Ukrainian Americans
Overview
Ukraine is officially named Ukrayina, which means "borderland." After Russia, it is the second-largest country in Europe in area. It is comparable, both in population (about 52 million) and size (233,089 square miles) to France. It is bordered by the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, Moldova, and Romania to the south; Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland to the west; Belarus to the north; and Russia to the north and northeast.
Of its population, 73 percent are of Ukrainian ethnic origin. The country's official language, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, is Ukrainian. The capital city is Kiev, and the national flag has two broad horizontal bands of blue and yellow, the blue on top representing the sky and the yellow representing fields of wheat.
Although most of western Ukraine is agricultural—it is a country that has served as the "bread-basket of Europe"—there are large petroleum and natural gas fields as well. Major industrial products include refined sugar, iron, steel, tractors, cement, glass, paper, and fertilizer.
History
The earliest evidence of human settlement in Ukraine dates back 150,000 years. Early inhabitants of the territory included the Balkans, the Cimmerians(the first nomadic horsemen to appear in Ukraine in about 1500 to 1000 B.C.), the Scythians (early seventh century B.C.), and colonies set up by the Greek Empire (by the fourth century B.C.).The direct ancestors of Ukraine's population today were the Slavs.
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