Ukraine

republicIndependence 1 December 1991 (from Soviet Union)

Ukraine as the 1994 edition of the CIA World Factbook published it: 123 fields, one of 34 editions from 1992 to 2025.

field in that editiontext changed from the edition beforenot in that editionthe open editionEach field below ends in its editions, 1990 to 2025. Point at a year above to follow it down.

CapitalKiev (Kyyiv)
LocationEastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland and Russia
1994

Every edition of Ukraine

Populationas each edition published it
51.85 million July 1994 est. · 51.94m in 1992
Population growth% a year
0.05% 1994 est. · 0.06% in 1993
Median ageyears
Not in this edition 38 yrs in 2003
Life expectancyyears at birth
Not in this edition 69.87 yrs in 1993
Fertility ratechildren per woman
1.82 children per woman 1994 est. · 2 in 1992
Infant mortalitydeaths per 1,000 live births
20.7 deaths per 1,000 live births 1994 est. · 22 in 1992
GDP per capitaeach edition's own dollars
$3,960 1993 est. · $16,300 in 2025
GDP real growth% a year
-16% 1993 est. · -13% in 1993

Geography

Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland and Russia

22 fields
Coastline
2,782km
Maritime claims: NA
Land boundaries
4,558km
total · Belarus 891 km, Hungary 103 km, Moldova 939 km, Poland 428 km, Romania (southwest) 169 km, Romania (west) 362 km, Russia 1,576 km, Slovakia 90 km
Irrigated land
26,000sq km
(1990)

Location

Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland and Russia

Map references

Asia, Commonwealth of Independent States - European States, Europe, Standard Time Zones of the World

total area

603,700 sq km

land area

603,700 sq km

comparative area

slightly smaller than Texas

International disputes

  • potential future border disputes with Moldova and Romania in Northern Bukovina and southern Odes'ka Oblast';
  • potential dispute with Moldova over former southern Bessarabian area;
  • potential dispute with Russia over Crimea;
  • has made no territorial claim in Antarctica (but has reserved the right to do so) and does not recognize the claims of any other nation

Climate

  • temperate continental;
  • subtropical only on the southern Crimean coast;
  • precipitation disproportionately distributed, highest in west and north, lesser in east and southeast;
  • winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland;
  • summers are warm across the greater part of the country, hot in the south

Terrain

most of Ukraine consists of fertile plains (steppes) and plateaux, mountains being found only in the west (the Carpathians), and in the Crimean Peninsula in the extreme south

Natural resources

iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas, oil, salt, sulphur, graphite, titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel, mercury, timber

arable land

56%

permanent crops

2%

meadows and pastures

12%

forest and woodland

0%

other

30%

current issues

  • unsafe drinking water;
  • air and water pollution;
  • deforestation;
  • radiation contamination in the northeast from 1986 accident at Chornobyl' Nuclear Power Plant

natural hazards

NA

international agreements

  • party to - Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur, Antarctic Treaty, Environmental Modification, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution;
  • signed, but not ratified - Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Law of the Sea

Note

strategic position at the crossroads between Europe and Asia; second largest country in Europe

People

21 fields
Population
51,846,958
(July 1994 est.)growth rate: 0.05% (1994 est.)

Per 1,000 population(1994 est.)

Birth
12.34Death
12.6Net migration
0.71

Ethnic divisions

Ukrainian 73%Russian 22%Jewish 1%other 4%
Labor force
23.985million
Literacy
9
age · -49 can read and write (1979)

Infant mortality rate

20.7 deaths/1,000 live births (1994 est.)

total population

69.99 years

male

65.45 years

female

74.76 years (1994 est.)

