Editing Ukraine (section)

== History ==
{{main|History of Ukraine}}

=== Early history ===
[[File:Indo-European migrations.jpg|thumb|300px|Early [[Indo-European migrations]] from the [[Pontic steppes]] of present-day Ukraine and Russia<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/nomadic-herders-left-strong-genetic-mark-europeans-and-asians |first=Ann |last=Gibbons |date=10 June 2015 |title=Nomadic herders left a strong genetic mark on Europeans and Asians |journal=Science |publisher=AAAS}}
</ref>|left]]

Evidence for the earliest securely-dated hominin presence in Europe comes from 1.4 million-year-old stone tools from [[Korolevo]], in western Ukraine.<ref name=Garba2024>{{cite journal |author=R. Garba, V. Usyk, L. Ylä-Mella, J. Kameník, K. Stübner, J. Lachner, G. Rugel, F. Veselovský, N. Gerasimenko, A. I. R. Herries, J. Kučera, M. F. Knudsen, J. D. Jansen |date=March 6, 2024 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378769849 |title=East-to-west human dispersal into Europe 1.4 million years ago |journal=Nature |volume=627 |issue=8005 |pages=805–810 |language=en |doi=10.1038/s41586-024-07151-3 |pmid=38448591 |bibcode=2024Natur.627..805G |s2cid=268262450 |issn=0028-0836}}</ref> Settlement by [[modern humans]] in Ukraine and its vicinity dates back to 32,000 BC, with evidence of the [[Gravettian culture]] in the [[Crimean Mountains]].<ref name=orig>{{cite journal |title=The Oldest Anatomically Modern Humans from Far Southeast Europe: Direct Dating, Culture and Behavior |first1=Sandrine |last1=Prat |first2=Stéphane C. |last2=Péan |first3=Laurent |last3=Crépin |first4=Dorothée G. |last4=Drucker |first5=Simon J. |last5=Puaud |first6=Hélène |last6=Valladas |first7=Martina |last7=Lázničková-Galetová |first8=Johannes van der |last8=Plicht |first9=Alexander |last9=Yanevich |journal=[[PLOS ONE]] |date=17 June 2011 |volume=6 |issue=6 |pages=e20834 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0020834 |pmid=21698105 |pmc=3117838 |bibcode=2011PLoSO...620834P |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=bbc>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13846262 |title=Early human fossils unearthed in Ukraine |author=Jennifer Carpenter |date=20 June 2011 |publisher=BBC |access-date=21 June 2011}}</ref> By 4,500 BC, the [[Neolithic]] [[Cucuteni–Trypillia culture]] was flourishing in wide areas of modern Ukraine, including [[Trypillia]] and the entire [[Dnieper]]-[[Dniester]] region. Ukraine is a probable location for the first [[domestication of the horse]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Thorsberg |first=Christian |title=When Did Humans Domesticate Horses? Scientists Find Modern Lineage Has Origins 4,200 Years Ago |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/when-did-humans-domesticate-horses-scientists-find-modern-lineage-has-origins-4200-years-ago-180984483/ |access-date=2025-01-06 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> The [[Kurgan hypothesis]] places the Volga-Dnieper region of Ukraine and southern Russia as the [[linguistic homeland]] of the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Balter |first1=Michael |title=Mysterious Indo-European homeland may have been in the steppes of Ukraine and Russia |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |date=13 February 2015 |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/mysterious-indo-european-homeland-may-have-been-steppes-ukraine-and-russia}}</ref> Early [[Indo-European migrations]] from the Pontic steppes in the 3rd millennium BC spread [[Yamnaya culture|Yamnaya]] [[Western Steppe Herders|Steppe pastoralist]] ancestry and [[Indo-European languages]] across large parts of Europe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Haak |first1=Wolfgang |last2=Lazaridis |first2=Iosif |last3=Patterson |first3=Nick |last4=Rohland |first4=Nadin |last5=Mallick |first5=Swapan |last6=Llamas |first6=Bastien |last7=Brandt |first7=Guido |last8=Nordenfelt |first8=Susanne |last9=Harney |first9=Eadaoin |last10=Stewardson |first10=Kristin |last11=Fu |first11=Qiaomei |date=2015-06-11 |title=Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=522 |issue=7555 |pages=207–211 |doi=10.1038/nature14317 |issn=0028-0836 |pmc=5048219 |pmid=25731166 |bibcode=2015Natur.522..207H |arxiv=1502.02783}}</ref> During the [[Iron Age]], the land was inhabited by [[Eastern Iranian languages|Iranian]]-speaking [[Cimmerians]], [[Scythians]], and [[Sarmatians]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scythian |title=Scythian |access-date=21 October 2015 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]}}</ref> Between 700&nbsp;BC and 200&nbsp;BC it was part of the [[Scythia]]n kingdom.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://global.britannica.com/topic/Scythian |title=Scythian: Ancient People |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327013119/https://global.britannica.com/topic/Scythian |encyclopedia=Online Britannica |date=20 July 1998 |access-date=26 October 2017 |archive-date=27 March 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

From the 6th&nbsp;century BC, [[Ancient Greece|Greek]], [[Ancient Rome|Roman]], and [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] colonies were established on the north-eastern shore of the [[Black Sea]], such as at [[Tyras]], [[Olbia, Ukraine|Olbia]], and [[Chersonesus]]. These thrived into the 6th&nbsp;century AD. The [[Goths]] stayed in the area, but came under the sway of the [[Huns]] from the 370s. In the 7th&nbsp;century, the territory that is now eastern Ukraine was the centre of [[Old Great Bulgaria]]. At the end of the century, the majority of Bulgar tribes migrated in different directions, and the [[Khazars]] took over much of the land.<ref>{{cite web |title=Khazar &#124; Origin, History, Religion, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Khazar |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=12 May 2023}}</ref>

In the 5th and 6th centuries, the [[Antes (people)|Antes]], which some relate as an [[early Slavs|early Slavic]] people, lived in Ukraine. Migrations from the territories of present-day Ukraine throughout the [[Balkans]] established many [[South Slavs|South Slavic]] nations. Northern migrations, reaching almost to [[Lake Ilmen]], led to the emergence of the [[Ilmen Slavs]] and [[Krivichs]]. Following an [[Pannonian Avars|Avar]] raid in 602 and the collapse of the Antes Union, most of these peoples survived as separate tribes until the beginning of the second millennium.<ref>{{cite book |last=Magocsi |first=Paul Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t124cP06gg0C&q=antes+avar&pg=PA42 |title=A History of Ukraine |date=16 July 1996 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |isbn=9780802078209 |pages=39–42 |quote=Whether the Antes created a state structure or existed simply as tribal groupings, their influence was broken after the arrival of the Avars during the second half of the sixth century. With the Avar presence, the Antes disappeared; they are last mentioned in historical sources at the beginning of the seventh century (602). |access-date=16 July 2018 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

=== Golden Age of Kyiv ===
<!-- 800–1349 -->
{{Main|Kievan Rus'|Principality of Kiev|Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia}}
[[File:Principalities of Kievan Rus' (1054-1132).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The furthest extent of [[Kievan Rus']], 1054–1132]]

The establishment of the state of [[Kievan Rus']] remains obscure and uncertain.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Belyaev |first=A. |date=13 September 2012 |title=Русь и варяги. Евразийский исторический взгляд |url=https://www.gumilev-center.ru/rus-i-varyagi-evrazijjskijj-istoricheskijj-vzglyad/ |access-date=11 March 2023 |website=Центр Льва Гумилёва |language=ru-RU}}</ref> The state included much of present-day Ukraine, Belarus and the western part of [[European Russia]].<ref name="Columbia">{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=The Columbia Encyclopedia |edition=6 |date=2001–2007 |article=Kievan Rus |url=http://www.bartleby.com/65/ki/KievanRu.html |access-date=8 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000819153626/http://www.bartleby.com/65/ki/KievanRu.html |archive-date=19 August 2000}}</ref> According to the ''[[Primary Chronicle]]'', the [[Rus' people]] initially consisted of [[Varangian]]s from [[Scandinavia]].<ref>''A Geography of Russia and Its Neighbors'' {{ISBN|978-1-606-23920-9}} p. 69</ref> In 882, the pagan [[Oleg of Novgorod|Prince Oleg]] (Oleh) conquered [[Kyiv]]<!--See [[Talk:Kiev/naming]] re Kiev/Kyiv. --> from [[Askold and Dir]] and proclaimed it as the new capital of the Rus'.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kubicek |first=Paul |date=2008 |title=The History of Ukraine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IpJxDwAAQBAJ&dq=kievan+rus+dir+882&pg=PA21 |location=Westport |publisher=Greenwood Press |pages=20–22 |isbn=9780313349201}}</ref> [[Anti-Normanism|Anti-Normanist]] historians however argue that the East Slavic tribes along the southern parts of the [[Dnieper River]] were already in the process of forming a state independently.<ref name="martin">{{Cite book |last=Martin |first=Janet |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JyN0hlKcfTcC&pg=PA37 |title=A Companion to Russian History |date=6 April 2009 |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=978-1-4443-0842-6 |editor-last=Gleason |editor-first=Abbott |pages=37–40 |language=en}}</ref> The Varangian elite, including the ruling [[Rurik dynasty]], later assimilated into the Slavic population.<ref name="Columbia"/> Kievan Rus' was composed of several [[principality|principalities]] ruled by the interrelated Rurikid ''[[knyaz|kniazes]]'' ("princes"), who often fought each other for possession of Kyiv.<ref>''The Dynasty of Chernigov, 1146–1246'' {{ISBN|978-0-521-82442-2}} pp. 117–118</ref>

