Ukraine, officially: Україна; (Ukrayina, Transliteration); (Ukraine) is an Eastern European coutntry located on the shores of the Black sea and the sea of Azov and bordering Russia to the East. The capital (and largest city) is Kiev and Ukrainian is the official language, though most Ukrainians speak Russian as a second language). The cuntry's original inhabitants were the Neolithic Cucuteni (circa 4500 BCE) and etween 700 BC and 200 BC it was part of the Scythian Kingdom. Subsequently it was colonized by Greece, Roman and the Byzantine Empire. Until the 9th century CE the land was dominated by the Bulgar tribes, who migrated outwards to be replaced by the Rus' people who formed the Kievan Rus'. During the 10th and 11th centuries the Kievan Rus' became the largest and most powerful state in Europe. However, the 13th century Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus'. In the region of modern-day Ukraine the state of Kievan Rus' was succeeded by the principalities of Galich (Halych) and Volodymyr-Volynskyi, which were merged into the state of Galicia-Volhynia and which was, itself, subjugated by Casimir the Great of Poland in the mid 14th Century. Following the 1386 Union of Krevo, a dynastic union between Poland and Lithuania, most of Ukraine's territory was controlled by the increasingly Ruthenized local Lithuanian nobles as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. However, by 1569, the Union of Lublin formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from largely Ruthenized Lithuanian rule to the Polish administration, as it was transferred to the Polish Crown. In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish king John II Casimir. Left-bank Ukraine was eventually integrated into Russia as the Cossack Hetmanate, following the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav and the ensuing Russo-Polish War. After the partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century by Prussia, Habsburg Austria, and Russia, Western Ukrainian Galicia was taken over by Austria, while the rest of Ukraine was progressively incorporated into the Russian Empire.After the annexation of the Crimean Khanate by the Imperial Russia (1774-1792) following the Russo-Turkish wars, the region was settled by enserfed peasantry mostly from Ukraine and German settlers as New Russia. In the First World War Ukraine on the side of both the Central Powers, under Austria, and the Triple Entente, under Russia. With the collapse of the Russian and Austrian empires following World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917, a Ukrainian national movement for self-determination reemerged. During 1917–20, several separate Ukrainian states briefly emerged: the Ukrainian People's Republic, the Hetmanate, the Directorate and the pro-Bolshevik Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (or Soviet Ukraine). The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was recognized in March 1919 (with Eastern Galicia and Volhynia becoming part of Poland) and later became a founding member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the Soviet Union in December, 1922.

During the Second World War, following the Invasion of Poland in September 1939, German and Soviet troops divided the territory of Poland. Thus, Eastern Galicia and Volhynia with their Ukrainian population became reunited with the rest of Ukraine. German armies invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, thereby initiating four straight years of incessant total war. The Axis allies initially advanced against desperate but unsuccessful efforts of the Red Army. In the encirclement battle of Kiev, the city was acclaimed as a "Hero City", for the fierce resistance by the Red Army and by the local population. 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.[46] The situation was worsened by a famine in 1946–47 caused by the drought and the infrastructure breakdown that took away tens of thousands of lives.

On July 16, 1990, the new parliament adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine.[57] The declaration established the principles of the self-determination of the Ukrainian nation, its democracy, political and economic independence, and the priority of Ukrainian law on the Ukrainian territory over Soviet law. A referendum and the first presidential elections took place on December 1, 1991. That day, more than 90 percent of the Ukrainian people expressed their support for the Act of Independence, and they elected the chairman of the parliament, Leonid Kravchuk to serve as the first President of the country. At the meeting in Brest, Belarus on December 8, followed by Alma Ata meeting on December 21, the leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, formally dissolved the Soviet Union and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The European Union offered an Association Agreement with Ukraine in September, 2008. The country is a potential candidate for future enlargement of the European Union.

Ukrainian cuisine is a very important part of the country's culture with special dishes prepared for Easter and Christmas that are not prepared at any other time (with kutia being a Christmas speciality). Fish, cheeses and sausages are the mainstay of the diet, with hard cheeses being preferred. Hearty vegetable-based soups are a mainstay as are stuffed pastries (pyrohy/perogies). Tea, coffee or wine is often consumed after a meal and may be accompanied by a simple dessert of fruit pastries.