Portal:Ukraine
The Ukraine Portal - Портал України
Ukraine Україна (Ukrainian) | |
---|---|
ISO 3166 code | UA |
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast. It also borders Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; and Romania and Moldova to the southwest; with a coastline along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast. Kyiv is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Odesa. Ukraine's official language is Ukrainian; Russian is also widely spoken, especially in the east and south.
During the Middle Ages, Ukraine was the site of early Slavic expansion and the area later became a key centre of East Slavic culture under the state of Kievan Rus', which emerged in the 9th century. The state eventually disintegrated into rival regional powers and was ultimately destroyed by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. The area was then contested, divided, and ruled by a variety of external powers for the next 600 years, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia. The Cossack Hetmanate emerged in central Ukraine in the 17th century marked on maps as "Ukraine, land of the Cossacks", but was partitioned between Russia and Poland, and ultimately absorbed by the Russian Empire. Ukrainian nationalism developed and, following the Russian Revolution in 1917, the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic was formed. The Bolsheviks consolidated control over much of the former empire and established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union when it was formed in 1922. In the early 1930s, millions of Ukrainians died in the Holodomor, a human-made famine. The German occupation during World War II in Ukraine was devastating, with 7 million Ukrainian civilians killed, including most Ukrainian Jews.
Ukraine gained independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved, and declared itself neutral. A new constitution was adopted in 1996. A series of mass demonstrations, known as the Euromaidan, led to the establishment of a new government in 2014 after a revolution. Russia then unilaterally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and pro-Russian unrest culminated in a war in the Donbas between Russian-backed separatists and government forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since the outbreak of war with Russia, Ukraine has continued to seek closer ties with the United States, European Union, and NATO.
Ukraine is a unitary state and its system of government is a semi-presidential republic. A developing country, it is the poorest country in Europe by nominal GDP per capita and corruption remains a significant issue. However, due to its extensive fertile land, pre-war Ukraine was one of the largest grain exporters in the world. Nonetheless, Ukraine is a major middle power and possesses the sixth largest and one of the best-funded armed forces in the world. The Ukrainian Armed Forces also operates one of the largest and most diverse drone fleet in the world. It is a founding member of the United Nations, as well as a member of the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization, and the OSCE. It is in the process of joining the European Union and has applied to join NATO. (Full article...)
In the news
- 9 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russia takes the settlement of Yasnobrodivka in Donetsk Oblast. (Barron's)
- 8 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russian strikes against infrastructure
- 8 July 2024 Ukraine missile strikes
- Russia launches a massive missile attack striking residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in cities across Ukraine, including the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv. Thirty-seven people are killed and 170 others are injured as a result of the strikes. (BBC News)
- Poland–Ukraine relations
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk sign a security agreement in Warsaw, Poland, allowing Poland to shoot down Russian missiles inside Ukrainian airspace. (Ukrinform)
- 8 July 2024 – Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- 2024 peace missions by Viktor Orbán, China–Hungary relations
- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán makes an unannounced "peace mission" to Beijing, China, to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping following an unannounced meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. (The Hill)
- 8 July 2024 – India–Russia relations
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Moscow, Russia, for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Al Jazeera)
- 6 July 2024 –
- Fourteen people are killed and another person is critically injured when an oil truck collides with a minibus in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine. (Reuters)
-
Artemy Lukyanovich Vedel (13 April [O.S. 1 April] 1767 – 26 July [O.S. 14 July] 1808), born Artemy Lukyanovich Vedelsky, was a Ukrainian composer of military and liturgical music. He produced works based on Ukrainian folk melodies, and made an important contribution in the music history of Ukraine. Together with Maxim Berezovsky and Dmitry Bortniansky, Vedel is recognised by musicologists as one of the "Golden Three" composers of 18th century Ukrainian classical music, and one of Russia's greatest choral composers.