During the 10th and 11th&nbsp;centuries, Kievan Rus' became the largest and most powerful state in Europe, a period known as its Golden Age.<ref name="cia">{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/ukraine/ |title=Ukraine |access-date=24 December 2007 |date=13 December 2007 |website=[[CIA World Factbook]]}}</ref> It began with the reign of [[Vladimir the Great]] (980–1015), who [[Christianization of Kievan Rus'|introduced Christianity]]. During the reign of his son, [[Yaroslav the Wise]] (1019–1054), Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural development and military power.<ref name="Columbia"/> The state soon fragmented as the relative importance of regional powers rose again. After a final resurgence under the rule of [[Vladimir II Monomakh]] (1113–1125) and his son [[Mstislav I of Kiev|Mstislav]] (1125–1132), Kievan Rus' finally disintegrated into separate principalities following Mstislav's death, though ownership of Kyiv would still carry great prestige for decades.<ref>''Power Politics in Kievan Rus': Vladimir Monomakh and His Dynasty, 1054–1246'' {{ISBN|0-888-44202-5}} pp. 195–196</ref> In the 11th and 12th centuries, the nomadic confederacy of the [[Turkic languages|Turkic]]-speaking [[Cumans]] and [[Kipchaks]] was the dominant force in the [[Pontic steppe]] north of the Black Sea.<ref>Carter V. Findley, ''The Turks in World History'' (Oxford University Press, October 2004) {{ISBN|0-19-517726-6}}</ref>

The [[Mongol invasion of Rus'|Mongol invasions]] in the mid-13th century devastated Kievan Rus'; following the [[Siege of Kyiv (1240)|Siege of Kyiv in 1240]], the city was destroyed by the Mongols.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/RussianHeritage/4.PEAS/4.L/12.III.5.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110427075859/https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/RussianHeritage/4.PEAS/4.L/12.III.5.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 April 2011 |title=The Destruction of Kiev |access-date=3 January 2008 |website=University of Toronto's Research Repository}}</ref> In the western territories, the principalities of [[Principality of Halych|Halych]] and [[Principality of Volhynia|Volhynia]] had arisen earlier, and were merged to form the [[Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia|Principality of Galicia–Volhynia]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?AddButton=pages%5CR%5CO%5CRomanMstyslavych.htm |title=Roman Mstyslavych |website=encyclopediaofukraine.com}}</ref> [[Daniel of Galicia]], son of [[Roman the Great]], re-united much of south-western Rus', including [[Volhynia]], [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]], as well as Kyiv. He was subsequently crowned by a [[Pope|papal]] envoy as the first [[King of Ruthenia|king of Galicia–Volhynia]] (also known as the Kingdom of [[Ruthenia]]) in 1253.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ougrin |first1=Dennis |last2=Ougrin |first2=Anastasia |date=2020 |title=One Hundred Years in Galicia: Events That Shaped Ukraine and Eastern Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sGgDEAAAQBAJ&dq=1253+daniel+ruthenia&pg=PR11 |location=Newcastle upon Tyne |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |page=11 |isbn=9781527558816}}</ref>

=== Foreign domination ===
<!-- 1349–1914 -->
{{further|Kiev Voivodeship}}
{{See also|Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Crimean Khanate|Ottoman Empire|Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Russian Empire}}
[[File:Rzeczpospolita2nar.png|thumb|The [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] at its maximum extent in 1619, superimposed on modern borders. [[Poland]] and the [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Polish Crown]] exercised power over much of Ukraine after [[Union of Lublin|1569]].
<br />
{{legend inline|#f59497|[[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland]]}}<br />
{{legend inline|#f693c8|[[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]]}}<br />
{{legend inline|#787878|[[Duchy of Livonia]]}}<br />
{{legend inline|#c8c8c8|[[Duchy of Prussia]], Polish [[fief]]}}<br />
{{legend inline|#9661c7|[[Duchy of Courland and Semigallia]], Commonwealth fief}}
]]

In 1349, in the aftermath of the [[Galicia–Volhynia Wars]], the region was partitioned between the [[Kingdom of Poland]] and the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]].<ref name="rowell266">{{cite book |title=Lithuania Ascending: A Pagan Empire Within East-Central Europe, 1295–1345 |first=C. S. |last=Rowell |year=1994 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |series=Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series |isbn=9780521450119}}</ref> From the mid-13th century to the late 1400s, the [[Republic of Genoa]] founded numerous [[colonies]] on the northern coast of the Black Sea and transformed these into large commercial centres headed by the consul, a representative of the Republic.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 February 2018 |script-title=ru:Генуэзские колонии в Одесской области – Бизнес-портал Измаила |title=Genuezskiye kolonii v Odesskoy oblasti – Biznes-portal Izmaila |trans-title=Genoese colonies in the Odesa region – Izmail's business portal |language=ru |url=http://izm-biz.info/genuezskie-kolonii-v-odesskoj-oblasti/ |access-date=17 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205001115/http://izm-biz.info/genuezskie-kolonii-v-odesskoj-oblasti/ |archive-date=5 February 2018}}</ref> In 1430, the region of [[Podolia]] was incorporated into Poland, and the lands of modern-day Ukraine became increasingly settled by [[Polish people|Poles]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Plokhy |first=Serhii |date=2017 |title=The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pm-QDQAAQBAJ&dq=podolia+1430&pg=PT87 |location=New York |publisher=[[Basic Books]] |isbn=9780465050918}}</ref> In 1441, [[Genghisid]] prince [[Haci I Giray]] founded the [[Crimean Khanate]] on the [[Crimean Peninsula]] and the surrounding steppes;<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://radiolemberg.com/ua-articles/ua-allarticles/a-history-of-ukraine-episode-33-the-crimean-khanate-and-its-permanent-invasions-of-ukraine |title=A History of Ukraine. Episode 33. The Crimean Khanate and Its Permanent Invasions of Ukraine |author=Radio Lemberg |website=radiolemberg.com |access-date=26 September 2019 |archive-date=12 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512145419/http://radiolemberg.com/ua-articles/ua-allarticles/a-history-of-ukraine-episode-33-the-crimean-khanate-and-its-permanent-invasions-of-ukraine |url-status=dead}}</ref> the Khanate orchestrated [[Tatars|Tatar]] [[Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe|slave raids]]. Over the next three centuries, the [[Crimean slave trade]] would enslave an estimated two million in the region.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kizilov |first=Mikhail |date=2007 |title=Slaves, Money Lenders, and Prisoner Guards: The Jews and the Trade in Slaves and Captives in the Crimean Khanate |url=https://www.academia.edu/3706285 |journal=Journal of Jewish Studies |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=189–210 |doi=10.18647/2730/JJS-2007 |issn=0022-2097}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=İnalcik |first=Halil |title=The Mutual Effects of the Islamic and Judeo-Christian Worlds: The East European Pattern |publisher=Brooklyn College Press |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-93088800-8 |editor1-last=Ascher |editor1-first=Abraham |location=New York, NY |pages=25–43 |contribution=Servile Labour in the Ottoman Empire |author-link=Halil İnalcık |editor2-last=Király |editor2-first=Béla K. |editor3-last=Halasi-Kun |editor3-first=Tibor |contribution-url=http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst373/readings/inalcik6.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170504102244/http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst373/readings/inalcik6.html |archive-date=4 May 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1569, the [[Union of Lublin]] established the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]], and most of the Ukrainian lands were transferred from Lithuania to the [[Crown of the Kingdom of Poland]], becoming ''[[de jure]]'' Polish territory. Under the pressures of [[Polonisation]], many landed gentry of Ruthenia converted to [[Roman Catholicism|Catholicism]] and joined the circles of the [[Polish nobility]]; others joined the newly created [[Ruthenian Uniate Church]].<ref>Subtelny, pp. 92–93</ref>

=== Cossack Hetmanate ===
{{main|Cossack Hetmanate|Zaporozhian Sich}}
Deprived of native protectors among the Ruthenian nobility, the peasants and townspeople began turning for protection to the emerging [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]]. In the mid-17th&nbsp;century, a Cossack military quasi-state, the [[Zaporozhian Host]], was formed by [[Dnieper Cossacks]] and Ruthenian peasants.<ref name="zaporizhia">{{cite web |author=Krupnytsky B. and Zhukovsky A. |title=Zaporizhia, The |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkPath=pages\Z\A\ZaporizhiaThe.htm |access-date=16 December 2007 |website=[[Encyclopedia of Ukraine]]}}</ref> Poland exercised little real control over this population, but found the Cossacks to be useful against the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]] and Tatars,<ref name="britcos">{{cite web |title=Ukraine – The Cossacks |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/History#toc30066 |access-date=21 October 2015 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]}}</ref> and at times the two were allies in [[Ottoman wars in Europe|military campaigns]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Matsuki |first=Eizo |year=2009 |title=The Crimean Tatars and their Russian-Captive Slaves |url=http://www2.econ.hit-u.ac.jp/~areastd/mediterranean/mw/pdf/18/10.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605131551/http://www.econ.hit-u.ac.jp/~areastd/mediterranean/mw/pdf/18/10.pdf |archive-date=5 June 2013 |website=econ.hit-u.ac.jp |publisher=[[Hitotsubashi University]] (Mediterranean Studies Group)}}</ref> However, the continued harsh [[serf|enserfment]] of Ruthenian peasantry by Polish [[szlachta]] (many of whom were Polonised [[Ruthenian nobility|Ruthenian nobles]]) and the suppression of the Orthodox Church alienated the Cossacks.<ref name="britcos"/> The latter did not shy from taking up arms against those they perceived as enemies and occupiers, including the Catholic Church with its local representatives.<ref>{{cite web |title=Poland |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-28237 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011213405/http://britannica.com/eb/article-28237 |archive-date=11 October 2007 |access-date=12 September 2007 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] (fee required)}}</ref>

