Geographical position of Ukraine

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Geographical position of Ukraine

Ukraine is a sovereign state.Its independence was declared in 1991. Before that it was one of the republics of the USSR. The name Ukraine is of Slavic origin and is connected genetically with the word «Ukraine» which originally meant «borderland». It is really a borderland ofEurope, the gateway to Asia and its desolate steppe region, on the outskirts of the Mediterranean Sea and on the border between the forests and the steppe.

Ukraine is situated in the south-eastern part of Central Europe, and it borders on other EUropean countries: Russia. Byelorus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova and Romania. The territory of our country is about 600.000 square kilometres. It is slightly larger than France, much larger than Great Britain but considerably smaller than the USA and Russia. The population of our country is about 52 million people. If we compare it with Great Britain which has 54 million people, we'll see that the density of population in Ukraine is much less. 680/0 of the population is urban, and 320/0 is rural. Not only Ukrainians live in our country. There are also Russians, Jews, Byelorussians, Moldovans, Rumanians, Greeks, Tatars, Poles, Hungarians, Armenians, Germans, Gypsies and some other ethnic minorities.

The territory of Ukraine is mostly a level treeless plain, called the steppe. Ukraine is not a mountainous country, though there are Crimean Mountains in the Crimean Peninsula and the Carpathian Mountains in the west of the country; both not very high. The Carpathians are the only mountainous natural boundary of Ukraine. Mountains cover only 50/0 of the whole area of Ukraine. They are covered with mixed forests of pine. fir, beech and oak trees. There are many picturesque mountain resorts there and winter sports are very popular. The thickest forests in Ukraine can be found in Volyn; they are part of the famous Byelovezhskaya Puscha. The Crimean Mountains are an all year round tourists' and mountain-climbers' attraction. They are close to the second natural boundary of Ukraine — the Black Sea and the Azov Sea which are famous for their holiday centres and children's summer camps.

The Ukrainian landscape can't be called monotonous, it has some diversity as its plains are broken by highlands — running in a continuous belt from northwest to southwest — as well as by lowlands. The largest highland area is the Dnieper Upland, which lies between the middle reaches of the Dnieper and Southern Buh (Yuzhny Bug), rivers in west-central Ukraine. It is broken by many rivers, valleys, ravines and gorges, some of them more than I ,000 feet deep.

The main river in the country is the Dnieper which is the third longest in Europe. One of the oldest Ukrmman cities, its capital Kyiv is situated on both sides of this wide and powerful river. The Dnieper has many tributaries which unify central Ukraine economically, connecting the Baltic coast countries with the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The mouth of another Ukrainian river, the Danube, provides an outlet for our country's trade to the Balkans, A ustria and Germany. The Danube River connects Ukraine with 7 European countries. Other less important rivers of Ukraine are the Dniester, the Southern Bug, the Desna, the Prypyat, the Severskiy Donets and about 70 thousand small rivers.

The biggest cities of Ukraine are Kyiv, Kharkiv, l.„viv, l)nipropetrovsk, Zaporizhiya, Donetsk, Odesa, Mikolaiv and some others. Main industlial enterprises are concentrated in and around them. They, pro_ duce planes, turbines, different kinds of machines and equipruent, and various consumer goods.