Vedel was born in Kyiv, the son of a wealthy wood carver. He studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy until 1787, after which he was appointed to conduct the academy's choir and orchestra. In 1788, he was sent to Moscow to work for the regional governor, but he returned home in 1791 and resumed his career at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. General Andrei Levanidov recruited him to lead Kyiv's regimental chapel and choir—under Levanidov's patronage, Vedel reached the peak of his creativity as a composer. He moved with Levanidov to the Kharkov Governorate, where he organised a new choir and orchestra, and taught at the Kharkiv Collegium. (Full article...) -
The Grand Crimean Central Railway was a military railway built in 1855 during the Crimean War by the United Kingdom. Its purpose was to supply ammunition and provisions to Allied soldiers engaged in the Siege of Sevastopol who were stationed on a plateau between Balaklava and Sevastopol. It also carried the world's first hospital train.
The railway was built at cost and without any contract by Peto, Brassey and Betts, a partnership of English railway contractors led by Samuel Morton Peto. Within three weeks of the arrival of the fleet carrying materials and men the railway had started to run and in seven weeks 7 miles (11 km) of track had been completed. The railway was a major factor leading to the success of the siege. After the end of the war the track was sold and removed. (Full article...) -
The deportation of the Crimean Tatars (Crimean Tatar: Qırımtatar halqınıñ sürgünligi, Cyrillic: Къырымтатар халкъынынъ сюргюнлиги) or the Sürgünlik ('exile') was the ethnic cleansing and the cultural genocide of at least 191,044 Crimean Tatars which was carried out by Soviet Union authorities from 18 to 20 May 1944, supervised by Lavrentiy Beria, chief of Soviet state security and the secret police, and ordered by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Within those three days, the NKVD used cattle trains to deport the Crimean Tatars, mostly women, children, and the elderly, even Communist Party members and Red Army members, to the Uzbek SSR, several thousand kilometres away. They constituted one of the several ethnicities which were subjected to Stalin's policy of population transfer in the Soviet Union.
Officially, the Soviet government presented the deportation as a policy of collective punishment, based on its claim that some Crimean Tatars collaborated with Nazi Germany, but several modern scholars believe that the Soviet government carried out the deportation as a part of its plan to gain access to the Dardanelles and acquire territory in Turkey, where the Turkic ethnic kin of the Tatars lived, or remove minorities from the Soviet Union's border regions. This was despite the fact that twice as many Crimean Tatars served in the Red Army, 40,000, than had collaborated with the Axis powers, 20,000. Nearly 8,000 Crimean Tatars died during the deportation, and tens of thousands of other Crimean Tatars subsequently perished due to the harsh living conditions which they were forced to live under during their exile. The deportation of the Crimean Tatars resulted in the abandonment of 80,000 houses and it also resulted in the abandonment of 360,000 acres of land. (Full article...) -
The Taras Shevchenko Memorial is a bronze statue and stone relief-adorned wall located on the 2200 block of P Street NW in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of many monuments in Washington, D.C. that honor foreign heroes who symbolize freedom in their native countries. Sculpted by Leo Mol, the memorial honors Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861), a Ukrainian poet and artist who influenced the development of modern Ukrainian literature.
The committee to build the memorial included former U.S. President Harry S. Truman as the honorary head. Opposition to the memorial's installation was led by The Washington Post. It was dedicated in 1964, the 150th anniversary of Shevchenko's birth. Dignitaries at the dedication ceremony included prominent Ukrainian Americans, former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, members of the U.S. Congress, and Hollywood actors. (Full article...) -
The coat of arms of Sevastopol is a heraldic symbol representing the city of Sevastopol, Crimea. It is featured in the middle of the flag of Sevastopol on a red background.
From 21 July 1893, until the October Revolution in 1917, Sevastopol, under the Russian Empire, used a royal coat of arms, which featured the monograms of Tsars Nicholas I and Alexander II. The royal coat of arms was disposed by the Soviet Union, and the city went without an official coat of arms until 1969. On 12 February 1969, city council approved a new design containing the Gold Star medal and a silhouette of the Monument to the Sunken Ships. (Full article...) -
The Vorontsov Palace (Ukrainian: Воронцовський палац; Russian: Воронцо́вский дворе́ц) or the Alupka Palace is a historic palace situated at the foot of the Crimean Mountains near the town of Alupka in Crimea. The Vorontsov Palace is one of the oldest and largest palaces in Crimea, and is one of the most popular tourist attractions on Crimea's southern coast.