[[File:Hondius Bohdan Khmelnytsky.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks|Hetman]] [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]] established an independent [[Cossack Hetmanate|Cossack state]] after the [[Khmelnytsky Uprising|1648 uprising]] against Poland]]
In 1648, [[Bohdan Khmelnytsky]] led the [[Khmelnytsky Uprising|largest of the Cossack uprisings]] against the Commonwealth and the [[List of Polish monarchs|Polish king]], which enjoyed wide support from the local population.<ref>Subtelny, pp. 123–124</ref> Khmelnytsky founded the [[Cossack Hetmanate]], which existed until 1764 (some sources claim until 1782).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first1=Lev |last1=Okinshevych |author2=Arkadii Zhukovsky |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CH%5CE%5CHetmanstate.htm |title=Hetman state |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Ukraine]] |date=1989 |volume=2}}</ref> After Khmelnytsky suffered a crushing defeat at the [[Battle of Berestechko]] in 1651, he turned to the [[List of Russian monarchs|Russian tsar]] for help. In 1654, Khmelnytsky was subject to the [[Pereiaslav Agreement]], forming a military and political alliance with Russia that acknowledged loyalty to the Russian monarch.

After his death, the Hetmanate went through a devastating 30-year war amongst Russia, Poland, the Crimean Khanate, the Ottoman Empire, and [[Cossacks]], known as "[[The Ruin (Ukrainian history)|The Ruin]]" (1657–1686), for control of the Cossack Hetmanate. The [[Treaty of Perpetual Peace (1686)|Treaty of Perpetual Peace]] between Russia and Poland in 1686 divided the lands of the Cossack Hetmanate between them, reducing the portion over which Poland had claimed sovereignty to Ukraine west of the Dnieper river. In 1686, the [[Metropolitanate of Kyiv]] was [[Annexation of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv by the Moscow Patriarchate|annexed by the Moscow Patriarchate]] through a synodal letter of the [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople]] [[Dionysius IV of Constantinople|Dionysius IV]], thus placing the [[Metropolitanate of Kyiv#Orthodox Church of Ukraine|Metropolitanate of Kyiv]] under the authority of [[Moscow]]. An attempt to reverse the decline was undertaken by Cossack Hetman [[Ivan Mazepa]] (1639–1709), who ultimately defected to the [[Sweden|Swedes]] in the [[Great Northern War]] (1700–1721) in a bid to get rid of Russian dependence,<ref name="Magocsi">{{cite book |last=Magocsi |first=Paul Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z0mKRsElYNkC&dq=mazepa+poltava&pg=PA262 |title=A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples, Second Edition |date=2010 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |isbn=9781442640856 |location=Toronto |pages=255–263}}</ref> but Hetmanate's capital city [[Baturyn]] was [[Sack of Baturyn|sacked]] (1708) and they were crushed in the [[Battle of Poltava]] (1709).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bondar |first1=Andriy |title=Baturyn, a Small Town With a Grand History |url=https://www.kyivpost.com/post/20093 |website=[[Kyiv Post]] |date=7 August 2023}}</ref><ref name="Magocsi"/>

The Hetmanate's autonomy was severely restricted since Poltava. In the years 1764–1781, [[Catherine the Great]] incorporated much of [[Central Ukraine]] into the [[Russian Empire]], abolishing the Cossack Hetmanate and the [[Zaporozhian Sich]], and was one of the people responsible for the suppression of the last major Cossack uprising, the [[Koliivshchyna]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hardaway |first=Ashley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gOSwvfCKYVkC&dq=massacre+uman+1768&pg=PA98 |title=Ukraine |date=2011 |publisher=Other Places Publishing |isbn=9781935850045 |location=US |page=98}}</ref> After the [[annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire|annexation of Crimea by Russia]] in 1783, the newly acquired lands, now called [[Novorossiya]], were opened up to settlement by Russians.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Makuch |first1=Andrij |last2=Zasenko |first2=Oleksa Eliseyovich |last3=Yerofeyev |first3=Ivan Alekseyevich |last4=Hajda |first4=Lubomyr A. |last5=Stebelsky |first5=Ihor |last6=Kryzhanivsky |first6=Stepan Andriyovich |date=13 December 2023 |title=Ukraine under direct imperial Russian rule |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/Ukraine-under-direct-imperial-Russian-rule |access-date=11 December 2023 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] Online}}</ref> The [[tsarist autocracy]] established a policy of [[Russification]], suppressing the use of the [[Ukrainian language]] and curtailing the Ukrainian national identity.<ref name="censor">{{cite journal |last=Remy |first=Johannes |title=The Valuev Circular and Censorship of Ukrainian Publications in the Russian Empire (1863–1876): Intention and Practice |journal=Canadian Slavonic Papers |date=March–June 2007 |volume=47 |issue=1/2 |pages=87–110 |doi=10.1080/00085006.2007.11092432 |jstor=40871165 |s2cid=128680044}}</ref> The western part of present-day Ukraine was subsequently split between Russia and [[Habsburg]]-ruled [[Austrian Empire|Austria]] after the [[Partitions of Poland|fall]] of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795.

=== 19th and early 20th century ===
{{Main|Southwestern Krai|Kharkov Governorate|Chernigov Governorate|Ukrainian People's Republic|Ukrainian State|Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic}}
{{Further|Ukrainian national revival|Ukraine during World War I|Ukraine after the Russian Revolution|Ukrainian War of Independence|Ukrainian–Soviet War}}
[[File:Polish troops in Kiev.jpg|thumb|right|[[Kiev offensive (1920)|Polish troops enter Kyiv]] in May 1920 during the [[Polish–Soviet War]]. Following the [[Peace of Riga]] signed on 18 March 1921, Poland took control of modern-day western Ukraine while Soviets took control of eastern and central Ukraine]]

The 19th century saw the rise of Ukrainian nationalism. With growing urbanisation and modernisation and a cultural trend toward [[romantic nationalism]], a Ukrainian [[intelligentsia]] committed to national rebirth and social justice emerged. The serf-turned-national-poet [[Taras Shevchenko]] (1814–1861) and political theorist [[Mykhailo Drahomanov]] (1841–1895) led the growing nationalist movement.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The First Ukrainian Political Program: Mykhailo Drahomanov's ''Introduction'' to Hromadaurl |url=http://www.ditext.com/rudnytsky/history/first.html |access-date=26 March 2021 |website=ditext.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Shevchenko, Taras |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CS%5CH%5CShevchenkoTaras.htm |access-date=1 November 2017 |website=encyclopediaofukraine.com}}</ref> While conditions for its development in Austrian [[Galicia (eastern Europe)|Galicia]] under the [[Habsburgs]] were relatively lenient,<ref>{{cite book |last=Magocsi |first=Paul Robert |title=The Roots of Ukrainian Nationalism: Galicia as Ukraine's Piedmont |date=16 July 2018 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |isbn=9781442682252 |doi=10.3138/9781442682252 |s2cid=128063569}}</ref> the Russian part (historically known as "[[Little Russia]]" or "South Russia")<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kravčenko |first=Volodymyr Vasylʹovyč |title=The Ukrainian-Russian borderland: history versus geography |date=2022 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=978-0-2280-1199-6 |location=Montreal & Kingston London Chicago |pages=26–35}}</ref> faced severe restrictions, going as far as [[Ems Ukaz|banning virtually all books from being published in Ukrainian]] in 1876.

