Basic Info

* Most of this info was taken from the Ukraine article on Wikipedia.

Ukraine’s Capital and largest city is Kyiv (Kiev/Київ). Other major cities include Lviv (Lvov) in the west and Donetsk and Kharkiv in the east.

The only official language is Ukrainian but Russian is spoken east of Kyiv.

Almost 80% of Ukraine’s population is ethnically Ukrainian, and another 17% is ethnically Russian.

Government
The President is Viktor Yanukovych. The Prime Minister is Mykola Azarov and the Speaker of Parliament is Volodymyr Lytvyn. The Legislature is called Verkhovna Rada.

Historical Formation
– 882 Kievan Rus’
– 1199 Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia
– 1649 Cossack Hetmanate
– Nov 7, 1917 Ukrainian National Republic
– Nov 1, 1918 West Ukrainian National Republic
– Dec 30, 1922 Ukrainian SSR
– Jun 30, 1941 Second Declaration of Independence
– Aug 24, 1991 Independence from the Soviet Union

The total area of Ukraine is 603,628 km2.
The 2010 population estimate is 45,888,000.
GDP Per capita is approx. $7,233.
Ukraine’s Currency is called the Hryvnia (UAH) and is approx 1 USD = 8 UAH.
Time zone Eastern European Time (UTC+2) but switches to DST in summer (UTC+3).
The International calling code is +380.