The palace was built between 1828 and 1848 for the Russian Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov for use as his personal summer residence at a cost of 9 million roubles. It was designed in a loose interpretation of the English Renaissance revival style by English architect Edward Blore and his assistant William Hunt. The building is a hybrid of several architectural styles, but faithful to none. Among those styles are elements of Scottish Baronial, Indo-Saracenic Revival Architecture, and Gothic Revival architecture. Blore had designed many buildings in the United Kingdom, and was later particularly well known there for completing the design of Buckingham Palace in London. (Full article...) -
Chervona Ukraina (Ukrainian: "Червона Україна") was an Admiral Nakhimov-class light cruiser of the Soviet Navy assigned to the Black Sea Fleet. During World War II, she supported Soviet forces during the Sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol before being sunk at Sevastopol on 12 November 1941 by German aircraft. She was raised in 1947 and was used as a training hulk before becoming a target ship in 1950. (Full article...) -
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (27 April [O.S. 15 April] 1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who later worked in the Soviet Union. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard pieces as the March from The Love for Three Oranges, the suite Lieutenant Kijé, the ballet Romeo and Juliet—from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken—and Peter and the Wolf. Of the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created—excluding juvenilia—seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, a symphony-concerto for cello and orchestra, and nine completed piano sonatas.
A graduate of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Prokofiev initially made his name as an iconoclastic composer-pianist, achieving notoriety with a series of ferociously dissonant and virtuosic works for his instrument, including his first two piano concertos. In 1915, Prokofiev made a decisive break from the standard composer-pianist category with his orchestral Scythian Suite, compiled from music originally composed for a ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev commissioned three further ballets from Prokofiev—Chout, Le pas d'acier and The Prodigal Son—which, at the time of their original production, all caused a sensation among both critics and colleagues. But Prokofiev's greatest interest was opera, and he composed several works in that genre, including The Gambler and The Fiery Angel. Prokofiev's one operatic success during his lifetime was The Love for Three Oranges, composed for the Chicago Opera and performed over the following decade in Europe and Russia. (Full article...) -
Nikolai Viktorovich Podgorny (18 February [O.S. 5 February] 1903 – 12 January 1983) was a Soviet statesman who served as the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the head of state of the Soviet Union, from 1965 to 1977.
Podgorny was born to a Ukrainian working-class family in the city of Karlovka on 18 February 1903. He later graduated from a local worker's school in 1926 before completing his education at the Kiev Technological Institute of Food Industry in 1931. In 1930, Podgorny became a member of the ruling Communist Party of the Soviet Union and climbed up the Soviet hierarchy after years of service to the country's centrally planned economy. By 1953, Podgorny became Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine in 1953 before later serving as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine from 1957 to 1963. (Full article...) -
Agafya "Halyna" Andriivna Kuzmenko (Ukrainian: Галина Андріївна Кузьменко; 1897–1978) was a Ukrainian teacher and anarchist revolutionary. After moving to southern Ukraine, she became a prominent figure within the ranks of the Makhnovshchina, a mass movement to establish a libertarian communist society. Kuzmenko spearheaded the movement's educational activities, promoted Ukrainization and acted as an outspoken advocate of women's rights. Along with her husband, the anarchist military leader Nestor Makhno, in 1921 she fled into exile from the political repression in Ukraine. While imprisoned for subversive activities in Poland, she gave birth to her daughter Elena Mikhnenko, whom she brought with her to Paris. Following the death of her husband, the outbreak of World War II saw her deportation for forced labour, first by the Nazis and then by the Soviets. After her release, she spent her final days with her daughter in Kazakh SSR. (Full article...) -
The Battle of the Kalka River was fought between the Mongol Empire, whose armies were led by Jebe and Subutai, and a coalition of several Rus' principalities, including Kiev and Galicia-Volhynia, and the Cumans under Köten. They were under the joint command of Mstislav the Bold and Mstislav III of Kiev. The battle was fought on May 31, 1223 on the banks of the Kalka River in present-day Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, and ended in a decisive Mongol victory.