Ukraine, like the rest of the Russian Empire, joined the [[Industrial Revolution]] [[Industrialization in the Russian Empire|later]] than most of Western Europe<ref>{{Cite web |title=Industrial Revolution {{!}} Key Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/summary/Industrial-Revolution-Key-Facts |access-date=2022-07-30 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=December 2022}} due to the maintenance of [[Serfdom in Russia|serfdom]] until 1861.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} Other than near the newly discovered coal fields of the [[Donbas]], and in some larger cities such as [[Odesa]] and Kyiv, Ukraine largely remained an agricultural and resource extraction economy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=On the industrial history of Ukraine |url=https://www.erih.net/how-it-started/industrial-history-of-european-countries/ukraine |access-date=2022-07-30 |website=European Route of Industrial Heritage}}</ref> The Austrian part of Ukraine [[Poverty in Austrian Galicia|was particularly destitute]], which forced hundreds of thousands of peasants into emigration, who created the backbone of an extensive [[Ukrainian diaspora]] in countries such as [[Ukrainian Canadians|Canada]], the [[Ukrainian Americans|United States]] and [[Ukrainian Brazilians|Brazil]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Satzewich |first=Vic |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/252946784 |title=The Ukrainian diaspora |date=2002 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0-415-29658-7 |location=London |oclc=252946784 |pages=26–48}}</ref> Some of the Ukrainians settled in the Far East, too. According to the [[1897 census]], there were 223,000 ethnic Ukrainians in [[Siberia]] and 102,000 in [[Central Asia]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=Rainer |last1=Münz |first2=Rainer |last2=Ohliger |date=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xGV6gb0w914C |title=Diasporas and Ethnic Migrants: German, Israel, and Post-Soviet Successor States in Comparative Perspective |publisher=[[Routledge]] |page=164 |isbn=0-7146-5232-6 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> An additional 1.6 million emigrated to the east in the ten years after the opening of the [[Trans-Siberian Railway]] in 1906.<ref>{{cite book |last=Subtelny |first=Orest |author-link=Orest Subtelny |date=2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HNIs9O3EmtQC |title=Ukraine: a history |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |page=262 |isbn=0-8020-8390-0 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> [[Russian Far East|Far Eastern]] areas with an ethnic Ukrainian population became known as [[Green Ukraine]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Jonathan D. |last=Smele |date=2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QwquCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA476 |title=Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916–1926 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |page=476 |isbn=978-1-4422-5281-3 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

Ukraine plunged into turmoil with the beginning of [[World War I]], and fighting on Ukrainian soil persisted until late 1921. Initially, the Ukrainians were split between Austria-Hungary, fighting for the [[Central Powers]], though the vast majority served in the [[Military history of Imperial Russia|Imperial Russian Army]], which was part of the [[Triple Entente]], under Russia.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ukraine: A History |last=Subtelny |first=Orest |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8020-8390-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ukrainehistory00subt_0/page/340 340–344] |author-link=Orest Subtelny |url=https://archive.org/details/ukrainehistory00subt_0/page/340}}</ref> As the Russian Empire collapsed, the conflict evolved into the [[Ukrainian War of Independence]], with Ukrainians fighting alongside, or against, the [[Red Army|Red]], [[White Army|White]], [[Makhnovshchina|Black]] and [[Green armies]], with the Poles, Hungarians (in [[Transcarpathian Rus'|Transcarpathia]]), and Germans also intervening at various times.

[[File:Ukrainian national costumes 04.jpg|thumb|Youth in national Ukrainian dress during a ceremony commemorating the 22nd January 1919 "Act of Reunification of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic", which is honoured yearly across 22 cities of Ukraine]]
An attempt to create an independent state, the left-leaning [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] (UNR), was first announced by [[Mykhailo Hrushevsky]], but the period was plagued by an extremely unstable political and military environment. It was first deposed in a [[coup d'état]] led by [[Pavlo Skoropadskyi]], which yielded the [[Ukrainian State]] under the German protectorate, and the attempt to restore the UNR under the [[Directorate of Ukraine|Directorate]] ultimately failed as the Ukrainian army was regularly overrun by other forces. The short-lived [[West Ukrainian People's Republic]] and [[Hutsul Republic]] also failed to join the rest of Ukraine.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nahylo |first=Bohdan |date=1999 |title=The Ukrainian Resurgence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iPCPxwubpYUC&dq=West+Ukrainian+People%27s+Republic++austria+hungary+territories&pg=PA8 |location=London |publisher=Hurst |page=8 |isbn=9781850651680 |oclc=902410832}}</ref>

The result of the conflict was a partial victory for the [[Second Polish Republic]], which annexed the Western Ukrainian provinces, as well as a larger-scale victory for the pro-Soviet forces, which succeeded in dislodging the remaining factions and eventually established the [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic]] (Soviet Ukraine). Meanwhile, modern-day [[Bukovina]] was occupied by [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]] and [[Carpathian Ruthenia]] was admitted to [[First Czechoslovak Republic|Czechoslovakia]] as an autonomous region.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ukraine – World War I and the struggle for independence |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=20 May 2023}}</ref>

The conflict over Ukraine, a part of the broader [[Russian Civil War]], devastated the whole of the former Russian Empire, including eastern and central Ukraine. The fighting left over 1.5 million people dead and hundreds of thousands homeless in the former Russian Empire's territory. [[Russian famine of 1921–1922|Famine in 1921]] further hit the eastern provinces.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Famine of 1920–1924 |url=http://www.volgagermans.net/norka/famine_1920s.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113021645/http://www.volgagermans.net/norka/famine_1920s.html |archive-date=13 January 2015 |access-date=4 March 2015 |website=The Norka – a German Colony in Russia}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Famine of 1921–3 |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CF%5CA%5CFamineof1921hD73.htm |access-date=3 March 2015 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia of Ukraine]]}}</ref>

=== Inter-war period ===
{{See also|Holodomor}}
[[File:GolodomorKharkiv.jpg|thumb|right|Starved peasants on a street in [[Kharkiv]], 1933. [[Collectivisation]] of crops and their confiscation by Soviet authorities led to a major famine in Soviet Ukraine known as the [[Holodomor]]]]
[[File:Les Kurbas Portrait.jpg|thumb|125px|[[Les Kurbas]], one of the lead figures of the [[Executed Renaissance]], was executed by the Soviet authorities, as many other Ukrainian intellectuals<ref>{{cite web |title=Prorizna Street - Kyiv City Guide |url=https://guide.kyivcity.gov.ua/en/places/prorizna-vulytsya |website=Kyivcity.gov.ua}}</ref><ref name="Kravchenko"/>]]

<!-- 1922–1939 -->During the inter-war period, in Poland, Marshal [[Józef Piłsudski]] sought Ukrainian support by offering local autonomy as a way to minimise Soviet influence in Poland's eastern [[Kresy]] region.<ref>Timothy Snyder. (2003)The Causes of Ukrainian-Polish Ethnic Cleansing 1943, The Past and Present Society: Oxford University Press. p. 202</ref><ref>Timothy Snyder. (2005). ''Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist's Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine''. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 32–33, 152–162</ref> However, this approach was abandoned after Piłsudski's death in 1935, due to continued unrest among the Ukrainian population, including assassinations of Polish government officials by the [[Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists]] (OUN); with the Polish government responding by restricting rights of people who declared Ukrainian nationality.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web |last=Revyuk |first=Emil |date=8 July 1931 |title=Polish Atrocities in Ukraine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=imswAAAAIAAJ&q=ukrainophobia+poland |publisher=[[Svoboda Press]] |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="auto3">{{Cite book |last=Skalmowski |first=Wojciech |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wp1R2srxDGEC&q=ukrainophobia+poland&pg=PA54 |title=For East is East: Liber Amicorum Wojciech Skalmowski |date=8 July 2003 |publisher=Peeters Publishers |isbn=9789042912984 |via=Google Books}}</ref> In consequence, the underground [[Ukrainian nationalism|Ukrainian nationalist]] and militant movement, which arose in the 1920s gained wider support.

Meanwhile, the recently constituted Soviet Ukraine became one of the founding republics of the [[Soviet Union]]. During the 1920s,<ref>Subtelny, p. 380</ref> under the Ukrainisation policy pursued by the national Communist leadership of [[Mykola Skrypnyk]], Soviet leadership at first encouraged a national renaissance in [[Culture of Ukraine|Ukrainian culture]] and language. [[Ukrainisation]] was part of the Soviet-wide policy of [[Korenisation]] (literally ''indigenisation''), which was intended to promote the advancement of native peoples, their language and culture into the governance of their respective republics.

Around the same time, Soviet leader [[Vladimir Lenin]] instituted the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP), which introduced a form of [[market socialism]], allowing some private ownership of small and medium-sized productive enterprises, hoping to reconstruct the post-war Soviet Union that had been devastated by both WWI and later the civil war. The NEP was successful at restoring the formerly war-torn nation to pre-WWI levels of production and agricultural output by the mid-1920s, much of the latter based in Ukraine.<ref name="Service">{{cite book |last=Service |first=Robert |title=A History of Twentieth-Century Russia |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1997 |isbn=0674403487 |location=Cambridge, MA |pages=124–125}}</ref> These policies attracted many prominent former UNR figures, including former UNR leader Hrushevsky, to return to Soviet Ukraine, where they were accepted, and participated in the advancement of Ukrainian science and culture.<ref>Christopher Gilley, 'The "Change of Signposts" in the Ukrainian emigration: Mykhailo Hrushevskyi and the Foreign Delegation of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries', ''Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas'', Vol. 54, 2006, No. 3, pp. 345–74</ref> In July 1922, arrests and [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union|deportations]] of Ukrainian intellectuals (e.g. university professors) began in Soviet Ukraine and continued throughout the 1920s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Deportations of Ukrainians in the 1920s |url=https://deportation.org.ua/deportations_ofukrainians_in_the_1920s/ |website=Deportation.org.ua|date=10 January 2023 }}</ref>

This period was cut short when [[Joseph Stalin]] became the leader of the USSR following Lenin's death. Stalin did away with the NEP in what became known as the [[Great Break (USSR)|Great Break]]. Starting from the late 1920s and now with a [[planned economy|centrally planned economy]], Soviet Ukraine took part in an [[Industrialization in the USSR|industrialisation scheme]] which quadrupled its industrial output during the 1930s.

