The Ukrainian national identity goes back to the Trypillian culture which flourished in Ukraine about 7,000 years ago. Ukrainian cities have long history. The area of modern day Kiev, as well as many other Ukrainian cities, has been settled by people for many centuries..
What background is Ukraine?
Ukraine became an independent state on August 24, 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and was a founding member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Ukraine is a parliamentary democracy with separate executive, judicial, and legislative branches..
What background is Ukrainian?
Ukrainians (Ukrainian: українці, romanized: ukraintsi, pronounced [ʊkrɐˈjinʲts⁽ʲ⁾i]) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Orthodox Christians, some Ukrainians are also Catholic Christians..
What is the background of the Ukrainian people?
The history of Ukrainian nationality can be traced back to the kingdom of Kievan Rus' of the 9th to 12th centuries. It was the predecessor state to what would eventually become the Eastern Slavic nations of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine..
What is the cultural makeup of Ukraine?
Ethnic groups Russians continue to be the largest minority, though they now constitute less than one-fifth of the population. The remainder of the population includes Belarusians, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Roma (Gypsies), and other groups..
Ethnic groups Russians continue to be the largest minority, though they now constitute less than one-fifth of the population. The remainder of the population includes Belarusians, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Roma (Gypsies), and other groups.
Ukrainian customs are heavily influenced by the Ukrainian Greek Catholicism, Ruthenian Greek Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Church and traditions from Slavic mythology. Prior to the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian culture has had heavy influence from other East Slavic cultures such as Russian and Belarusian culture.
Cultural background of ukraine
Combined military forces of Ukraine
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are the military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the President of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rada parliamentary commission. They trace their lineage to 1917, while the modern armed forces were formed after Ukrainian independence in 1991.
Flag of Ukraine
National flag
The national flag of Ukraine consists of equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow.
Geographical distribution of Ukrainian speakers
A Ukrainophone is a person who speaks the Ukrainian language either natively or by preference. At the same time the term is used in a more specialized meaning to describe the category of people whose cultural background is associated with the Ukrainian language regardless of territorial distinctions.
Factors contributing to the Russo-Ukrainian War
A variety of social, economical, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic factors contributed to the sparking of unrest in eastern and southern Ukraine in 2014, and the subsequent eruption of the Russo-Ukrainian War, in the aftermath of the early 2014 Revolution of Dignity. Following Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, resurfacing historical and cultural divisions and a weak state structure hampered the development of a unified Ukrainian national identity.
Islam in Ukraine
Aspect of religious life in Ukraine
Islam in Ukraine is a minority religious affiliation with Muslims representing around 5% of the total population as of 2016. The religion has a long history in Ukraine dating back to Berke Khan of the Ulug Ulus in the 13th century and the establishment of the Crimean Khanate in the 15th century.
Christianity is the predominant religion in Ukraine
Religion in the country
Christianity is the predominant religion in Ukraine, with 85% of the population identifying as Christian according to a 2022 survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS). Seventy-two percent of the population avowed fidelity to an Eastern Orthodox Church: 54% of Ukrainians proclaimed adherence to the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine; 14% identified as Orthodox Christian without specifying a church affiliation; 4% associated with the Moscow Patriarchate. Another 9% of Ukrainians professed devotion to the Catholic Church in Ukraine: 8% Ukrainian Greek Catholics and 1% Latin Catholics. Two percent of the population declared affiliation to a mainstream Protestant Church, and a further 2% identified with some alternative sect of Christianity.
Russia began an invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022
Overview of Ukrainian cultural heritage during the 2022 Russian invasion
Russia began an invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that began in 2014. It is the largest military attack in Europe since World War II. During the fighting, many pieces of Ukrainian cultural heritage were either destroyed, damaged, or put at risk due to the widespread destruction across the country. This deliberate destruction and looting of over 500 Ukrainian cultural heritage sites is considered a war crime and has been described by Ukraine's Minister of Culture as cultural genocide.
The West Ukrainian People's Republic or West Ukrainian National Republic
1918–1919 state in Central Europe
The West Ukrainian People's Republic or West Ukrainian National Republic, known for part of its existence as the Western Oblast of the Ukrainian People's Republic, was a short-lived polity that controlled most of Eastern Galicia from November 1918 to July 1919. It included the cities of Lviv, Ternopil, Kolomyia, Drohobych, Boryslav, Stanislaviv and right-bank Przemyśl, and claimed parts of Bukovina and Carpathian Ruthenia. Politically, the Ukrainian National Democratic Party dominated the legislative assembly, guided by varying degrees of Greek Catholic, liberal and socialist ideology. Other parties represented included the Ukrainian Radical Party and the Christian Social Party.