Following the Mongol invasion of Central Asia and the subsequent collapse of the Khwarezmian Empire, a Mongol force under the command of generals Jebe and Subutai advanced into Iraq-i Ajam. Jebe requested permission from the Mongolian emperor, Genghis Khan, to continue his conquests for a few years before returning to the main army via the Caucasus. While waiting for Genghis Khan's reply, the duo set out on a raid in which they attacked the Kingdom of Georgia. Genghis Khan granted the duo permission to undertake their expedition, and after making their way through the Caucasus, they defeated a coalition of Caucasian tribes before defeating the Cumans. The Cuman Khan fled to the court of his son-in-law, Mstislav Mstislavich of Galicia, whom he convinced to help fight the Mongols. Mstislav the Bold formed an alliance of the Rus' princes including Mstislav III of Kiev. (Full article...) -
Nestor Ivanovych Makhno (Ukrainian: Нестор Івaнович Махно, pronounced [ˈnɛstor iˈʋɑnowɪt͡ʃ mɐxˈnɔ]; 7 November 1888 – 25 July 1934), also known as Batko Makhno (батько Махно, lit. 'Father Makhno'), was a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and the commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence. He established the Makhnovshchina (loosely translated as "Makhno movement"), a mass movement by the Ukrainian peasantry to establish anarchist communism in the country between 1918 and 1921. Initially centered around Makhno's home province of Katerynoslav and hometown of Huliaipole, it came to exert a strong influence over large areas of southern Ukraine, specifically in what is now the Zaporizhzhia Oblast of Ukraine.
Raised by a peasant family and coming of age amid the fervor around the 1905 Revolution, Makhno participated in a local anarchist group and spent seven years imprisoned for his involvement. With his release during the 1917 Revolution, Makhno became a local revolutionary leader in his hometown and oversaw the expropriation and redistribution of large estates to the peasantry. In the Ukrainian Civil War, Makhno sided with the Soviet Russian Bolsheviks against the Ukrainian nationalists and White movement, but his alliances with the Bolsheviks did not last. He rallied Bolshevik support to lead an insurgency, defeating the Central Powers's occupation forces at the Battle of Dibrivka and establishing the Makhnovshchina. Makhno's troops briefly integrated with the Bolshevik Red Army in the 1919 Soviet invasion of Ukraine, but split over differences on the movement's autonomy. Makhno rebuilt his army from the remains of Nykyfor Hryhoriv's forces in western Ukraine, routed the White Army at the Battle of Perehonivka, and captured most of southern and eastern Ukraine, where they again attempted to establish anarchist communism. (Full article...) -
The history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1648) covers a period in the history of Poland and Lithuania, before their joint state was subjected to devastating wars in the mid-17th century. The Union of Lublin of 1569 established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a more closely unified federal state, replacing the previously existing personal union of the two countries. The Union was largely run by the Polish and increasingly Polonized Lithuanian and Ruthenian nobility, through the system of the central parliament and local assemblies, but from 1573 led by elected kings. The formal rule of the nobility, which was a much greater proportion of the population than in other European countries, constituted a sophisticated early democratic system, in contrast to the absolute monarchies prevalent at that time in the rest of Europe.[a]
The Polish–Lithuanian Union had become an influential player in Europe and a significant cultural entity. In the second half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th century, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a huge state in central-eastern Europe, with an area approaching one million square kilometers. (Full article...) -
Andriy Shevchenko is a Ukrainian former professional footballer who represented the Ukraine national football team as a striker for 17 years from 1995 to 2012. He is the Ukraine national team's all-time top goalscorer with 48 goals in 111 appearances, and the third most-capped Ukrainian international. He has represented the nation in two international tournaments, the 2006 FIFA World Cup and the 2012 UEFA European Championship, and participated in each of his country's qualifying campaigns during his international career.
