The second largest country in Europe, Ukraine is bordered by Russia to its east; Belarus to its north; Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova to its west; and the Black Sea to the south. Its capital city Kiev (also rendered Kyiv) straddles the Dnieper (Dnepr) River, a north-south waterway that effectively divides the country in two.

Kiev was the birthplace of modern Russia, as Scandinavian Riurikids established the kingdom of Rus’ there in the ninth century AD. Kievan Prince Vladimir adopted Byzantine Christianity in 988, setting the foundation for the modern Russian Orthodox Church. Internecine battles began to tear the kingdom apart, and Rus’ fell to the Mongols in the 13th century. During the period of Mongol domination, Ukraine sought protection from Poland and Lithuania, while symbols of the Kievan monarchy were transferred to Moscow, center of the rising Russian state. Throughout the next 700 years, Ukrainian territory was divided at different junctures between the Poles, Russians and Austro-Hungarians. As a hinterland, Ukraine attracted runaway serfs who eventually formed the Cossacks, a group marked by their independent and martial spirit. The collapse of the major European empires in 1917 brought Ukraine brief sovereignty, but its eastern lands were soon incorporated into the expanding Soviet Union, while the western region came under Polish control.

Fierce resistance to Soviet collectivization combined with an artificial famine cost Ukraine millions of lives in the 1920s and 1930s. As a result of an agreement between Stalin and Hitler to divide Poland, the western part of Ukraine was reunited under Soviet control in 1939. Two years later, Hitler violated the Soviet non-aggression pact and invaded the USSR, occupying Ukraine and parts of western Russia. Though the exact figures are unknown, it is estimated that several million Ukrainians lost their lives during the Nazi occupation. As a member of the Allies, the Soviet Union was allowed to keep annexed portions of Poland. Ukrainian territory expanded again in 1954, when Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev gave the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine as a sign of friendship.

When Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union on August 24, 1991, hopes were high that Ukraine’s transition would be relatively smooth. As the second largest economic contributor to the Soviet Union, Ukraine’s economy was well-diversified with productive agricultural and industrial sectors. President Leonid Kravchuk, elected in December 1991 in Ukraine’s first elections, took early steps to liberalize prices, but government resistance to sweeping reform significantly slowed economic recovery. Stagnation plagued Ukraine until 2000, when GDP grew for the first time since the Soviet break-up. Ukraine has maintained consistent economic growth since.

As a repository for Soviet nuclear weapons, Ukraine inherited the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world upon independence. Ukraine agreed in June 1994 to transfer nuclear warheads to Russia in exchange for fuel for its nuclear power plants. A net importer of energy, Ukraine depends on its nuclear power facilities, the most notorious of which – Chernobyl – experienced a meltdown in 1986. Ukraine and neighboring Belarus are still dealing with the social and environmental impact from the fallout. By 1996, Ukraine announced that all nuclear weapons had been transferred back to Russia, and the United States continued to provide assistance for the dismantling of silos and rockets.

Leonid Kuchma, former Ukrainian prime minister, narrowly defeated Kravchuk in Ukraine’s 1994 presidential elections and won reelection in 1999.

Ukraine held its third presidential poll on October 31, 2004, and the two semifinalists – Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko – competed in a run-off on November 26. The election was marred by accusations on both sides of election fraud, relying on falsified ballots, and voter intimidation. There was even the use of poison. Austrian doctors confirmed in December that candidate Yushchenko had been poisoned months earlier with dioxin. After the run-off the Central Electoral Commission declared Yanukovych the winner with 49.4% of the vote. By this time however there had been so many charges and countercharges that the result was placed in question and any confidence that the outcome was just began to be eroded. The resulting domestic and international reaction revealed deep fissures within Ukrainian society and external spheres of influence. Yanukovych, whose base of support lies in Russia-friendly eastern Ukraine, received significant monetary and moral support from Russia, while Yushenko who adopted increasingly western friendly rhetoric received significant monetary and moral support from Europe and the U.S. The United States, prompted by reports from international observers of widespread irregularities, refused to recognize the elections as free and fair. When massive public protests, dubbed the “Orange Revolution” after Yushchenko’s campaign color, prompted President Kuchma to request a new run-off poll, parts of eastern Ukraine loyal to Yanukovych threatened to secede.

A new election was held on December 26, but the results were not immediately published pending legal action from Yanukovych. On January 20, 2005, the Ukrainian Constitutional Court dismissed Yanukovych’s appeal of the results and declared Yushchenko the official winner with 52% of the vote.