Total fertility rate

1.82 children born/woman (1994 est.)

noun

Ukrainian(s)

adjective

Ukrainian

Religions

Ukrainian Orthodox - Moscow Patriarchate, Ukrainian Orthodox - Kiev Patriarchate, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox, Ukrainian Catholic (Uniate), Protestant, Jewish

Languages

Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian

total population

100%

male

100%

female

100%

by occupation

industry and construction 33%, agriculture and forestry 21%, health, education, and culture 16%, trade and distribution 7%, transport and communication 7%, other 16% (1992)

Government

Republic

35 fields

conventional long form

none

conventional short form

Ukraine

local long form

none

local short form

Ukrayina

former

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

Type

republic

Capital

Kiev (Kyyiv)

Administrative divisions

24 oblasti (singular - oblast'), 1 autonomous republic* (avtomnaya respublika), and 2 municipalites (mista, singular - misto) with oblast status**; Cherkas'ka (Cherkasy), Chernihivs'ka (Chernihiv), Chernivets'ka (Chernitsi), Dnipropetrovs'ka (Dnipropetrovs'k), Donets'ka (Donets'k), Ivano-Frankivs'ka (Ivano-Frankivs'k), Kharkivs'ka (Kharkiv), Khersons'ka (Kherson), Khmel'nyts'ka (Khmel'nyts'kyy), Kirovohrads'ka (Kirovohrad), Kyyiv**, Kyyivs'ka (Kiev), Luhans'ka (Luhans'k), L'vivs'ka (L'viv), Mykolayivs'ka (Mykolayiv), Odes'ka (Odesa), Poltavs'ka (Poltava), Respublika Krym* (Simferopol'), Rivnens'ka (Rivne), Sevastopol'**,Sums'ka (Sevastopol'), Ternopil's'ka (Ternopil'), Vinnyts'ka (Vinnytsya), Volyns'ka (Luts'k), Zakarpats'ka (Uzhhorod), Zaporiz'ka (Zaporizhzhya), Zhytomyrs'ka (Zhytomyr)

note

names in parentheses are administrative centers when name differs from oblast' name

Independence

1 December 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday

Independence Day, 24 August (1991)

Constitution

using 1978 pre-independence constitution; new constitution currently being drafted

Suffrage

18 years of age; universal

chief of state

  • President-elect Leonid D. KUCHMA;
  • election last held 26 June and 10 July 1994 (next to be held NA 1999);
  • results - Leonid KUCHMA 52.15%, Leonid KRAVCHUK 45.06%

head of government

Prime Minister (vacant); Acting First Deputy Prime Minister (and Acting Prime Minister since September 1993) Yukhym Leonidovych ZVYAHIL'SKYY (since 11 June 1993) and five deputy prime ministers

cabinet

Council of Ministers; appointed by the president and approved by the Supreme Council

Supreme Council

  • elections last held 27 March 1994 (next to be held NA);
  • results - percent of vote by party NA;
  • seats - (450 total) number of seats by party NA;
  • note - 338 deputies were elected;
  • the remaining 112 seats to be filled on 24 July 1994

Judicial branch

being organized

Political parties and leaders

  • Green Party of Ukraine, Vitaliy KONONOV, leader;
  • Liberal Party of Ukraine, Ihor MERKULOV, chairman;
  • Liberal Democratic Party of Ukraine, Volodymyr KLYMCHUK, chairman;
  • Democratic Party of Ukraine, Volodymyr Oleksandrovych YAVORIVSKIY, chairman;
  • People's Party of Ukraine, Leopol'd TABURYANSKYY, chairman;
  • Peasants' Party of Ukraine, Serhiy DOVGRAN', chairman;
  • Party of Democratic Rebirth of Ukraine, Volodymyr FILENKO, chairman;
  • Social Democratic Party of Ukraine, Yuriy ZBITNEV, chairman;
  • Socialist Party of Ukraine, Oleksandr MOROZ, chairman;
  • Ukrainian Christian Democratic Party, Vitaliy ZHURAVSKYY, chairman;
  • Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party, Stepan KHMARA, chairman;
  • Ukrainian Labor Party, Valentyn LANDYK, chairman;
  • Ukrainian Party of Justice, Mykhaylo HRECHKO, chairman;
  • Ukrainian Peasants' Democratic Party, Serhiy PLACHINDA, chairman;
  • Ukrainian Republican Party, Mykhaylo HORYN', chairman;
  • Ukrainian National Conservative Party, Viktor RADIONOV, chairman;
  • Ukrainian People's Movement for Restructuring (Rukh), Vyacheslav CHORNOUL, chairman;
  • Ukrainian Communist Party, Petr SYMONENKO