He made his debut for his country in a 4–0 loss to Croatia in a UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying match in March 1995. He did not score his first goal until May 1996, however, when he scored in a friendly against Turkey. On 9 October 1999, during a crucial UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying match against Russia in Moscow, Shevchenko scored his seventh international goal to level the game at 1–1, securing Ukraine a place in the qualifying play-offs. In the first leg of the play-off against Slovenia, Shevchenko scored the first goal of the game in a 2–1 loss. However, in the second leg, the two teams drew 1–1, meaning that Ukraine lost 3–2 on aggregate. During the UEFA section of the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Shevchenko scored nine goals in the qualifying group and captained the side to a second-place finish behind Poland, which set them in a play-off tie against Germany where he scored in the second leg of a 5–2 aggregate defeat. During 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification, Ukraine topped their qualifying group, automatically qualifying for the main competition in Germany and their first World Cup in history as an independent nation. In the group stage, he scored one goal against Saudi Arabia in a 4–0 victory and another goal against Tunisia in a 1–0 victory, as Ukraine finished second in the group stage behind Spain. Shevchenko captained the side to a penalty shoot-out victory against Switzerland in the Round of 16, but the team lost to eventual champions Italy in the quarter-finals. He scored his final international goal in the 55th minute of a UEFA Euro 2012 group stage match against Sweden, which ended as a 2–1 victory for Ukraine. He decided to retire from international football after the final match in the group stage against England; it ended with a 1–0 loss for Ukraine. (Full article...) -
Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych (Ukrainian: Микола Дмитрович Леонтович, pronounced [mɪˈkɔlɐ dmɪˈtrɔʋet͡ʃ ɫeɔnˈtɔʋet͡ʃ] ; 13 December [O.S. 1 December] 1877 – 23 January 1921) was a Ukrainian composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist, and teacher. His music was inspired by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko and the Ukrainian National Music School. Leontovych specialised in a cappella choral music, ranging from original compositions to church music to elaborate arrangements of folk music.
Leontovych was born and raised in Monastyrok in the Podolia province of the Russian Empire (now in Vinnytsia Oblast, Western Ukraine). He was educated as a priest in the Kamianets-Podilskyi Theological Seminary. With the independence of the Ukrainian state in the 1917 revolution, he moved to Kyiv, where he worked at the Kyiv Conservatory and the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama. He composed "Shchedryk" in 1904 (premiered in 1916), now known to the English-speaking world as "Carol of the Bells". He was murdered by a Soviet agent in 1921 and is known as a martyr in the Eastern Orthodox Ukrainian Church, where he is also remembered for his liturgy, the first composed in the vernacular, specifically in the modern Ukrainian language. (Full article...)
Featured pictures
-
A map showing caesium-137 contamination in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine (in curies per square kilometer) in 1996, ten years after the Chernobyl disaster struck the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The disaster contaminated 162,160 square kilometres (62,610 sq mi) of land and is widely considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history.
-
Photograph credit: Max AlpertKombat (Russian for 'battalion commander') is a black-and-white photograph by Soviet photographer Max Alpert. It depicts a Soviet military officer, armed with a TT pistol, raising his unit for an attack during World War II. This work is regarded as one of the most iconic Soviet World War II photographs, yet neither the date nor the subject is known with certainty. According to the most widely accepted version, it depicts junior politruk Aleksei Gordeyevich Yeryomenko, minutes before his death on 12 July 1942, in Voroshilovgrad Oblast, now part of Ukraine. The photograph is in the archives of RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency.
-
Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin sitting together at the Yalta Conference, which took place February 4–11, 1945. The so-called "Big Three" met to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of Europe following World War II. Although a number of agreements were reached, Stalin broke his promises regarding Poland, and the Soviet Union annexed the regions of Eastern Europe it controlled, or converted them to satellite states.
-
Photo credit: Peter DuhonUkrainian fashion model Nataliya Gotsiy modeling for Cynthia Rowley, Spring 2007 New York Fashion Week. She was the winner of the Ford Supermodel of the World 2004 search. She has appeared on the cover of French Elle and Italian Marie Claire and modeled for Behnaz Sarafpour, Christian Lacroix, Diane von Furstenberg, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Dries van Noten, Gucci, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino, and Vivienne Westwood, among others.
