Ukraine – key data
Area: 603,550 km² (of which land: 579,330 km², water: 24,220 km²)
Population: 45.1 million (July 2011 estimate, CIA). Composition: Ukrainians 77.8%, Russians 17.3%, Belarusians 0.6%, Moldovans 0.5%, Crimean Tatars 0.5%, Bulgarians 0.4%,Hungary 0.3%, Romanians 0.3%, Poles 0.3%, Jews 0.2%, others 1.8% (2001 census).
Population density: 75 residents per km²
Population growth: -0.622% per year (2011, CIA, seventh highest population decline worldwide)
Capital: Kiev (2.7 million residents, 2007)
Highest point: Hora Hoverla, 2,061 m
Lowest point: Black Sea, 0 m
Form of government: Ukraine has been a republic since 1991. The Ukrainian constitution dates from 1996. The Ukrainian parliament is composed of 450MPs together. The Crimean Republic belongs to Ukraine, but has an autonomous status. Ukraine has been independent from what was then the Soviet Union since August 24, 1991.
Administrative division: 24 districts (oblast, plural: oblasti): Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi,, Dnipropetrovs’k, Donets’k, Ivano-Frankivs’k, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmel’nyts’kyy, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Luhans’k, L’viv, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil ‘, Vinnytsya, Volyn’ (Luts’k), Zakarpattya (Uzhhorod), Zaporizhzhya and Zhytomyr an Autonomous Republic (avtonomna respublika): Crimea or Avtonomna Respublika Krym 2 Cities with provincial status: (misto, plural: mista): Kyiv and Sevastopol
Head of State: President Viktor Yanukovych, since February 25, 2010
Head of Government: Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, since March 11, 2010
Language: the official language of Ukraine is Ukrainian (67%). Russian (24%) is often used as a colloquial language. Other languages (including Romanian, Polish and Hungarian) 9%.
Religion: Ukrainian Orthodox (Kiev Patriarchate) 50.4%, Ukrainian Orthodox (Moscow Patriarchate) 26.1%, Ukrainian-Greek Catholic 8%, Ukrainian Autocephalic 7.2%, Roman Catholic 2.2%, Protestant 2.2%, Jewish 0.6%, other 3.2% (2006 estimate)
Local time: CET + 1 h. Between the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October there is summer time in Ukraine (CET + 2 hours).
The time difference to Central Europe is + 1 hour in both winter and summer.
International phone code: +380
Internet identifier:.ua
Mains voltage: 220 V, 50 Hz
Ukraine Geography
The Republic of Ukraine is a state in Eastern Europe. It borders in the north on Belarus, in the northeast and east on Russia, in the south on the Azov and Black sea, in the south-west to Romania, Moldova and Hungary and in the west to the Slovak Republic and Poland. The total area is more than 600,000 square kilometers, making Ukraine the largest of these countries after Russia region. To cross the country from north to south, you have to cover a distance of almost 1,000 kilometers. The extension from east to west is as much as 1,300 kilometers.
Most of Ukraine lies in the Eastern European Plain, which consists mainly of arable land with black earth and forests. But mountains also take up about 5% of the country’s area. In addition to a relatively young fold mountains on the Crimean peninsula, the Transcarpathian Mountains are the more important and well-known mountain ranges of Ukraine. The so-called Zakarpattia Oblast is divided into the Carpathian Mountains and the Transcarpathian Plain plain.
the Ukrainian Carpathians stretch from northwest to southeast and are separated from each other by deeply cut valleys. The Chornohora massif in the east of the oblast is the highest mountain range in the Carpathians. The Hoverla, the highest peak in Ukraine at 2,061 meters, rises here. In the north of Zakarpattia the Polonine Mountains run, which are divided into individual mountain ranges by several rivers. The Vyhorlat-Hutynskyi Khrebet mountain range, consisting of volcanic rock, forms the border with the Transcarpathian Plain.
Zakarpattia has a large number of waterfalls, but there are only a few lakes, which are also quite small. The largest lake is the Synevyr located in the middle of the woods with an area of seven hectares. The main watershed of the Carpathians runs in the highest area of the Transcarpathian mountain range of the Verkhovynskyi Vododilnyi Khrebet; the rivers Rika, Tereblia and Teresva also have their source here.
The Transcarpathian Plain is located in the southwest of the Ukrainian Carpathians and forms the eastern part of the Pannonian Plain. The border with Slovakia runs in the north-west, while the plain is bordered by Romania in the south and Hungary in the south-west. The volcanic mountain range Vyhorlat-Hutynskyi Khrebet forms the natural border to the west. Overall, the Transcarpathian Plain extends from northwest to southeast over a length of about 90 kilometers and a width of up to 35 kilometers.
The Eastern European Plain is characterized by lowland-like depressions and plateau-shaped elevations. The largest plateau is the great Volhyn-Podolian plate, which extends from northwest to southeast into the Dniester valley runs. The north of the plate is covered by three ranges of hills, while the south of the plateau on the left side of the Dniester tributaries is divided by deep gorges. The valleys consist mainly of granite and limestone and a striking limestone reef from the Miocene era extends far into Moldova. In the east the Dnieper highlands form the extension of the plate and in the northwest the sand-covered and marshy plains of Polissia join. The southern Black Sea plain is enclosed by the mouth of the Danube and the Sea of Azov. Here are the vast and wide valleys of the Dniester, Buh and Dnepr. The Azov Heights limit Ukraine in the southeast; they are replaced by the Donets plate in the northeast.
Ukraine climate
According to bridgat, Ukraine has a predominantly temperate continental climate, with the Mediterranean climate predominating on the southern coast of the Crimea. The precipitation is highest in the west and north and lowest in the east and southeast. Western Ukraine receives around 1,200 mm of precipitation per year, Crimea around 400 mm. Winters vary from cool along the Black Sea coast to cold further inland. The annual average temperatures are between 5.5 and 7 ° C in the north and between 11 and 13 ° C in the south.