometers (about 233090 square miles), Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe after Russia. Ukraine includes the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which has been elevated from one authority to a constituent republic in 1991 (see CRIMEA). Kyyiv (Kiev) is the capital and largest city.
Land and Resources
Almost all the countries of the Ukraine is a vast plain with elevations generally less than 300 meters (about 984 feet). Intrusion in the Carpathians, in the far west, and on the south coast of the Crimean peninsula are the mountains of Crimea. The highest point is Mt in Ukraine Hoverla in the Carpathian mountains with an elevation of 2061 meters (about 6762 feet). Most major rivers flow south to the Black Sea, and they are the Dnieper river in central Ukraine, the Southern Dniester and Bug rivers in the west, Donets River to the east, and the Danube river in the extreme south. The Western Boug, however, flows northward through the western part of the country and joined the Vistula River, which flows into the Baltic Sea.
The climate in Ukraine is temperate continental, with a subtropical climate prevailing on the Mediterranean south of the Crimean peninsula. The average monthly temperature in winter ranges from -8 ° to 2 ° C (17.6 ° to 35.6 ° F), while summer temperatures average 17 ° to 25 ° C (62.6 ° to 77 ° F) . The Black Sea coast is subject to freezing, and no Ukrainian port is finally free of ice. Reduced rainfall generally from north to south, it is larger in the Carpathians, where it is superior to more than 1500 mm (58.5 in) per year, and less in the coastal zone of the Black Sea, where he averaged 300 mm (11.7 in) Per year.
Ukraine has extremely fertile black earth soil-in the centre and south, for a total of nearly two-thirds of the territory. The original vegetation of the area, three wide belts that pass through the territory of Ukraine in latitude. Mixed forest vegetation occupies the northern third of the country, forest-steppe environment, and steppe southern third of the country. Today, however, much of the original vegetation has been erased and replaced by crops. A large part of the original fauna disappeared, but many animal species remain. Mammals are the deer, beaver, and marten. Birds include the Eurasian vulture, eagle steppes and the grey heron.
People
With an estimated population of 52057000 in 1992, Ukraine is the second most populous country of the former USSR. Only Russia has more people. Ukrainians, also known as Little Russians constitute 72 percent of the population. The Ukrainian, Slavic language closely related to Russian is the official language, although Russian is widely spoken. The Russians constitute 22 percent of the population. Include other minorities Belarussians, Moldavians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Poles and Crimean Tatars. Most Tatars were forcibly transported to Central Asia in 1944 for anti-Soviet activities during the Second World War (1939-1945). Orthodoxy is the dominant religion in the country, although Western Ukrainians are Catholics, as well as the Polish and Hungarian minorities. Protestantism, Islam and Judaism are also practiced.
The Ukraine is an urbanized society with more than two thirds of the population living in cities. Kyyiv, the capital, is the largest city in the Ukraine, with an estimated population of 2616000 in 1990. Other major cities include (1618000) Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk (1187000), Donetsk (1117000), Odessa (1106000), Lviv (798000), and Mariupol (520000). Population growth, however, is low. The rate of growth during the late 1980's was the lowest in the former USSR. Standards of health, such as life expectancy, are generally positive.
Economy
Ukraine has an economy heavily industrialised. Industry contributes more than 40 percent of the total net material product (PMN) and represents more than a quarter of total employment. The industry is largely based on the republic vast mineral resources. The Donetsk basin contains vast reserves of coal, iron and the proximity of ore reserves of Kryvyy Rih are equally rich. Ukraine Other mineral resources are manganese, bauxite, titanium and salt. Coal and nuclear fission are the main sources of energy, with each accounting for about 30 percent of Ukraine for the production of domestic energy. Despite these domestic sources, the economy is highly dependent on other former Soviet republics for oil and natural gas, whose price has risen sharply in the early 1990's. A decline in the production of domestic energy, during this same period, the country has made even more dependent on foreign sources. The Ukrainian energy shortage has prompted officials to take five nuclear power plants in operation in spite of security problems. These stations including the one at Chernobyl, "where there has been a disastrous accident in 1986.'s Main products are manufactured iron and steel, heavy machinery, chemicals, transport equipment, textiles and processed food products.
Agriculture accounts for approximately 30 percent of total NMP and fourth of total employment. Ukraine is a major producer and exporter of a wide variety of agricultural products, including wheat and sugar beets. Other crops are potatoes, vegetables, fruit, sunflower seeds and flax. Livestock is also important. Agricultural production has suffered greatly since independence, however, food consumption and decreased domestic. NMP has fallen by about 30 percent in 1992-one of the largest falls among the former Soviet republics.
After considerable delay, the process of economic reform began in Ukraine. The prices for food, transportation and other services have been deregulated, in January 1993, while food prices remained low in comparison to prices in neighbouring countries. The government has issued certificates of privatization and set up west of the city of Lviv as a model for future privatization. A transitional currency, the karbovanet was published, and plans to issue a final currency, the hryvnia, was formed. However, the reform process stalled in the second half of 1993. Privatization has been slowed by bureaucratic resistance and ineptitude. As a result, about 95 percent of all goods remain under state control. The production has declined more rapidly, and the economy has slightly towards hyperinflation. In response, the government has tried to assert direct control over the economy through the use of centralized planning techniques such as price controls. With the aim of promoting economic cooperation with other former Soviet republics and improve the economic conditions, Ukraine has become an associate member of the Commonwealth of Independent States Economic Union in September 1993.