Other political or pressure groups

New Ukraine (Nova Ukrayina); Congress of National Democratic Forces

Member of

BSEC, CBSS (observer), CCC, CE (guest), CEI (participating), CIS, CSCE, EBRD, ECE, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ILO, IMF, INMARSAT, INTELSAT (nonsignatory user), INTERPOL, IOC, ITU, NACC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNPROFOR, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO

chief of mission

Ambassador Oleh Hryhorovych BILORUS

chancery

3350 M Street NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20007

telephone

(202) 333-0606

FAX

(202) 333-0817

consulate(s) general

Chicago and New York

chief of mission

Ambassador William MILLER

embassy

10 Yuria Kotsyubinskovo, 252053 Kiev 53

mailing address

use embassy street address

telephone

[7] (044) 244-7349 or 244-7344

FAX

[7] (044) 244-7350

Flag

two equal horizontal bands of azure (top) and golden yellow represent grainfields under a blue sky

Economy

After Russia, the Ukrainian republic was far and away the most | important economic component of the former Soviet Union producing more | than three times the output of the next-ranking republic.

26 fields
GDP per capita, PPP
$3,960
(1993 est.)
Real growth rate
-16%
(1993 est.)industrial production growth: growth rate -14% (1993); accounts for 50% of GDP
Inflation, consumer prices
45%per month
(1993)
Unemployment rate
0.4%officially registered
large number of unregistered or underemployed workers

Overview

After Russia, the Ukrainian republic was far and away the most important economic component of the former Soviet Union producing more than three times the output of the next-ranking republic. Its fertile black soil generated more than one-fourth of Soviet agricultural output, and its farms provided substantial quantities of meat, milk, grain and vegetables to other republics.

Likewise, its diversified heavy industry supplied equipment and raw materials to industrial and mining sites in other regions of the former USSR. In 1992 the Ukrainian Government liberalized most prices and erected a legal framework for privatizing state enterprises while retaining many central economic controls and continuing subsidies to state production enterprises.

In November 1992 the new Prime Minister KUCHMA launched a new economic reform program promising more freedom to the agricultural sector, faster privatization of small and medium enterprises, and stricter control over state subsidies. In 1993, however, severe internal political disputes over the scope and pace of economic reform and payment arrears on energy imports have led to further declines in output, and inflation of 50% or more per month by the last quarter.

In first quarter 1994, national income and industrial output were less than two-thirds the first quarter 1993 figures, according to official statistics. At the same time an increasing number of people are developing small private businesses and exploiting opportunities in non-official markets.

Even so, the magnitude of the problems and the slow pace in building new market-oriented institutions preclude a near-term recovery of output to the 1990 level. A vital economic concern in 1994 will continue to be Russia's decisions on the prices and quantities of oil and gas to be shipped to the Ukraine.

National product

GDP - purchasing power equivalent - $205.4 billion (1993 estimate from the UN International Comparison Program, as extended to 1991 and published in the World Bank's World Development Report 1993; and as extrapolated to 1993 using official Ukrainian statistics, which are very uncertain because of major economic changes since 1990)

revenues

$NA

expenditures

$NA, including capital expenditures of $NA

Exports

$3 billion to countries outside of the FSU (1993)

commodities

coal, electric power, ferrous and nonferrous metals, chemicals, machinery and transport equipment, grain, meat

partners

FSU countries, Germany, China, Austria

Imports

$2.2 billion from outside of the FSU countries (1993)

commodities

machinery and parts, transportation equipment, chemicals, textiles

partners

FSU countries, Germany, China, Austria

capacity

55,882,000 kW

production

281 billion kWh

consumption per capita

5,410 kWh (1992)

