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;
• warm summers across the greater part of the country, hot in the south

agricultural land:

71.2%;

• arable land 56.1%;
• permanent crops 1.5%;
• permanent pasture 13.6%

forest:

16.8%

other:

12% (2011 est.)

• densest settlement in the eastern (Donbas) and western regions;
• notable concentrations in and around major urban areas of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donets'k, Dnipropetrovs'k, and Odesa

• 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

• densest settlement in the eastern (Donbas) and western regions;
• noteable concentrations in and around major urban areas of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donets'k, Dnipropetrovs'k, and Odesa

at birth:

1.06 male(s)/female

0-14 years:

1.06 male(s)/female

15-24 years:

1.05 male(s)/female

25-54 years:

0.96 male(s)/female

55-64 years:

0.75 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.5 male(s)/female

total population:

0.86 male(s)/female (2016 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

etymology:

• name derives from the Old East Slavic word "ukraina" meaning "borderland or march (militarized border region)" and began to be used extensively in the 19th century;
• originally Ukrainians referred to themselves as Rusyny (Rusyns, Ruthenians, or Ruthenes), an endonym derived from the medieval Rus state (Kyivan Rus)

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

history:

several previous; latest adopted and ratified 28 June 1996

amendments:

• proposed by the president of Ukraine or by at least one-third of the Supreme Council members;
• adoption requires simple majority vote by the Council and at least two-thirds majority vote in its next regular session;
• adoption of proposals relating to general constitutional principles, elections, and amendment procedures requires two-thirds majority vote by the Council and approval in a referendum;
• constitutional articles on personal rights and freedoms, national independence, and territorial integrity cannot be amended;
• amended 2004, 2010, 2015 (2016)

citizenship by birth:

no

citizenship by descent only:

at least one parent must be a citizen of Ukraine

dual citizenship recognized:

no

residency requirement for naturalization:

5 years

description:

unicameral Supreme Council or Verkhovna Rada (450 seats; 225 members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote and 225 directly elected in a single nationwide constituency by proportional representation vote; members serve 5-year terms)

elections:

last held on 26 October 2014 (next to be held fall of 2019)

election results:

• percent of vote by party/coalition - NF 22.1%, BPP 21.8%, Samopomich 11.0%, OB 9.4%, Radical 7.4%, Batkivshchyna 5.7%, Svoboda 4.7%, CPU 3.9%, other 14%;
• seats by party/coalition - BPP 132, NF 82, Samopomich 33, OB 29, Radical 22, Batkivshchyna 19, Svoboda 6, other 4, independent 96, vacant 27;
• note - voting not held in Crimea and parts of two Russian-occupied eastern oblasts leaving 27 seats vacant

note: as of December 2016, seats by party/coalition - BPP 142, NF 81, OB 43, Samopomich 26, Vidrozhennya 24, Radical 21, Batkivshchyna 20, VN 18, independent 48, vacant 27

highest court(s):

• Supreme Court of Ukraine or SCU (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 nonrenewable terms

subordinate courts:

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

• Batkivshchyna ("Fatherland") [Yuliya TYMOSHENKO]
• Bloc of Petro Poroshenko – Solidarnist or BPP [Vitaliy KLYCHKO] (formed from the merger of Solidarnist and UDAR)
• Rukh Novykh Syl ("Movement of New Forces") [Mikheil SAAKASHVILI]
• Narodnyy Front ("People's Front") or NF [Arseniy YATSENIUK]
• Opposition Bloc or OB [Yuriy BOYKO]
• Radical Party [Oleh LYASHKO]
• Samopomich ("Self Reliance") [Andriy SADOVYY]
• Svoboda ("Freedom") [Oleh TYAHNYBOK]
• Ukrainian Association of Patriots or UKROP [Taras BATENKO]
• Vidrozhennya ("Revival") [Vitaliy KHOMUTYNNIK] (parliamentary group)
• Volya Narodu (“People's Will”) or VN [Yaroslav MOSKALENKO] (parliamentary group)

Australia Group, BSEC, CBSS (observer), CD, CE, CEI, CICA (observer), CIS (participating member, has not signed the 1993 CIS charter), 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, UN Security Council (temporary), UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNIDO, UNISFA, UNMIL, UNMISS, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

chief of mission:

Ambassador Valeriy CHALYY (since 3 August 2015)

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 Marie YOVANOVITCH (since 29 August 2016)

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

name:

"Shche ne vmerla Ukraina" (Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished)

lyrics/music:

Paul CHUBYNSKYI/Mikhail VERBYTSKYI

note: music adopted 1991, lyrics adopted 2003; song first performed in 1864 at the Ukraine Theatre in Lviv; the lyrics, originally written in 1862, were revised in 2003

agriculture:

5.8%

industry:

26.5%

services:

67.8%

(2014)

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:

• the country's former sole telephone provider, Ukrtelekom, was successfully privatized 2011 and independent foreign-invested private companies now provide substantial telecommunications services;
• the mobile-cellular telephone system's expansion has slowed, largely due to saturation of the market that is now about 130 mobile phones per 100 persons

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 (2016)

• 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;
• the radio broadcast market, a mix of independent and state-owned networks, is comprised of some 300 stations (2007)

number of registered air carriers:

17; inventory of registered aircraft operated by air carriers: 92

annual passenger traffic on registered air carriers:

4,613,224

annual freight traffic on registered air carriers:

37,721,565 mt-km (2015)

total:

21,733 km

broad gauge:

21,684 km 1.524-m gauge (9,250 km electrified)

standard gauge:

49 km 1.435-m gauge (49 km electrified) (2014)

country comparison to the world: 12

total:

169,694 km

paved:

166,095 km (includes 17 km of expressways)

unpaved:

3,599 km (2012)

country comparison to the world: 31

• 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 and demarcation began in 2012;
• 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;
• Ukraine and Moldova signed an agreement officially delimiting their border in 1999, but the border has not been demarcated due to Moldova's difficulties with the break-away region of Transnistria;
• Moldova and Ukraine operate joint customs posts to monitor transit of people and commodities through Moldova's 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:

1,589,014 (Russian-sponsored separatist violence in Crimea and eastern Ukraine) (2017)

stateless persons:

• 35,363 (2016);
• 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 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, Greece, Seychelles, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Moldova, China, the United Arab Emirates, Montenegro, UK, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, and other countries;
• small numbers of foreigners from Moldova, Russia, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Cameroon, and Azerbaijan were victims of labor trafficking in Ukraine;
• Ukrainian recruiters most often target Ukrainians from rural areas with limited job prospects 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’s focus on its security situation constrained its anti-trafficking capabilities;
• law enforcement efforts to pursue trafficking cases weakened in 2014, continuing a multi-year decline, and no investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials were made, despite reports of official complicity in the sex and labor trafficking of children living in state-run institutions;
• fewer victims were identified and referred to NGOs, which continued to provide and to fund the majority of victims’ services (2015)

• 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