Country, southeastern Europe.
Area: 233,100 sq mi (603,700 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 48,628,000. Capital: Kiev . Ethnic Ukrainians make up 70% of the population; minorities include Russians and Jews. Languages: Ukrainian (official), Russian, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian. Religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam. Currency: hryvny. Ukraine consists of level plains and the Carpathian Mountains , which extend through the western region for more than 150 mi (240 km). The Dnieper (Dnipro), Donets , and Dniester (Dnistro) are its major rivers. The Donets Basin in the east-central region is one of the major heavy-industrial and mining-metallurgical complexes of Europe. It mines iron ore and coal and produces natural gas, petroleum, iron, and steel. Ukraine is a major producer of winter wheat and sugar beets. It is a republic with one legislative body; its head of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. Different parts of the area were invaded and occupied in the 1st millennium BC by the Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians and in the 1st millennium AD by the Goths, Huns, Bulgars, Avars, Khazars, and Magyars. Slavic tribes settled there after the 4th century. Kiev was its chief town. The Mongol conquest in the mid-13th century decisively ended Kievan power. Ruled by Lithuania in the 14th century and Poland in the 16th century, it fell to Russian rule in the 18th century. The Ukrainian National Republic, established in 1917, declared its independence from Soviet Russia in 1918 but was reconquered in 1919; it was made the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the U.S.S.R. in 1923. The northwestern region was held by Poland (1919–39). Ukraine suffered a severe famine in 1932–33 under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ; more than five million Ukrainians died of starvation in an unprecedented peacetime catastrophe. Overrun by Axis armies in 1941 during World War II, it was further devastated before being retaken by the Soviets in 1944. In 1986 it was the site of the {{link=Chernobyl accident">Chernobyl accident , at a Soviet-built nuclear power plant. It declared independence in 1991.