-
Photograph: AmakuhaThe burning of the Trade Unions Building—used as the headquarters of the Euromaidan movement—during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, following a failed attempt by the Ukrainian police to capture the building. After the fire, the damaged building was covered with large canvas screens on two sides with the words "Glory to Ukraine" printed on them in large letters.
-
Artist: William Simpson; Restoration: NativeForeignerThe 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons and 5th Dragoon Guards engage the Russians in this lithograph of the "Charge of the Heavy Brigade", a short engagement during the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. Russian cavalry had attacked the British camp, but in roughly ten minutes of fighting, they suffered 40 to 50 killed and more than 200 wounded and were forced to retreat.
-
Photograph: Anatoly ShcherbakThe Royal Kurgan is a 4th century BC kurgan (burial barrow) located near present-day Kerch, Crimea. The mound is almost 20 metres high and its base perimeter is about 250 metres. It holds a burial chamber with a square floor plan which gradually merges into the circular shape of a corbelled dome ("false vault"). It is assumed that the Royal Kurgan was the final resting place of a ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom.
-
Map credit: Nicolas de FerA 1691 French map of Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine, depicting the city's old town neighborhood and castle, surrounded by the winding Smotrych River. It was originally part of Kievan Rus' and annexed into the First Polish Republic, but at the time of the map's creation, the city was part of the Ottoman Empire. It shortly returned to Poland and later became part of the Russian Empire with the Second Partition of Poland in 1793.
-
Photograph: George ChernilevskyThe ChS8 is an electric mainline passenger locomotive used in Russia and Ukraine. Built between 1983 and 1989, it was developed for pulling long passenger trains (28–32 carriages) at speeds of 100 kilometres per hour (60 mph) or faster. Since 2010 Russia has switched to more energy-efficient designs, such as the EP10 and EP20.
-
Photo: Noodle snacksMushrooms of Armillaria hinnulea, a species of honey fungus (or "pidpenky", from Ukrainian). Honey fungi are parasitic fungi that live on trees and woody shrubs. As a forest pathogen, it can be very destructive because unlike most parasites, it does not need to moderate its growth in order to avoid killing its host, since it will continue to thrive on the dead material. Honey fungi are long lived and form some of the largest living organisms in the world, including one that covers more than 3.4 sq mi (8.8 km2) and is thousands of years old. The mushrooms are edible, but can be easily confused with poisonous Galerina species, which can grow side-by-side with Armillaria.
-
Painting: UnknownThe Adoration of the Shepherds is a common subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art. The scene, based on the Biblical account in Luke 2, depicts shepherds as near witnesses to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, arriving soon after the actual birth. It is often combined in art with the Adoration of the Magi, in which case it is typically just referred to by the latter title. The example here comes from 17th-century Ukraine and is currently held at the Ivan Honchar Museum.
-
Artist: William Simpson; Lithographer: Edmond Morin; Restoration: NativeForeignerA tinted lithograph, titled "Embarkation of the sick at Balaklava", shows injured and ill soldiers in the Crimean War boarding boats to take them to hospital facilities. Modern nursing had its roots in the war, as war correspondents for newspapers reported the scandalous treatment of wounded soldiers in the first desperate winter, prompting the pioneering work of women such as Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, Frances Margaret Taylor and others.
Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that after the Ukrainian soprano Olga Bezsmertna won the Neue Stimmen competition in 2011, she was engaged at the Vienna State Opera?
- ... that a Ukrainian soldier has written a song dedicated to the Turkish combat drone Bayraktar TB2?
- ... that the Temporary Protection Directive went unused until the Ukrainian refugee crisis?
- ... that Love, a sculpture by Ukrainian artist Alexander Milov, represents two wire-frame adults who appear to be alienated, but inside their bodies two children reach out to each other?
- ... that Serhiy Kot was the editor of Ukrainian Question, a collection of articles on the status of Ukraine in the 1930s?
- ... that following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a diverse group of exiled Russian public figures formed the Anti-War Committee of Russia to unite different political movements to oppose the war?
