According to ehealthfacts, Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe with an estimated 45,593,300 (2012) residents. The border countries are Russia, Poland, Belarus, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova. To the south, it is adjacent to the Black Sea, where the Crimean peninsula is located. In terms of area, Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe after Russia. The capital is Kiev with 2.6 million. residents. Until 1991, Ukraine was a state in the Soviet Union.
Following the secession of the Soviet Union in 1991, the policy in Ukraine continues to be dominated by extensive state and bureaucratic control. The country is plagued by widespread corruption, something the state has so far been unable to control.
TIMELINE:
1853-56 – Crimean Wars. The war was a conflict between Russia on the one hand and an alliance of Britain, France and the then Turkish Ottoman Empire on the other. Most of the fighting took place on the Crimean peninsula. The conflict is today known to the English nurse Florence Nightingale, whose efforts helped to create modern nursing in wartime.
1944 – During World War II, fierce battles for Crimean rule take place. Russian leader Joseph Stalin deported the entire Tartar population of the peninsula as punishment for their alleged collaboration with the Nazis.
1945 – February 4. The victors of World War II, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, meet at a conference in Yalta and agree on the division of Germany into occupation zones as well as the future borders of Poland.
1954 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transfers Crimea to Ukraine, which is also part of the Soviet Union.
1986 – April 25. At the Soviet Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, an explosion occurs with subsequent meltdown of the reactor. Only when scientists in Sweden and Norway discover the increased radioactivity in the air does the eerie truth come to light for the rest of the world. An area four times as large as Denmark is polluted.
1991 – The Soviet Union disintegrates and Crimea continues to belong to Ukraine despite the desire of several residents to belong to Russia.
2004 – The Orange Revolution occurs in Ukraine in the wake of reports of fraud during the presidential election, which was won by pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych. The Supreme Court annulled the election result and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko wins the re-election.
2010 – Viktor Yanukovych wins the presidential election, which observers consider fair. Rival Yulia Tymoshenko is arrested for negligence.
2013 – The presidential election in 2010, however, did not lead to a clarification of the country’s internal tensions, which flared up again in connection with extensive unrest in the capital Kiev in November.
2014 – In January, several people are injured as some 200,000 protesters defy anti-protest laws imposed by Yanukovych.
During the days 18.-21. February there were extensive street fights in Kiev, in which at least 75 people died.
The 22-23. February deputies of Yanukovych fleeing Kiev. Parliament elects Oleksandr Turtjynov as interim president.
The 26-27. February, Russia puts armed forces in the area near Ukraine on alert as the Russians doubt the legitimacy of the new leaders.
Government buildings in Simferopol are taken over and the Russian flag is raised.
On 14 March, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen reiterated that the secession vote was illegal. The same is true of the transitional government in Kiev, the EU countries and the United States. The next day, Russia vetoes an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over a resolution that would overthrow the referendum.
