Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It shares borders with Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova. To the south, it touches the Black Sea. Ukraine is the second largest country that lies entirely in Europe, after Russia. About 40 million people live there. The capital city is Kyiv, which sits along the Dnieper River.

Ukraine has wide, flat land with very dark soil. This soil is some of the richest in the world for growing food. Farmers there raise huge amounts of wheat, corn, and sunflowers. Ukraine sends so much grain to other countries that people sometimes call it "the breadbasket of Europe." When war disrupts Ukrainian farms, the price of bread goes up in places as far away as Africa and the Middle East.

The history of Ukraine stretches back more than a thousand years. In the ninth century, a powerful kingdom called Kievan Rus rose up around Kyiv. Many historians say it was the starting point of three modern nations: Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. Over the centuries, different empires ruled parts of Ukrainian land, including the Mongols, the Poles, the Ottomans, and the Russians.

For most of the twentieth century, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. Life under Soviet rule was often brutal. In 1932 and 1933, a terrible famine called the Holodomor killed millions of Ukrainians. Many historians believe the Soviet government caused the famine on purpose. In 1986, a nuclear power plant at Chernobyl exploded and spread radiation across a wide area. Parts of the zone around Chernobyl are still unsafe to live in today.

Ukraine became an independent country in 1991, when the Soviet Union fell apart. People voted overwhelmingly to break away and govern themselves. Ukraine has its own language, its own flag of blue and yellow, and its own traditions. The blue stands for the sky. The yellow stands for fields of wheat.

In 2014, Russia took control of a Ukrainian region called Crimea. Then, in February 2022, Russia invaded the rest of Ukraine. The war has damaged many cities, forced millions of people to leave their homes, and killed tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians on both sides. Many countries around the world have sent weapons, money, and supplies to help Ukraine defend itself. As of 2026, the fighting continues, and the future of Ukraine's borders is one of the biggest unanswered questions in world politics.