Ukraine

Ukraine is the largest country lying wholly within Europe, a sweep of fertile black-earth steppe drained by the mighty Dnieper and opening onto the Black Sea. Long known as the breadbasket of the continent, its plains produce vast harvests of wheat, sunflower, and corn. Home to roughly 38 million people, with Kyiv among the oldest and grandest of Slavic capitals, Ukraine carries a deep cultural heritage even as it endures the largest war in Europe since 1945, its resilience reshaping the continent's politics and security.

Most of Ukraine is open lowland steppe and forest-steppe, with the Carpathian Mountains in the west rising to Hoverla at 2,061 meters and the Crimean Mountains in the south. The Dnieper bisects the country on its way to the Black Sea, and the chernozem soils rank among the most productive on Earth. The Donbas region in the east holds major coal and heavy-industry centers, while the Black Sea ports of Odesa anchor maritime trade. The climate is moderately continental, with cold winters and hot summers.

Kyivan Rus, the medieval federation centered on Kyiv, is the shared ancestor of Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian statehood. Ukrainian lands later passed among Poland-Lithuania, the Cossack Hetmanate, the Russian and Habsburg empires, and the Soviet Union, which inflicted the Holodomor famine. Independence came in 1991. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and invaded in full in 2022, and as of October 2026 holds roughly a fifth of the country, which Kyiv and most UN members regard as occupied. US-brokered talks have brought only brief truces. Ukraine has been an EU candidate since 2022.

• Transnistria
  A sliver of land on the Dniester that broke from Moldova and recognizes itself borders
• Crimea
  A Black Sea peninsula held by Russia and claimed by Ukraine disputed territory
• Crimea
  A Black Sea peninsula held by Russia and claimed by Ukraine disputed with
• The Soviet Union
  The world's largest state for seven decades, spanning 11 time zones and 15 republics former state on its territory
• The Russian Empire
  The tsarist state that stretched from the Baltic to the Pacific and, for a time, into North America formerly part of
• The Soviet Union
  The world's largest state for seven decades, spanning 11 time zones and 15 republics formerly part of
• Galicia (Central Europe)
  The Habsburg crown land along the Carpathians, now divided between Poland and Ukraine historical region partly within
• Bessarabia
  The land between the Prut and the Dniester, traded among empires for more than a century includes historical region
• Bukovina
  The beech-forested Carpathian land divided between Romania and Ukraine includes historical region
• Galicia (Central Europe)
  The Habsburg crown land along the Carpathians, now divided between Poland and Ukraine includes historical region
• Europe
  A small, intricate continent of outsized influence located in
• Belarus
  A landlocked heart of Eastern Europe, forest and marsh between giants neighboring country
• Hungary
  The Magyar plain, the Danube, and a language like no other in Europe neighboring country
• Moldova
  A landlocked country of vineyards between the Prut and the Dniester neighboring country
• Poland
  From the Baltic dunes to the Tatra peaks, the keystone of Central Europe neighboring country
• Romania
  The Carpathian arc, the Danube delta, and a Latin island in a Slavic sea neighboring country
• Russia
  The largest country on Earth, spanning Europe and Asia across eleven time zones neighboring country
• Slovakia
  A landlocked Carpathian country of castles, caves, and high Tatra peaks neighboring country
• Donbas
  Ukraine's eastern coal-and-steel heartland, mostly held by Russia and the crux of peace talks region
• Austria-Hungary
  The Habsburg dual monarchy of a dozen nations, dissolved at the end of World War I western lands formerly part of