Government
The government of Ukraine has preserved many aspects of the old system of the Soviet era. The Chief legislature, the 450 members of the Supreme Council, is controlled by the former communists and their allies, who have retained power after the holding of the first free parliamentary elections in 1994. The legislature is also composed of a large number of independent legislators and a small number of reformers. The post of president, which was created in the last month of the USSR, has been held since 1991 by Leonid Kravchuk, a long-time member of the Communist Party, which has only recently begun to support Ukrainian nationalism. The Communist Party was formally banned in the country in 1990, but was renamed the Socialist Party of Ukraine and has maintained political control. Hard line communists have protested the ban, which was annulled by the Supreme Council in May 1993. Several important democratic institutions have emerged recently in Ukraine, however, including press freedom, a new constitution, as well as several groups of the opposition People, such as Ukraine and the New Rukh.
History
The beginnings of the history of Ukraine is also an important chapter in the history of Russia. Kyyiv was the center of the principality Rus in the 11th and 12th centuries AD, and it is still known as the "Mother of Russian cities." In the 13th century, the region was invaded by Tatar-Mongols, who inflicted damage. western Ukrainian The principality of Galicia, founded in the 12th century, has suffered less than the Mongol invasion that the rest of the region, and was annexed by Poland in the 14th century. Around the same time and Kyyiv of the Principality of Volhynia Ukrainian were conquered by Lithuania, and later came with the latter country, in possession of Poland. Poland, however, could not submit the Cossacks of Ukraine, who allied themselves with the Russia. lands east of the Dnieper River were ceded to Russia in 1667 (some parts of the Ukraine was annexed by Muscovy much earlier), and the rest of the Ukraine, with the exception of Galicia ( part of the Austrian Empire, 1772-1919), was incorporated in the Russian Empire after the second partition of Poland in 1793. During the First World War, following the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 in Russia, Ukraine proclaimed its independence.
In Galicia, in the meantime, in Bukovina and the region known as the Carpatho-Ukraine, Ukrainians under Rule Austrian preserved their identity as a distinct group and created a strong nationalist movement. They created (1918) their own republic in eastern Galicia, which was federated with Russia, Ukraine. A year later, however, East Galicia was placed under a protectorate Polish by the Paris Peace Conference. Subsequently, the Government of the Republic of Ukraine, headed by Simon Petlyura, declared war on Poland, pending a counter-government has been established in Ukraine by the communists who have declared the country a Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1920, ahead of the Bolshevik Russia, the armed forces has caused the government Petlyura and Poland to become allies, and they were too small, however, to prevent the Soviet government to assume control of the country. Ukrainian Communist in 1922, delegates joined in the formation of the USSR.
In the period between 1922 and 1939 drastic efforts were made by the Soviet Union to punish Ukrainian nationalism. Ukraine suffered terribly from the forced collectivization of agriculture and the expropriation of foodstuffs from the campaign, the result was the famine of 1932 and 1933, when more than 7 million people died. The ultimate aim of Ukrainian nationalism is the independence of a large Ukraine, Russia encompassing Ukraine, the Polish Galicia, and the Czechoslovak Ruthenia.
Following the Soviet seizure of eastern Poland in September 1939, the Polish Galicia, which covers nearly 62,160 square kilometres (24,000 square miles), was incorporated in the Ukrainian SSR. When the Germans invaded the Ukraine in 1941, during World War II (1939-1945), hopes that Ukrainian Nationalists independent or autonomous Ukrainian republic would be established under the protection of Germany. Much of their disappointment, the Germans not only divided Ukraine and Russia, Western Ukraine (Galicia), but came as conquerors hostile. Ukraine has been taken over by the USSR in 1944. In the same year, those parts of Bessarabia and Bukovina of northern Romania have been added, and Ruthenian region of Czechoslovakia was added in 1945. The Ukrainian SSR became a member of the United Nations in 1945. The region of Crimea in the Ukraine to Russia was added in 1954. Communism collapsed in the USSR in 1991. At the end of 1991, the USSR has ceased to exist, and the Ukraine became an independent republic.
After independence, political tensions developed over the Crimea, which was part of Russia until 1954. Shortly after the independence of Ukraine in 1991, a Russian-led movement to secede from Ukraine was formed in Crimea, which has succeeded in changing the status of the Crimean oblast autonomous republic. The Crimea has also issued a declaration of independence, which was cancelled in May 1992. In the same month, however, the Supreme Soviet of Russia in 1954, said the transfer of Crimea null and void. In January 1994 Yuryy Meshkov, a former Soviet border guard and legal prosecutor, was elected president of Crimea on a platform of reunification with Russia. After his inauguration, Meshkov abducted local government appointed Ukrainian, an action that the government has declared illegal. Meanwhile, a second separatist movement that has developed in the east of Ukraine, where miners and other workers went on strike in June 1993 to protest against the poor state of the economy.
Also after independence, Ukraine and Russia have both claimed ownership of the vessel to 350 the Black Sea fleet, stationed in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. "An agreement was reached in 1992 to share joint command of the fleet until 1995, when it would be divided between the two countries. However, tensions have continued over the issue, sometimes erupting into armed confrontations. In January 1994 President Kravchuk agreed to transfer part of Ukraine's nuclear arsenal to Russia for disposal in exchange for nuclear fuel for power generation. In February 1994, in an effort to support the disarmament process and prevent the total collapse of Ukraine's economy, the United States government pledged to double the amount of aid to Ukraine. Also that month, Ukraine agreed to join the Partnership for Peace program of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a plan designed to promote military cooperation between NATO and non-NATO members. In July former prime minister Leonid Kuchma was elected president with a narrow 52 percent of the vote.