Nevertheless, Stalin sought to prevent the Ukrainians aspirations for the independence of Ukraine and took severe measures to eliminate Ukrainian peasantry and elite Ukrainian intellectuals and culturists.<ref>{{cite web |title=Holodomor |url=https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/holodomor |website=[[University of Minnesota]]}}</ref><ref name="Kravchenko">{{cite web |last1=Kravchenko |first1=Volodymyr |title=Fighting Soviet Myths: The Ukrainian Experience |url=https://www.husj.harvard.edu/articles/fighting-soviet-myths-the-ukrainian-experience |website=[[Harvard University]]}}</ref> As a consequence of Stalin's new policy, the Ukrainian peasantry suffered from the [[Collectivization in the USSR|programme of collectivisation]] of agricultural crops. Collectivisation was part of the [[First five-year plan (Soviet Union)|first five-year plan]] and was enforced by regular troops and the secret police known as [[Cheka]]. Those who resisted were [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union|arrested and deported]] to [[gulag]]s and work camps. As members of the collective farms were sometimes not allowed to receive any grain until unrealistic quotas were met, millions starved to death in a [[Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union|famine]] known as the [[Holodomor]] or the "Great Famine", which was recognised by some countries as an act of [[genocide]] perpetrated by Joseph Stalin and other Soviet notables.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7111296.stm |title=Ukraine remembers famine horror |work=[[BBC News]] |date=24 November 2007}}</ref>

Following on the Russian Civil War and collectivisation, the [[Great Purge]], while killing Stalin's perceived political enemies, resulted in a profound loss of a new generation of Ukrainian intelligentsia, known today as the [[Executed Renaissance]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wheatcroft |first=Stephen G. |author-link=Stephen G. Wheatcroft |date=2007 |title=Agency and Terror: Yevdokimov and Mass Killing in Stalin's Great Terror |journal=[[Australian Journal of Politics and History]] |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=20–43 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8497.2007.00440.x |issn=0004-9522}} Full text in [[EBSCO Information Services|Ebsco]]. See also Robert Conquest, ''The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet collectivization and the terror-famine'' (1986). Mark B. Tauger, "The 1932 Harvest and the Famine of 1933" ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 50, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 70–89, notes the harvest was unusually poor. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2500600 online in JSTOR]; [[R. W. Davies]], Mark B. Tauger, [[S. G. Wheatcroft]], "Stalin, Grain Stocks and the Famine of 1932–1933", ''Slavic Review,'' Vol. 54, No. 3 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 642–657 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2501740 online in JSTOR]; Michael Ellman. "Stalin and the Soviet famine of 1932–33 Revisited", ''Europe-Asia Studies'', Volume 59, Issue 4 June 2007, pages 663–693.</ref>

=== World War II ===
<!-- 1939–1945 -->
{{See also|Eastern Front (World War II)|Reichskommissariat Ukraine|The Holocaust in Ukraine}}

Following the [[Invasion of Poland]] in September 1939, [[Nazi Germany|German]] and [[Soviet Army|Soviet]] troops divided the territory of Poland. Thus, Eastern Galicia and Volhynia with their Ukrainian population became part of Ukraine. For the first time in history, the nation was united.<ref>Wilson, p. 17</ref><ref>Subtelny, p. 487</ref> Further territorial gains were secured in 1940, when the Ukrainian SSR incorporated the northern and southern districts of [[Bessarabia]], [[Northern Bukovina]], and the [[Hertsa region]] from the territories the USSR [[Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina|forced Romania to cede]], though it handed over the western part of the [[Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic]] to the newly created [[Moldavian SSR]]. These territorial gains of the USSR were internationally recognised by the [[Paris Peace Treaties, 1947|Paris peace treaties of 1947]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Treaty of Peace with Romania : February 10, 1947 |url=https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/usmu011.asp |access-date=2022-09-25 |website=[[Avalon Project]]}}</ref>

[[File:Маршал Советского Союза Герой Советского Союза Семён Константинович Тимошенко.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Marshal [[Semyon Timoshenko]] (born in the [[Budjak]] region) commanded numerous fronts throughout the war, including the [[Southwestern Front (Soviet Union)|Southwestern Front]] east of Kyiv in 1941.]]
[[Wehrmacht|German armies]] [[Operation Barbarossa|invaded the Soviet Union]] on 22 June 1941, initiating nearly four years of [[total war]]. The [[Axis Powers|Axis]] initially advanced against desperate but unsuccessful efforts of the Red Army. In the [[Battle of Kyiv (1941)|battle of Kyiv]], the city was acclaimed as a "[[Hero City (Soviet Union)|Hero City]]", because of its fierce resistance. More than 600,000 Soviet soldiers (or one-quarter of the [[Soviet Western Front]]) were killed or taken captive there, with many suffering [[German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war|severe mistreatment]].<ref>Roberts, p. 102</ref><ref>Boshyk, p. 89</ref> After its conquest, most of the Ukrainian SSR was organised within the [[Reichskommissariat Ukraine]], with the intention of exploiting its resources and eventual German settlement. Some western Ukrainians, who had only joined the Soviet Union in 1939, hailed the Germans as liberators, but that did not last long as the Nazis made little attempt to exploit dissatisfaction with Stalinist policies.<ref name="ww2">{{cite web |title=Ukraine – World War II and its aftermath |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/612921/Ukraine/30080/Bukovina-under-Romanian-rule |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100227142736/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/612921/Ukraine/30080/Bukovina-under-Romanian-rule |archive-date=27 February 2010 |access-date=28 December 2007 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> Instead, the Nazis preserved the collective-farm system, carried out [[Mass graves in the Soviet Union|genocidal policies]] against [[History of the Jews in Ukraine|Jews]], [[OST-Arbeiter|deported millions of people to work in Germany]], and began a depopulation programme to prepare for German colonisation.<ref name="ww2"/> They blockaded the transport of food on the Dnieper River.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Karel C. Berkhoff |first=Karel Cornelis |last=Berkhoff |title=Harvest of despair: life and death in Ukraine under Nazi rule |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=April 2004 |page=164}}</ref>

Although the majority of Ukrainians fought in or alongside the Red Army and [[Soviet partisans|Soviet resistance]],<ref name="worldwars">{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages\W\O\Worldwars.htm |title=World wars |access-date=20 December 2007 |website=Encyclopedia of Ukraine}}</ref> in Western Ukraine an independent [[Ukrainian Insurgent Army]] movement arose (UPA, 1942). It was created as the armed forces of the underground [[Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists|Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists]] (OUN).<ref>{{cite book |title=Ukraine: A History |last=Subtelny |first=Orest |year=1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HNIs9O3EmtQC&pg=PA106 |page=410 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=9781442609914 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name="vedeneyev">{{Cite web |last=Vedeneev |first=Dmitry |date=7 March 2015 |title=Військово-польова жандармерія - спеціальний орган Української повстанської армії |trans-title=Military Field Gendarmerie - special body of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army |url=http://warhistory.ukrlife.org/5_6_02_4.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150307183958/http://warhistory.ukrlife.org/5_6_02_4.htm |archive-date=7 March 2015 |access-date=11 March 2023}}</ref> Both organisations, the OUN and the UPA, supported the goal of an [[Declaration of Ukrainian Independence, 1941|independent Ukrainian state]] on the territory with a Ukrainian ethnic majority. Although this brought conflict with Nazi Germany, at times the [[Andriy Atanasovych Melnyk|Melnyk]] wing of the OUN allied with the Nazi forces. From mid-1943 until the end of the war, the UPA carried out [[Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia|massacres of ethnic Poles]] in the Volhynia and [[Eastern Galicia]] regions, killing around 100,000 Polish civilians, which brought reprisals.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Snyder |first=Timothy |date=24 February 2010 |title=A Fascist Hero in Democratic Kiev |url=https://www.nybooks.com/online/2010/02/24/a-fascist-hero-in-democratic-kiev/ |access-date=11 March 2023 |website=[[The New York Review of Books]] |language=en}}</ref><ref name="IPNconf">{{cite conference |editor1-first=Grzegorz |editor1-last=Motyka |editor2-first=Dariusz |editor2-last=Libionka |editor1-link=Grzegorz Motyka |editor2-link=Dariusz Libionka |url=http://www.zbrodniawolynska.pl/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/5221/Antypolska_Akcja_OUN_UPA.pdf |title=Antypolska Akcja OUN-UPA, 1943–1944, Fakty i Interpretacje |trans-title=Anti-Polish Action OUN-UPA, 1943–1944, Facts and Interpretations |publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|Instytut Pamięci Narodowej]] |year=2002 |location=Warsaw |first=Grzegorz |last=Motyka |chapter=Polska reakcja na działania UPA – skala i przebieg akcji odwetowych |trans-chapter=Polish reaction to the actions of the UPA – the scale and course of retaliation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819090728/http://www.zbrodniawolynska.pl/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/5221/Antypolska_Akcja_OUN_UPA.pdf |archive-date=19 August 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> These organised massacres were an attempt by the OUN to create a homogeneous Ukrainian state without a Polish minority living within its borders, and to prevent the post-war Polish state from asserting its sovereignty over areas that had been part of pre-war Poland.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Snyder |first1=Timothy |title=The Causes of Ukrainian-Polish Ethnic Cleansing 1943 |journal=Past & Present |date=2003 |issue=179 |pages=197–234 |doi=10.1093/past/179.1.197 |jstor=3600827 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3600827 |issn=0031-2746|url-access=subscription }}</ref> After the war, the UPA continued to fight the USSR until the 1950s.<ref>Piotrowski pp. 352–354</ref><ref>Weiner pp. 127–237</ref> At the same time, the [[Ukrainian Liberation Army]], another nationalist movement, fought alongside the Nazis.<ref name="Kalb2015">{{cite book |first=Marvin |last=Kalb |date=21 September 2015 |title=Imperial Gamble: Putin, Ukraine, and the New Cold War |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |isbn=978-0-8157-2665-4 |oclc=1058866168 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wLe6CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT105}}</ref>

