Ucraine
Capital: Kiev Population: 52,350,000 Surface: 603,700 Km2
Local time : +02.00 GMT Currency: 1 € = 6 Hryvnia (UAH)
Ucraine |
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Capital: Kiev Population: 52,350,000 Surface: 603,700 Km2 Local time : +02.00 GMT Currency: 1 € = 6 Hryvnia (UAH) |
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The population of Ucraine is composed by: 73% ucrainians, 22% russians, 5% from other countries. It borders Russia to the north-east, Belarus to the north, Poland , Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the south-west and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The historic city of Kiev (Kyiv) is the country's capital. The culture of Ukraine has been formed by influences of its eastern and western neighbors, and the architecture, music and dance of Ukraine all reflect this. Communist rule had quite a strong effect on the art and writing of Ukraine. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Soviets began enforcing the socialist realism art style in Ukraine; this style dictated that all artists and writers glorify the Soviet Regime with their talents. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukrainian artists and writers again became free to express themselves as they wanted. The tradition of the Easter egg had its beginnings in Ukraine: these eggs were drawn on with wax to create pattern; dye was then added to give the eggs their delightful colors—the dye not affecting the wax coated parts of the egg. Once the whole egg was dyed, the wax was removed leaving only the colorful pattern. The tradition is thousands of years old, and predates the arrival of Christianity in the country. The dominant religion in Ukraine is Eastern Orthodox Christianity , which is currently split between three Church bodies; the distant second is the Eastern Rite Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , which practices the same liturgical and spiritual tradition as Eastern Orthodoxy, but is in communion with the See of Peter and recognizes the primacy of the Pope as head of the Church. There are also smaller groups of Roman Catholic , Protestant , Jewish and Muslim faithful. From at least the ninth century the territory of present-day Ukraine was a centre of medieval East Slavic civilization forming the state of Kievan Rus , and for the following several centuries the territory was divided between a number of regional powers. After a brief period of independence (1917–1921) following the Russian Revolution of 1917 , Ukraine became one of the founding Soviet Republics in 1922. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic 's territory was enlarged westward after the Second World War , and again in 1954 with the Crimea transfer . In 1945 Ukrainian SSR became co-founder and one of the first members of the United Nations Organization . It became independent again after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. The April 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine was the product of a flawed Soviet reactor design coupled with serious mistakes made by the plant operators in the context of a system where training was minimal. It was a direct consequence of Cold War isolation and the resulting lack of any safety culture. Large areas of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and beyond were contaminated in varying degrees. By the year 2000, about 4000 cases of thyroid cancer had been diagnosed in exposed children. After the accident a 30km exclusion zone was established around the power plant. A new city Slavutych was built outside the exclusion zone to house and support the employees of the plant. The Chernobyl facility includes four reactors. Unit 4 was destroyed in the accident. Units 1 and 2 were decommissioned. Unit 3 was upgraded to make it safe and continued to produce power supplying about 2% of Ukraine's electrical power until December 15 , 2000 . At that time then-President Leonid Kuchma personally turned off Reactor 3 in an official ceremony, effectively shutting down the entire plant. |