Industries

coal, electric power, ferrous and nonferrous metals, machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, food-processing (especially sugar)

Agriculture

accounts for about 25% of GDP; grain, vegetables, meat, milk, sugar beets

Illicit drugs

  • illicit cultivator of cannabis and opium poppy;
  • mostly for CIS consumption;
  • limited government eradication program;
  • used as transshipment points for illicit drugs to Western Europe

Economic aid

$350 million economic aid and $350 million to help disassemble the atomic weapons from the US in 1994

Currency

  • Ukraine withdrew the Russian ruble from circulation on 12 November 1992 and declared the karbovanets (plural karbovantsi) sole legal tender in Ukrainian markets;
  • Ukrainian officials claim this is an interim move toward introducing a new currency - the hryvnya - possibly in mid-1994

Fiscal year

calendar year

Communications

16 fields

Networkskm

Railroads
23,350Inland waterways
1,672
Railroads: (1,524-mm gauge); 8,600 km electrified · Inland waterways: (Pryp''yat' and Dnipro Rivers)

Railroads

23,350 km (1,524-mm gauge); 8,600 km electrified

total

273,700 km

paved and gravel

236,400 km

unpaved

earth 37,300 km

Inland waterways

1,672 km perennially navigable (Pryp''yat' and Dnipro Rivers)

Pipelines

crude oil 2,010 km; petroleum products 1,920 km; natural gas 7,800 km (1992)

Ports

coastal - Berdyans'k, Illichivs'k, Kerch, Kherson, Mariupol', Mykolayiv, Odesa, Sevastopol', Pivdenne; inland - Kiev (Kyyiv)

Merchant marine

390 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 3,932,009 GRT/5,236,134 DWT, barge carriers 7, bulk cargo 55, cargo 231, chemical tanker 2, container 18, liquefied gas 1, multi-function-large-load-carrier 1, oil tanker 10, passenger 12, passenger cargo 5, railcar carrier 2, refrigerated cargo 5, roll-on/roll-off cargo 33, short-sea passenger 8

total

694

usable

199

with permanent-surface runways

111

with runways over 3,659 m

3

with runways 2,440-3,659 m

81

with runways 1,060-2,439 m

78

note

a C-130 can land on a 1,060-m airstrip

Telecommunications

  • the telephone system is inadequate both for business and for personal use;
  • about 7,886,000 telephone circuits serve 52,056,000 people (1991);
  • telephone density is 151.4 telephone circuits per 1,000 persons (1991);
  • 3.56 million applications for telephones had not been satisfied as of January 1991;
  • calls to other CIS countries are carried by land line or microwave;
  • other international calls to 167 countries are carried by satellite or by the 150 leased lines through the Moscow gateway switch;
  • an NMT-450 analog cellular telephone network operates in Kiev (Kyyiv) and allows direct dialing of international calls through Kiev's EWSD digital exchange;
  • electronic mail services have been established in Kiev, Odessa, and Lugansk by Sprint;
  • satellite earth stations employ INTELSAT, INMARSAT, and Intersputnik

Defense Forces

Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces, Republic Security Forces | (internal and border troops), National Guard

3 fields
Defense expenditures
544,256million karbovantsi
NA% of GDP (forecast for 1993); note - conversion of the military budget into US dollars using the current exchange rate could produce misleading results

Branches

Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces, Republic Security Forces (internal and border troops), National Guard

Manpower availability

  • males age 15-49 12,191,984;
  • fit for military service 9,591,276;
  • reach military age (18) annually 364,676 (1994 est.)

Central Intelligence Agency. “Ukraine.” The World Factbook 1994. Archived by The Factbook, thefactbook.org/ukraine/1994.

How to cite ← 1993 edition 1995 edition →