[[File:Ruined Kiev in WWII.jpg|thumb|[[Kyiv]] suffered significant damage during [[Eastern Front (World War II)|World War II]], and was occupied by the [[Wehrmacht|Germans]] from 19 September 1941 until 6 November 1943]]

In total, the number of ethnic Ukrainians who fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army is estimated from 4.5&nbsp;million<ref name="worldwars"/> to 7&nbsp;million;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.peremoga.gov.ua/index.php?2150005000000000020 |title=Losses of the Ukrainian Nation, p. 2 |access-date=16 December 2007 |website=Peremoga.gov.ua |language=uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050515091804/http://www.peremoga.gov.ua/index.php?2150005000000000020 |archive-date=15 May 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Efn|name=fn1|These figures are likely to be much higher, as they do not include Ukrainians of other nationalities or Ukrainian Jews, but only [[ethnic]] Ukrainians, from the Ukrainian SSR.}} half of the [[Soviet Partisans|Pro-Soviet partisan]] guerrilla resistance units, which counted up to 500,000 troops in 1944, were also Ukrainian.<ref>Subtelny, p. 476</ref> Generally, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's figures are unreliable, with figures ranging anywhere from 15,000 to as many as 100,000 fighters.<ref>Magocsi, p. 635</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkPath=pages\U\K\UkrainianInsurgentArmy.htm |title=Ukrainian Insurgent Army |access-date=20 December 2007 |website=Encyclopedia of Ukraine}}</ref>

The vast majority of the fighting in World War II took place on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]].<ref>Weinberg, p. 264</ref> The [[World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|total losses]] inflicted upon the Ukrainian population during the war are estimated at 6 million,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.peremoga.gov.ua/index.php?3450000000000000010 |title=Losses of the Ukrainian Nation |page=1 |access-date=16 December 2007 |website=Peremoga.gov.ua |language=uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071025001902/http://www.peremoga.gov.ua/index.php?3450000000000000010 |archive-date=25 October 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="dt-kul-dem-los">{{cite web |script-title=uk:Демографічні втрати України в хх столітті |title=Demohrafichni vtraty Ukrayiny v khkh stolitti |trans-title=Demographic losses of Ukraine in the 20 century |url=https://dt.ua/SOCIUM/demografichni_vtrati_ukrayini_v_hh_stolitti.html |author=Stanislav Kulchytskyi |publisher=[[Dzerkalo Tyzhnia]] |date=1 October 2004 |place=[[Kyiv]], Ukraine |access-date=20 January 2021 |language=uk}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> including an estimated one and a half million Jews killed by the [[Einsatzgruppen]],<ref>{{cite news |last=Smale |first=Alison |date=27 January 2014 |title=Shedding Light on a Vast Toll of Jews Killed Away From the Death Camps |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/world/europe/a-light-on-a-vast-toll-of-jews-killed-away-from-the-death-camps.html |access-date=13 December 2023}}</ref> sometimes with the help of local collaborators. Of the estimated 8.6 million Soviet troop losses,<ref name="peremoga7">{{cite web |url=http://www.peremoga.gov.ua/index.php?2150005000000000070 |title=Losses of the Ukrainian Nation, p. 7 |access-date=16 December 2007 |website=Peremoga.gov.ua |language=uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050515100506/http://www.peremoga.gov.ua/index.php?2150005000000000070 |archive-date=15 May 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Overy, p. 518</ref><ref name="Krivosheev">Кривошеев Г. Ф., ''Россия и СССР в войнах XX века: потери вооруженных сил. Статистическое исследование'' (Krivosheev G. F., ''Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century: losses of the Armed Forces. A Statistical Study'') {{in lang|ru}}</ref> 1.4&nbsp;million were ethnic [[Ukrainians]].<ref name="peremoga7"/><ref name="Krivosheev"/>{{Efn|name=fn1}}{{Efn|This figure excludes [[POW]] deaths.}} The [[Victory Day over Nazism in World War II|Victory Day]] is celebrated as one of eleven Ukrainian national holidays.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-29 |title=Вихідні та святкові дні 2022 року в Україні/Holidays 2022 in Ukraine |url=https://ny.mfa.gov.ua/posolstvo/5259-vihidni-ta-svyatkovi-dni |access-date=2022-07-31 |website=Consulate General of Ukraine in New York |language=uk |archive-date=4 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220804060355/https://ny.mfa.gov.ua/posolstvo/5259-vihidni-ta-svyatkovi-dni |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Post–war Soviet Ukraine ===
{{Further|Anti-Soviet resistance by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army|Chernobyl disaster}}
{{see also|History of the Soviet Union (1953–1964)|History of the Soviet Union (1964–1982)|History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991)}}
[[File:Khrushchev and Brezhnev.jpg|upright|thumb|Two future leaders of the [[Soviet Union]], [[Nikita Khrushchev]] (left, pre-war [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] chief in Ukraine) and [[Leonid Brezhnev]] (an engineer from [[Kamianske]], Ukraine)]]

The republic was heavily damaged by the war, and it required significant efforts to recover. More than 700 cities and towns and 28,000 villages were destroyed.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-30082/Ukraine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929133150/https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-30082/Ukraine |archive-date=29 September 2007 |title=Ukraine: World War II and its aftermath |access-date=12 September 2007 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] (fee required) |url-status=dead}}</ref> The situation was worsened by a [[famine]] in 1946–1947, which was caused by a drought and the wartime destruction of infrastructure, killing at least tens of thousands of people.<ref name="dt-kul-dem-los"/> In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding members of the [[United Nations]] (UN),<ref name="un ukssr">{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/depts/dhl/unms/ukraine.shtml |title=Activities of the Member States – Ukraine |date=28 September 2009 |access-date=17 January 2011 |publisher=United Nations}}</ref> part of a special agreement at the [[Yalta Conference]], and, alongside Belarus, had voting rights in the UN even though they were not independent.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwii/17604.htm |title=United Nations |publisher=U.S. Department of State |quote=Voting procedures and the veto power of permanent members of the Security Council were finalized at the [[Yalta Conference]] in 1945 when Roosevelt and Stalin agreed that the veto would not prevent discussions by the Security Council. Roosevelt agreed to General Assembly membership for Ukraine and Byelorussia while reserving the right, which was never exercised, to seek two more votes for the United States. |access-date=22 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=United Nations |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwii/17604.htm |access-date=2014-09-22 |publisher=U.S. Department of State |quote=Voting procedures and the veto power of permanent members of the Security Council were finalized at the Yalta Conference in 1945 when Roosevelt and Stalin agreed that the veto would not prevent discussions by the Security Council. In April 1945, new U.S. President Truman agreed to General Assembly membership for Ukraine and Byelorussia while reserving the right, which was never exercised, to seek two more votes for the United States.}}</ref> Moreover, Ukraine once more expanded its borders as it annexed [[Zakarpattia Oblast|Zakarpattia]], and the population became much more homogenised due to post-war population transfers, most of which, as in the case of [[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)|Germans]] and [[Deportation of the Crimean Tatars|Crimean Tatars]], were forced. As of 1 January 1953, Ukrainians were second only to Russians among adult "[[Forced settlements in the Soviet Union|special deportees]]", comprising 20% of the total.<ref name="Malynovska">{{cite web |url=http://www.niisp.org.ua/defa~177.php |title=Migration and migration policy in Ukraine |first=Olena |last=Malynovska |date=14 June 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923061703/http://niisp.org.ua/defa~177.php |archive-date=23 September 2013}}</ref>

Following the death of Stalin in 1953, [[Nikita Khrushchev]] became the new leader of the USSR, who began the policies of [[De-Stalinization|de-stalinisation]] and the [[Khrushchev Thaw]]. During his term as head of the Soviet Union, [[Crimean Oblast|Crimea]] was [[1954 transfer of Crimea|transferred]] from the [[Russian SFSR]] to the [[Ukrainian SSR]], formally as a friendship gift to Ukraine and for economic reasons.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iccrimea.org/historical/crimeatransfer.html |title=The Transfer of Crimea to Ukraine |access-date=25 March 2007 |date=July 2005 |publisher=International Committee for Crimea}}</ref> This represented the final extension of Ukrainian territory and formed the basis for the internationally recognised borders of Ukraine to this day. Many top positions in the Soviet Union were occupied by Ukrainians, including notably [[Leonid Brezhnev]], [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] from 1964 to 1982. However, it was he and his [[Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)|appointee in Ukraine]], [[Volodymyr Shcherbytsky]], who presided over the extensive [[Russification of Ukraine|Russification]] of Ukraine and who were instrumental in repressing a new generation of Ukrainian intellectuals known as the [[Sixtiers]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Bernard A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hafLHZgZtt4C&q=shcherbytsky+russification&pg=PA1280 |title=Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia |last2=Cook |first2=Bernard Anthony |date=2001 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-8153-4058-4 |language=en}}</ref>