More did you know -
- ... that the Khreschatyk is the main street of Ukrainian capital Kyiv on which Orange Revolution and other historical events mainly took place?
- ... that according to legend, a tunnel leads from the Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle to the Khotyn Fortress which is 20 kilometres (12 mi) away?
- ... that the Privat Group is one of the few Ukrainian companies that own industries in the United States?
- ... that Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych (pictured), known for the "Carol of the Bells", was nicknamed "Ukrainian Bach" in France?
- ... that the neo-classical Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv features a hundred-tonne glass dome over the chamber where the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine convenes to enact legislation?
- ... that the longest of the Kiev bridges, the 1,543 metres long Paton Bridge over the Dnieper River, constructed in 1953 was the first fully welded steel construction of such length at that time?
Selected article -
The politics of Ukraine take place in a framework of a semi-presidential republic and a multi-party system. A Cabinet of Ministers exercises executive power (jointly with the president until 1996). Legislative power is vested in Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian: Верховна Рада, lit. 'Supreme Council').
As part of the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic until 1991, the political system featured a single-party socialist-republic framework characterized by the superior role of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), the sole-governing party then permitted by the Ukrainian SSR's constitution. In 1996, the current constitution replaced the previous constitution that was introduced in 1978. (Full article...)In the news
- 9 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russia takes the settlement of Yasnobrodivka in Donetsk Oblast. (Barron's)
- 8 July 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russian strikes against infrastructure
- 8 July 2024 Ukraine missile strikes
- Russia launches a massive missile attack striking residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in cities across Ukraine, including the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv. Thirty-seven people are killed and 170 others are injured as a result of the strikes. (BBC News)
- Poland–Ukraine relations
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk sign a security agreement in Warsaw, Poland, allowing Poland to shoot down Russian missiles inside Ukrainian airspace. (Ukrinform)
- 8 July 2024 – Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- 2024 peace missions by Viktor Orbán, China–Hungary relations
- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán makes an unannounced "peace mission" to Beijing, China, to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping following an unannounced meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. (The Hill)
- 8 July 2024 – India–Russia relations
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Moscow, Russia, for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Al Jazeera)
- 6 July 2024 –
- Fourteen people are killed and another person is critically injured when an oil truck collides with a minibus in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine. (Reuters)
Selected anniversaries for July
- July 12, 1916 — Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a Soviet sniper during World War II, was born in Bila Tserkva.
- July 21, 1774 — Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca was signed between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire after the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774.
- July 24, 1990 — The first ceremonial raising of the Ukrainian national flag took place on Khreschatyk, on the large flagstaff of the Kiev City Council.
- July 27, 2002 — An airplane crashed at the Sknyliv airshow; 84 people were killed and over 100 injured.
Photo gallery
-
An 1691 French map of the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi, located in western Ukraine.
-
Trinity Church and Monastery in Chernihiv, Ukraine
-
-
The Swallow's Nest is one of the Neo-Gothic châteaux fantastiques near Yalta; it was built in 1912.
-
The square in front of the theater in Chernivtsi.
-
St Andrew's Church of Kyiv (1749–1854)
-
Zbarazh (Ukrainian: Збараж, Polish: Zbaraż, Yiddish: Zbarj) is a small city in the Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Zbarazh Raion (district), and is located in the historic region of Galicia. The major attraction of the city is the Zbarazh Castle that played a key role during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the heroic defense of which eventually led to change of momentum and extinguishing the Cossack revolt.
-
Streets of Mukacheve in the old part of town
-
A wooden bridge leads to the entrance to the Khomutovska Steppe in Donetsk Oblast.
-
-
Interiour view of the Pochayiv Lavra in Ukraine.
-
A view of Lviv
-
-
Potemkin Stairs in Odesa, Ukraine. The higher perspective allows a person to see both the stairs and landings.
-
View on the lower fortress of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle
-
A view of Lviv Old Town from the High Castle.
-
Related portals
Religions in Ukraine
Post Soviet states
Other countries
Topics
Categories
WikiProjects and collaborations
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus