Ukraine

• temperate continental;
• Mediterranean 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

total:

19.24 cu km/yr (24%/69%/7%)

per capita:

415.7 cu m/yr (2010)

• inadequate supplies of potable water;
• air and water pollution;
• deforestation;
• radiation contamination in the northeast from 1986 accident at Chornobyl' Nuclear Power Plant

noun:

Ukrainian(s)

adjective:

Ukrainian

at birth:

1.07 male(s)/female

0-14 years:

1.06 male(s)/female

15-24 years:

1.04 male(s)/female

25-54 years:

0.94 male(s)/female

55-64 years:

0.85 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.49 male(s)/female

total population:

0.85 male(s)/female (2014 est.)

total number:

356,213

percentage:

7 % (2005 est.)

conventional long form:

none

conventional short form:

Ukraine

local long form:

none

local short form:

Ukrayina

former:

Ukrainian National Republic, Ukrainian State, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

name:

Kyiv (Kiev)

note: pronounced KAY-yiv

geographic coordinates:

50 26 N, 30 31 E

time difference:

UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

daylight saving time:

+1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October

• 24 provinces (oblasti, singular - oblast'), 1 autonomous republic* (avtonomna respublika), and 2 municipalities (mista, singular - misto) with oblast status**;
• Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Crimea or Avtonomna Respublika Krym* (Simferopol'), Dnipropetrovs'k, Donets'k, Ivano-Frankivs'k, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmel'nyts'kyy, Kirovohrad, Kyiv**, Kyiv, Luhans'k, L'viv, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sevastopol'**, Sumy, Ternopil', Vinnytsya, Volyn' (Luts'k), Zakarpattya (Uzhhorod), Zaporizhzhya, Zhytomyr

note 1: administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses)

note 2: the United States does not recognize Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the municipality of Sevastopol, nor their redesignation as the Republic of Crimea and the Federal City of Sevastopol

• several previous;
• latest adopted and ratified 28 June 1996;
• amended 2004, 2010;
• note - to revert to the 2004 version pending additional constitutional reforms (2014)

highest court(s):

• Supreme Court of Ukraine (consists of 95 judges organized into civil, criminal, commercial, and administrative chambers, and a military panel);
• Constitutional Court (consists of 18 justices)

judge selection and term of office:

• Supreme Court judges proposed by the Supreme Council of Justice or SCJ (a 20-member independent body of judicial officials and other appointees) and appointed by presidential decree;
• judges initially appointed for 5 years and, if approved by the SCJ, serve until mandatory retirement at age 65;
• Constitutional Court justices appointed - 6 each by the president, by the SCU, and by the Verkhovna Rada;
• justices appointed for 9-year non-renewable terms

subordinate courts:

• specialized high courts;
• Courts of Cassation;
• Courts of Appeal;
• regional, district, city, and town courts

• Batkivshchyna ("Fatherland") [Yuliya TYMOSHENKO]
• Communist Party of Ukraine or CPU [Petro SYMONENKO]
• Party of Regions [vacant]
• People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) [Borys TARASYUK]
• People's Party [Volodymyr LYTVYN]
• Radical Party [Oleh LYASHKO]
• Socialist Party of Ukraine or SPU [Oleksandr MOROZ]
• Svoboda ("Freedom") [Oleh TYAHNYBOK]
• Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms or UDAR [Vitaliy KLYCHKO]
• Union [Lev MIRIMSKY]
• United Center [Viktor BALOHA]

Australia Group, BSEC, CBSS (observer), CD, CE, CEI, CICA (observer), CIS (participating member, has not signed the 1993 CIS charter although it participates in meetings), EAEC (observer), EAPC, EBRD, FAO, GCTU, GUAM, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), LAIA (observer), MIGA, MONUSCO, NAM (observer), NSG, OAS (observer), OIF (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, SELEC (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMISS, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

chief of mission:

Ambassador Oleksandr MOTSYK (since 24 June 2010)

chancery:

3350 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20007

telephone:

[1] (202) 349-2920

FAX:

[1] (202) 333-0817

consulate(s) general:

Chicago, New York, San Francisco

chief of mission:

Ambassador Geoffrey R. PYATT (since 30 July 2013)

embassy:

4 Igor Sikorsky Street, 04112 Kyiv

mailing address:

5850 Kyiv Place, Washington, DC 20521-5850

telephone:

[380] (44) 521-5000

FAX:

[380] (44) 521-5155

agriculture:

5.6%

industry:

26%

services:

68.4%

(2012)

lowest 10%:

3.8%

highest 10%:

22.5% (2011 est.)

general assessment:

Ukraine's telecommunication development plan emphasizes improving domestic trunk lines, international connections, and the mobile-cellular system

domestic:

