A country of 45 million inhabitants — a population similar to that of the state of São Paulo — Ukraine occupies the center of the global geopolitical chessboard after being invaded by Russia, a neighboring country with which it formed the Soviet Union for decades, until, through a popular referendum, became independent.
Ruled by a comedian with no political experience, outsider Volodymyr Zelensky, the country has an essentially agricultural economy. The history with Russia dates back to the 17th century. In historiography there are still discussions about when the Ukrainian state was actually formed.
Some researchers say that it already existed in the 17th century; others claim that it was born in the 1910s, in the pre-Soviet period. There are still those who argue that one should only talk about a consolidated Ukraine after the end of the Soviet bloc.
The period before the Soviet Union by 5 points
1) The formation of the state of Kiev, the name today given to the capital of Ukraine, began in the 9th century. An important trade route, the place was under the influence of the Orthodox Christian faith. Regional dominance withered over the following centuries, as Kiev was occupied by other kingdoms, including Lithuanian and Polish.
At the time, there was no differentiation between Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians – a factor used by President Vladimir Putin to validate his argument that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
2) As early as the mid-17th century, the relationship with the then Tsardom of Russia —previous to the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union— began to narrow, with an agreement signed for the protection of the territory. Historians still disagree on the matter: some say that the treaty of the time legitimized Russian rule, while others say that there was already Russian recognition of Ukraine’s autonomy there.
3) Still in the 17th century, but already in the final decades, the so-called Treaty of Eternal Peace divided the territory known today as Ukraine. THE most of the west was absorbed by the Russian Empire over the next century, through divisions of the kingdom of Poland.
4) The fall of the russian empire and the consequent establishment of a constitutional monarchy promoted a certain opening to Ukrainian national life. The ban on the Ukrainian language was relaxed, and the introduction of the Duma (an assembly in which, in theory, representatives of local society could speak) allowed Ukrainians to press and speak out about their desire to create a state.
5) In November 1917, the Central Council of the Ukrainian People’s Republic declared independence. Soon, however, a war broke out with Bolshevik Russia, which did not accept the dismemberment of the territory. In a manifesto to the Ukrainian people, Vladimir Lenin said that he could not accept the existence of an independent Ukraine.
UKRAINE IN THE USSR IN 3 POINTS
1) After the war, the Republic of Ukraine entered the orbit of the USSR and was coupled to the block. One of the darkest episodes in Ukrainian history dates back to the Holodomor (“holod”, from famine, and “mor”, from plague or death), when more than 3.3 million Ukrainians died of starvation during the Soviet regime.
2) It was also during the Soviet era that the Chernobyl nuclear accident, in the city of Pripiat, in the still Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It is the worst nuclear accident in history. About 30 people died in the episode, but the consequences of radiation left sequels and killed thousands of people later. The tragedy became the subject of books, series and movies.
3) Leonid Kravchuk, leader of Ukraine, declared the country’s independence in relation to Moscow in 1991, in the midst of the end of the soviet union. A popular referendum was held, and over 90% of participants supported independence. Kravchuk was elected president.
THE POST-INDEPENDENCE IN 5 POINTS
1) In 1994, Leonid Kuchma won the presidential election. In an authoritarian turn, he won another election, in 1999, with suspicions of irregularities. Years later, in 2004, pro-Russia candidate Viktor Yanukovych was declared president, but allegations of voter fraud sparked protests in what became known as the Orange Revolution, leading to a new vote. Former pro-Western prime minister Viktor Yushchenko was elected president.
2) Yushchenko took over in 2005 with promises to take Ukraine out of Moscow’s orbit, moving towards NATO, the western military alliance, and the European Union (EU). Three years later, NATO signaled that it would allow Ukraine to join the alliance.
3) The Ukrainian president distanced himself from the West and revived economic and political ties with Moscow, leading to popular discontent in 2014. Protests turned violent, and dozens died in the streets of the capital Kiev. Parliament decided to remove Yanukovych.
4) In response to the withdrawal of an ally from power, the Russia decided to annex the Crimean peninsula. The period also inflamed the situation in eastern parts of Ukraine, where the population is overwhelmingly Russian and longing for a closer connection with Moscow, as in the Donbass region, where two self-proclaimed republics were recognized by Putin.
5) In 2019, volodymir Zelensky, a comedian who played a well-meaning president in a popular TV series, was elected president. He speaks in favor of the EU and NATO, to which he pleads for support and the possibility of joining the alliance.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COUNTRY
Ethnic groups
The population of Ukraine is multinational in composition. According to data from the 2001 census (the latest available, with a new edition expected in 2023), representatives of more than 130 nationalities and ethnic groups live there. The main ones:
- Ukrainians: 77.8%
- Russians: 17.3% (mostly concentrated in the East)
- Belarusians: 0.6%
Economy
Composition of GDP*
- services: 60%
- industry: 28.6%
- agriculture: 12.2%
- The agribusiness sector remains the most promising in the economy. With 41.5 million hectares of agricultural land, covering 70% of the country and about 25% of the world’s reserves of black soil, agriculture is the largest export industry: in 2020, the agricultural sector generated approximately 9.3% of the GDP.
* 2017 estimates
Other important points**
- Position 74 out of 189 countries in the HDI (Human Development Index) ranking, with a score of 0.779 — the closer to 1, the better; Brazil is 84th;
- Freedom Index 60, on a scale that goes up to 100 as measured by Freedom House and takes into account political, civil and press freedoms; Brazil has a score of 74;
- 97th in the 2021 Reporters Without Borders press freedom ranking; Brazil is 111.
** If only the rebellious regions of Lugansk and Donetsk, under Russian rule, are considered, all these indices receive considerably lower scores.
Sources: World Bank, Enciclopédia Britannica, UNDP, Brazilian Embassy in Ukraine, Angelo Segrillo (professor of contemporary history at USP), Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House and World Factbook