By 1950, the republic had fully surpassed pre-war levels of industry and production.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-30084/Ukraine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080115052626/https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-30084/Ukraine |archive-date=15 January 2008 |title=Ukraine – The last years of Stalin's rule |access-date=28 December 2007 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required) |url-status=dead}}</ref> Soviet Ukraine soon became a European leader in industrial production<ref>Magocsi, p. 644</ref> and an important centre of the Soviet [[arms industry]] and high-tech research, though heavy industry still had an outsided influence.<ref>Magocsi, 1996, p. 704</ref> The Soviet government invested in hydroelectric and nuclear power projects to cater to the energy demand that the development carried. On 26 April 1986, however, a reactor in the [[Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant]] exploded, resulting in the [[Chernobyl disaster]], the worst [[nuclear reactor]] accident in history.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_n2_v33/ai_18795971 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120628220746/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_n2_v33/ai_18795971/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 June 2012 |title='Sombre anniversary' of worst nuclear disaster in history – Chernobyl: 10th anniversary |access-date=16 December 2007 |author=Remy, Johannes |year=1996 |publisher=Find articles |work=[[UN Chronicle]]}}</ref>

=== Independence ===
{{further|Modern history of Ukraine|Dissolution of the Soviet Union|Orange Revolution|Revolution of Dignity|Russo-Ukrainian War}}
<!-- 1990-2022 -->
[[File:RIAN archive 848095 Signing the Agreement to eliminate the USSR and establish the Commonwealth of Independent States.jpg|thumb|Ukrainian President [[Leonid Kravchuk]] and Russian President [[Boris Yeltsin]] signing the [[Belavezha Accords]], which [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|dissolved the Soviet Union]], on 8 December 1991]]
[[Mikhail Gorbachev]] pursued a policy of limited liberalisation of public life, known as ''[[perestroika]],'' and attempted to reform a [[Era of Stagnation|stagnating economy]]. The latter failed, but the democratisation of the Soviet Union fuelled nationalist and separatist tendencies among the ethnic minorities, including Ukrainians.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Geller |first=Mikhail |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/24243579 |title=Седьмой секретарь: Блеск и нищета Михаила Горбачева |date=1991 |isbn=1-870128-72-9 |edition=1st Russian |location=London |oclc=24243579 |page=352=356}}</ref> As part of the so-called [[parade of sovereignties]], on 16 July 1990, the newly elected [[Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic]] adopted the [[Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gska2.rada.gov.ua:7777/site/postanova_eng/Declaration_of_State_Sovereignty_of_Ukraine_rev1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927224650/http://gska2.rada.gov.ua:7777/site/postanova_eng/Declaration_of_State_Sovereignty_of_Ukraine_rev1.htm |archive-date=27 September 2007 |title=Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine |access-date=12 September 2007 |date=16 July 1990 |website=[[Verkhovna Rada]] of Ukraine}}</ref> After a [[1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt|failed coup]] by some Communist leaders in Moscow at deposing Gorbachov, outright independence was proclaimed on 24 August 1991.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gska2.rada.gov.ua:7777/site/postanova_eng/Rres_Declaration_Independence_rev12.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930203430/http://gska2.rada.gov.ua:7777/site/postanova_eng/Rres_Declaration_Independence_rev12.htm |archive-date=30 September 2007 |title=Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Resolution On Declaration of Independence of Ukraine |access-date=12 September 2007 |date=24 August 1991 |website=[[Verkhovna Rada]] of Ukraine}}</ref> It was approved by 92% of the Ukrainian electorate in a [[1991 Ukrainian independence referendum|referendum]] on 1 December.<ref name="Nohlen_Stöver">Nohlen & Stöver, p1985</ref> Ukraine's new [[President of Ukraine|President]], Leonid Kravchuk, went on to sign the [[Belavezha Accords]] and made Ukraine a founding member of the much looser [[Commonwealth of Independent States]] (CIS),<ref>{{cite news |title=Soviet Leaders Recall 'Inevitable' Breakup Of Soviet Union |url=http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1073305.html |work=[[RadioFreeEurope]] |date=8 December 2006 |access-date=12 September 2007}}</ref> though Ukraine never became a full member of the latter as it did not ratify the agreement founding CIS.<ref name=":2">{{cite news |url=https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/ukrayina-dosi-v-snd-chy-ni/30969197.html |title="Україні не потрібно виходити із СНД – вона ніколи не була і не є зараз членом цієї структури" |newspaper=Радіо Свобода |date=26 November 2020 |last1=Лащенко |first1=Олександр}}</ref> These documents sealed the fate of the Soviet Union, which formally voted itself out of existence on 26 December.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Solodkov |first=Artem |date=27 December 2021 |title=Период распада: последний декабрь Союза. 26 декабря 1991 года |url=https://www.rbc.ru/politics/27/12/2021/585bea709a794761ac0b5c55 |access-date=11 March 2023 |website=РБК |language=ru}}</ref>

