Ukraine
Europe's breadbasket of black-earth steppe, the Dnieper, and the Black Sea
Ukraine is the largest country lying wholly within Europe, a sweep of fertile black-earth steppe drained by the mighty Dnieper and opening onto the Black Sea. Long known as the breadbasket of the continent, its plains produce vast harvests of wheat, sunflower, and corn. Home to roughly 38 million people, with Kyiv among the oldest and grandest of Slavic capitals, Ukraine carries a deep cultural heritage even as it endures the largest war in Europe since 1945, its resilience reshaping the continent's politics and security.
Most of Ukraine is open lowland steppe and forest-steppe, with the Carpathian Mountains in the west rising to Hoverla at 2,061 meters and the Crimean Mountains in the south. The Dnieper bisects the country on its way to the Black Sea, and the chernozem soils rank among the most productive on Earth. The Donbas region in the east holds major coal and heavy-industry centers, while the Black Sea ports of Odesa anchor maritime trade. The climate is moderately continental, with cold winters and hot summers.
Kyivan Rus, the medieval federation centered on Kyiv, is the shared ancestor of Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian statehood. Ukrainian lands later passed among Poland-Lithuania, the Cossack Hetmanate, the Russian and Habsburg empires, and the Soviet Union, which inflicted the catastrophic Holodomor famine. Independence came in 1991. Since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine has fought to preserve its sovereignty, deepening its turn toward the European Union, of which it became a candidate in 2022.