• at independence in December 1991, Ukraine inherited a telephone system that was antiquated, inefficient, and in disrepair;
• more than 3.5 million applications for telephones could not be satisfied;
• telephone density is rising and the domestic trunk system is being improved;
• about one-third of Ukraine's networks are digital and a majority of regional centers now have digital switching stations;
• improvements in local networks and local exchanges continue to lag;
• the mobile-cellular telephone system's expansion has slowed, largely due to saturation of the market which has reached 125 mobile phones per 100 people

international:

• country code - 380;
• 2 new domestic trunk lines are a part of the fiber-optic Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) system and 3 Ukrainian links have been installed in the fiber-optic Trans-European Lines (TEL) project that connects 18 countries;
• additional international service is provided by the Italy-Turkey-Ukraine-Russia (ITUR) fiber-optic submarine cable and by an unknown number of earth stations in the Intelsat, Inmarsat, and Intersputnik satellite systems (2010)

• Ukraine's state-controlled nationwide TV broadcast channel (UT1) and a number of privately owned TV networks provide basic TV coverage;
• multi-channel cable and satellite TV services are available;
• Russian television broadcasts have a small audience nationwide, but larger audiences in the eastern and southern regions;
• Ukraine's radio broadcast market, a mix of independent and state-owned networks, is comprised of some 300 stations (2007)

total:

21,619 km

country comparison to the world: 12

broad gauge:

21,619 km 1.524-m gauge (10,242 km electrified) (2012)

total:

169,694 km

country comparison to the world: 29

paved:

166,095 km (includes 17 km of expressways)

unpaved:

3,599 km (2012)

males age 16-49:

10,984,394

females age 16-49:

11.26 million (2010 est.)

males age 16-49:

6,893,551

females age 16-49:

8,792,504 (2010 est.)

male:

246,397

female:

234,916 (2010 est.)

• 1997 boundary delimitation treaty with Belarus remains unratified due to unresolved financial claims, stalling demarcation and reducing border security;
• delimitation of land boundary with Russia is complete with preparations for demarcation underway;
• the dispute over the boundary between Russia and Ukraine through the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov is suspended due to the occupation of Crimea by Russia;
• Moldova and Ukraine operate joint customs posts to monitor transit of people and commodities through Moldova's break-away Transnistria Region, which remains under the auspices of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe-mandated peacekeeping mission comprised of Moldovan, Transnistrian, Russian, and Ukrainian troops;
• the ICJ ruled largely in favor of Romania in its dispute submitted in 2004 over Ukrainian-administered Zmiyinyy/Serpilor (Snake) Island and Black Sea maritime boundary delimitation;
• Romania opposes Ukraine's reopening of a navigation canal from the Danube border through Ukraine to the Black Sea

IDPs:

10,000 (separatist violence in Crimea and eastern Ukraine) (2014)

stateless persons:

• 35,000 (2012);
• note - citizens of the former USSR who were permanently resident in Ukraine were granted citizenship upon Ukraine's independence in 1991, but some missed this window of opportunity;
• people arriving after 1991, Crimean Tatars, ethnic Koreans, people with expired Soviet passports, and people with no documents have difficulty acquiring Ukrainian citizenship;
• following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, thousands of Crimean Tatars and their descendants deported from Ukraine under the STALIN regime returned to their homeland, some being stateless and others holding the citizenship of Uzbekistan or other former Soviet republics;
• a 1998 bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Uzbekistan simplified the process of renouncing Uzbek citizenship and obtaining Ukrainian citizenship

current situation:

• Ukraine is a source, transit, and, increasingly, destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking;
• Ukrainian victims are sex trafficked within Ukraine as well as in Russia, Poland, Iraq, Spain, Turkey, Cyprus, Seychelles, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Israel, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Montenegro, UK, and Tunisia;
• foreigners from Moldova, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Cameroon, and Azerbaijan are victims of labor trafficking in Ukraine;
• Ukrainian recruiters most often target Ukrainians from rural areas with limited job prospects by using fraud, coercion, and debt bondage

tier rating:

• Tier 2 Watch List - Ukraine does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking;
• however, it is making significant efforts to do so;
• the government reduced its anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts in 2012;
• as a result of the dismantling of the specialized anti-trafficking police unit in 2011, the number of trafficking investigations, prosecutions, and convictions have decreased;
• fewer victims are identified and the national referral mechanism does not function effectively in many regions, resulting in few victims being granted victim status by the government;
• the government did not fund any anti-trafficking protection activities in 2012 and continues to rely on international donors to assist victims (2013)

• limited cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy, mostly for CIS consumption;
• some synthetic drug production for export to the West;
• limited government eradication program;
• used as transshipment point for opiates and other illicit drugs from Africa, Latin America, and Turkey to Europe and Russia;
• Ukraine has improved anti-money-laundering controls, resulting in its removal from the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) Noncooperative Countries and Territories List in February 2004;
• Ukraine's anti-money-laundering regime continues to be monitored by FATF