Ukraine was initially viewed as having favourable economic conditions in comparison to the other regions of the Soviet Union,<ref>Shen, p. 41</ref> though it was one of the poorer Soviet republics by the time of the dissolution.<ref name="Notstronk">{{Cite web |last1=Sutela |first1=Pekka |title=The Underachiever: Ukraine's Economy Since 1991 |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2012/03/the-underachiever-ukraines-economy-since-1991?lang=en |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |language=en}}</ref> However, during its transition to the market economy, the country experienced deeper economic slowdown than almost all of the other [[former Soviet Republics]]. During the recession, between 1991 and 1999, Ukraine lost 60% of its GDP<ref name=IMF>{{cite web |url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2007/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=1992&ey=2008&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=926&s=PPPGDP&grp=0&a=&pr1.x=41&pr1.y=2 |title=Ukrainian GDP (PPP) |access-date=10 March 2008 |website=World Economic Outlook Database, October 2007 |publisher=[[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.worldbank.org/html/prddr/trans/june1998/ukraine.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000712025953/http://www.worldbank.org/html/prddr/trans/june1998/ukraine.htm |archive-date=12 July 2000 |title=Can Ukraine Avert a Financial Meltdown? |access-date=16 December 2007 |date=June 1998 |website=[[World Bank]]}}</ref> and suffered from [[hyperinflation]] that peaked at 10,000% in 1993.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Figliuoli |first1=Lorenzo |last2=Lissovolik |first2=Bogdan |date=31 August 2002 |title=The IMF and Ukraine: What Really Happened |url=http://www.imf.org/external/np/vc/2002/083102.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021017151905/http://www.imf.org/external/np/vc/2002/083102.htm |archive-date=17 October 2002 |access-date=16 December 2007 |website=[[International Monetary Fund]]}}</ref> The situation only stabilised well after the new currency, the [[hryvnia]], fell sharply in late 1998 partially as a fallout from the [[Russian debt default]] earlier that year.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Дефолт 1998 года: 10 лет спустя |url=https://ukraine.segodnya.ua/ukraine/defolt-1998-hoda-10-let-cpuctja-122939.html |access-date=2022-08-04 |website=ukraine.segodnya.ua |date=11 July 2022 |language=ru}}</ref> The legacy of the economic policies of the nineties was the mass privatisation of state property that created a class of extremely powerful and rich individuals known as the [[Ukrainian oligarch|oligarchs]].<ref name="Notstronk"/> The country then fell into a series of sharp recessions as a result of the [[Great Recession]],<ref name="Notstronk"/> the start of the [[Russo-Ukrainian War]] in 2014,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-04-05 |title=The stable crisis. Ukraine's economy three years after the Euromaidan |url=https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/osw-commentary/2017-04-05/stable-crisis-ukraines-economy-three-years-after-euromaidan |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=OSW Centre for Eastern Studies |language=en}}</ref> and finally, the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|full-scale invasion]] by Russia in starting from 24 February 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |title=War to cause Ukraine economy to shrink nearly a third this year – EBRD report – Ukraine |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/war-cause-ukraine-economy-shrink-nearly-third-year-ebrd-report |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=ReliefWeb |date=10 May 2022 |language=en}}</ref> Ukraine's economy in general underperformed since the time independence came due to pervasive [[Corruption in Ukraine|corruption]] and mismanagement,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dickinson |first=Peter |date=2021-06-19 |title=Ukraine's choice: corruption or growth |url=https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/ukraines-choice-corruption-or-growth/ |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=Atlantic Council |language=en-US}}</ref> which, particularly in the 1990s, led to protests and organised strikes.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Aslund |first1=Anders |date=Autumn 1995 |title=Eurasia Letter: Ukraine's Turnaround |journal=[[Foreign Policy]] |issue=100 |pages=125–143 |doi=10.2307/1149308 |volume=100 |last2=Aslund |first2=Anders |jstor=1149308}}</ref> The war with Russia impeded meaningful economic recovery in the 2010s,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mykhnenko |first=Vlad |date=2020-03-15 |title=Causes and Consequences of the War in Eastern Ukraine: An Economic Geography Perspective |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |volume=72 |issue=3 |pages=528–560 |doi=10.1080/09668136.2019.1684447 |s2cid=214438848 |issn=0966-8136 |doi-access=free}}</ref> while efforts to combat the [[COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine|COVID-19 pandemic]], which arrived in 2020, were made much harder by [[COVID-19 vaccine|low vaccination rates]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ludvigsson |first1=Jonas F. |last2=Loboda |first2=Andrii |date=July 2022 |title=Systematic review of health and disease in Ukrainian children highlights poor child health and challenges for those treating refugees |journal=[[Acta Paediatrica]] |language=en |volume=111 |issue=7 |pages=1341–1353 |doi=10.1111/apa.16370 |issn=0803-5253 |pmc=9324783 |pmid=35466444}}</ref> and, later in the pandemic, by the ongoing invasion.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Impact of war on the dynamics of COVID-19 in Ukraine - Ukraine |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/impact-war-dynamics-covid-19-ukraine |access-date=2022-08-04 |website=reliefweb.int |date=17 April 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Euromaidan Kyiv 1-12-13 by Gnatoush 009.jpg|thumb|[[Euromaidan]] protest in Kyiv, December 2013]]
From the political perspective, one of the defining features of the [[politics of Ukraine]] is that for most of the time, it has been divided along two issues: the relation between Ukraine, the [[Western world|West]] and Russia, and the classical [[Left–right political spectrum|left-right]] divide.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shevel |first=Oxana |date=2015-09-01 |title=The parliamentary elections in Ukraine, October 2014 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379415000608 |journal=Electoral Studies |language=en |volume=39 |pages=159–163 |doi=10.1016/j.electstud.2015.03.015 |issn=0261-3794|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The first two presidents, Kravchuk and [[Leonid Kuchma]], tended to balance the competing visions of Ukraine,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kuzio |first=Taras |date=2005-10-01 |title=Neither East Nor West: Ukraine's Security Policy Under Kuchma |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/10758216.2005.11052215 |journal=[[Problems of Post-Communism]] |volume=52 |issue=5 |pages=59–68 |doi=10.1080/10758216.2005.11052215 |s2cid=157151441 |issn=1075-8216|url-access=subscription }}</ref> though [[Yushchenko]] and [[Yanukovych]] were generally pro-Western and pro-Russian, respectively. There were two major protests against Yanukovych: the [[Orange Revolution]] in 2004, when tens of thousands of people went in protest of [[election rigging]] in his favour (Yushchenko was eventually elected president), and another one in the winter of 2013/2014, when more gathered on the [[Euromaidan]] to oppose Yanukovych's refusal to sign the [[European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement]]. By the end of the protests on 21 February 2014, he fled from Ukraine and was removed by the parliament in what is termed the [[Revolution of Dignity]], but Russia refused to recognise the interim pro-Western government, calling it a ''[[Military junta|junta]]'' and denouncing the events as a coup d'état sponsored by the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-04-25 |title="Хунта" и "террористы": война слов Москвы и Киева |url=https://www.bbc.com/russian/blogs/2014/04/140425_blog_krechetnikov_harsh_speech |access-date=2022-08-04 |website=BBC News Русская служба |language=ru}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Putin accuses US of orchestrating 2014 'coup' in Ukraine |date=22 June 2021 |access-date=3 March 2022 |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/22/russias-putin-accuses-us-of-orchestrating-2014-coup-in-ukraine |publisher=[[Al Jazeera Media Network|Al Jazeera]]}}</ref><ref name="Partido da imprensa Golpista">{{Cite web |title=The Maidan in 2014 is a coup d'etat: a review of Italian and German pro-Russian media |url=https://voxukraine.org/en/the-maidan-in-2014-is-a-coup-d-etat-a-review-of-italian-and-german-pro-russian-media |access-date=2022-08-04 |language=en-US}}</ref>

Despite the signing of the [[Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances|Budapest memorandum]] in 1994, in which Ukraine agreed to hand over [[Ukraine and weapons of mass destruction|nuclear weapons]] in exchange for guarantees of security and territorial integrity, Russia reacted violently to these developments and [[Russo-Ukrainian War|started a war]] against its western neighbour. In late February and early March 2014, it [[Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation|annexed Crimea]] using its [[Russian Navy|Navy]] in [[Sevastopol Naval Base|Sevastopol]] as well as the so- called [[Little green men (Russo-Ukrainian War)|little green men]]; after this succeeded, it then launched a [[War in Donbas (2014–2022)|proxy war in the Donbas]] via the breakaway [[Donetsk People's Republic]] and [[Luhansk People's Republic]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kuzio |first=Taras |date=2018-05-04 |title=Euromaidan revolution, Crimea and Russia–Ukraine war: why it is time for a review of Ukrainian–Russian studies |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2019.1571428 |journal=[[Eurasian Geography and Economics]] |volume=59 |issue=3–4 |pages=529–553 |doi=10.1080/15387216.2019.1571428 |s2cid=159414642 |issn=1538-7216|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The first months of the conflict with the Russian-backed separatists were fluid, but Russian forces then started an open invasion in Donbas on 24 August 2014. Together they pushed back Ukrainian troops to the frontline established in February 2015, i.e. after Ukrainian troops [[Battle of Debaltseve|withdrew from Debaltseve]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hosaka |first=Sanshiro |date=2019-07-03 |title=Putin the 'Peacemaker'?—Russian Reflexive Control During the 2014 August Invasion of Ukraine |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13518046.2019.1646950 |journal=The Journal of Slavic Military Studies |language=en |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=324–346 |doi=10.1080/13518046.2019.1646950 |s2cid=210591255 |issn=1351-8046|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The conflict remained in a sort of [[Frozen conflict|frozen state]] until the early hours of 24 February 2022,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Potočňák |first1=Adam |last2=Mares |first2=Miroslav |date=2022-05-16 |title=Donbas Conflict: How Russia's Trojan Horse Failed and Forced Moscow to Alter Its Strategy |journal=[[Problems of Post-Communism]] |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=341–351 |doi=10.1080/10758216.2022.2066005 |s2cid=248838806 |issn=1075-8216 |doi-access=free}}</ref> when Russia [[Russian invasion of Ukraine|invaded]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lock |first1=Samantha |last2=Singh |first2=Maanvi |last3=Oladipo |first3=Gloria |last4=Michael |first4=Chris |last5=Jones |first5=Sam |date=24 February 2022 |title=Ukraine-Russia crisis live news: Putin declares operation to 'demilitarise' Ukraine – latest updates |language=en-GB |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/feb/23/ukraine-russia-news-crisis-latest-live-updates-putin-biden-europe-sanctions-russian-invasion-border-troops |access-date=24 February 2022 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> A year later, Russian troops controlled about 17% of Ukraine's internationally recognised territory, which constitutes 94% of [[Luhansk Oblast]], 73% of [[Kherson Oblast]], 72% of [[Zaporizhzhia Oblast]], 54% of [[Donetsk Oblast]] and all of Crimea,<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2023/feb/21/a-year-of-war-how-russian-forces-have-been-pushed-back-in-ukraine |title=A year of war: how Russian forces have been pushed back in Ukraine |first1=Pablo |last1=Gutiérrez |first2=Ashley |last2=Kirk |website=the Guardian |date=21 February 2023}}</ref> though Russia failed with its initial plan, with Ukrainian troops recapturing some territory in counteroffensives.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lonas |first=Lexi |date=2022-05-12 |title=5 ways Russia has failed in its invasion |url=https://thehill.com/policy/international/3486213-5-ways-russia-has-failed-in-its-invasion/ |access-date=2022-08-04 |website=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]] |language=en-US}}</ref>
[[File:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.svg|thumb|[[Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine]] as of {{Date}}]]
The military conflict with Russia shifted the government's policy towards the West. Shortly after Yanukovych fled Ukraine, the country signed the EU association agreement in June 2014, and its citizens were granted visa-free travel to the European Union three years later. In January 2019, the [[Orthodox Church of Ukraine]] was recognised as independent of Moscow, which reversed the 1686 decision of the patriarch of Constantinople and dealt a further blow to Moscow's influence in Ukraine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ukraine Country Report |url=https://www.eu-listco.net/publications/ukraine-country-report |access-date=2022-08-04 |website=EU-LISTCO |date=11 December 2019 |language=en-ZA}}</ref> Finally, amid a full-scale war with Russia, Ukraine was granted [[Potential enlargement of the European Union|candidate status]] to the European Union on 23 June 2022.<ref name="BBC News">{{Cite news |date=2022-06-23 |title=EU awards Ukraine and Moldova candidate status |language=en-GB |work=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61891467 |access-date=2022-08-04}}</ref> A broad anti-corruption drive began in early 2023 with the resignations of several deputy ministers and regional heads during a reshuffle of the government.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-01-24 |title=Top Ukrainian officials quit in anti-corruption drive |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64383388 |access-date=2023-01-25}}</ref>