What happens in Ukraine after the referendum? - live on Pravda.Ru
There are two days left to the referendum in Crimea. How the situation in Ukraine develops at the moment? Was the course of events expected? Pravda.Ru will s...
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What happens in Ukraine after the referendum? - live on Pravda.Ru - Video
Ukraine Hangout Test
Test for Monday with Nicolai, Mike and Bogdan.
By: Shelbey Bidell
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Russian Troops Deployed to Ukraine Border
The 9000 troops raise fears that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine. Russian soldiers have fired warning shots into the air as around 300 Ukrainian troops...
By: berndmulder1
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Ukraine,country located in eastern Europe, the second largest on the continent after Russia. The capital is Kiev (Kyiv), located on the Dnieper River in north-central Ukraine.
A fully independent Ukraine emerged only late in the 20th century, after long periods of successive domination by Poland-Lithuania, Russia, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). Ukraine had experienced a brief period of independence in 191820, but portions of western Ukraine were ruled by Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia in the period between the two World Wars, and Ukraine thereafter became part of the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (S.S.R.). When the Soviet Union began to unravel in 199091, the legislature of the Ukrainian S.S.R. declared sovereignty (July 16, 1990) and then outright independence (Aug. 24, 1991), a move that was confirmed by popular approval in a plebiscite (Dec. 1, 1991). With the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. in December 1991, Ukraine gained full independence. The country changed its official name to Ukraine, and it helped to found the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), an association of countries that were formerly republics of the Soviet Union.
Ukraine is bordered by Belarus to the north, Russia to the east, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea to the south, Moldova and Romania to the southwest, and Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland to the west. In the far southeast, Ukraine is separated from Russia by the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
Ukraine occupies the southwestern portion of the Russian Plain (East European Plain). The country consists almost entirely of level plains at an average elevation of 574 feet (175 metres) above sea level. Mountainous areas such as the Ukrainian Carpathians and Crimean Mountains occur only on the countrys borders and account for barely 5 percent of its area. The Ukrainian landscape nevertheless has some diversity: its plains are broken by highlandsrunning in a continuous belt from northwest to southeastas well as by lowlands.
The rolling plain of the Dnieper Upland, which lies between the middle reaches of the Dnieper (Dnipro) and Southern Buh (Pivdennyy Buh, or the Boh) rivers in west-central Ukraine, is the largest highland area; it is dissected by many river valleys, ravines, and gorges, some more than 1,000 feet (300 metres) deep. On the west the Dnieper Upland is abutted by the rugged Volyn-Podilsk Upland, which rises to 1,545 feet (471 metres) at its highest point, Mount Kamula. West of the Volyn-Podilsk Upland, in extreme western Ukraine, the parallel ranges of the Carpathian Mountainsone of the most picturesque areas in the countryextend for more than 150 miles (240 km). The mountains range in height from about 2,000 feet (600 metres) to about 6,500 feet (2,000 metres), rising to 6,762 feet (2,061 metres) at Mount Hoverla, the highest point in the country. The northeastern and southeastern portions of Ukraine are occupied by low uplands rarely reaching an elevation of 1,000 feet (300 metres).
Among the countrys lowlands are the Pripet Marshes (Polissya), which lie in the northern part of Ukraine and are crossed by numerous river valleys. In east-central Ukraine is the Dnieper Lowland, which is flat in the west and gently rolling in the east. To the south, another lowland extends along the shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov; its level surface, broken only by low rises and shallow depressions, slopes gradually toward the Black Sea. The shores of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov are characterized by narrow, sandy spits of land that jut out into the water; one of these, the Arabat Spit, is about 70 miles (113 km) long but averages less than 5 miles (8 km) in width.
The southern lowland continues in the Crimean Peninsula as the North Crimean Lowland. The peninsulaa large protrusion into the Black Seais connected to the mainland by the Perekop Isthmus. The Crimean Mountains form the southern coast of the peninsula. Mount Roman-Kosh, at 5,069 feet (1,545 metres), is the mountains highest point.
Almost all the major rivers in Ukraine flow northwest to southeast through the plains to empty into the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The Dnieper River, with its hydroelectric dams, huge reservoirs, and many tributaries, dominates the entire central part of Ukraine. Of the total course of the Dnieper, 609 miles (980 km) are in Ukraine, making it by far the longest river in the country, of which it drains more than half. Like the Dnieper, the Southern Buh, with its major tributary, the Inhul, flows into the Black Sea. To the west and southwest, partly draining Ukrainian territory, the Dniester (Dnistro) also flows into the Black Sea; among its numerous tributaries, the largest in Ukraine are the Stryy and the Zbruch. The middle course of the Donets River, a tributary of the Don, flows through southeastern Ukraine and is an important source of water for the Donets Basin (Donbas). The Danube River flows along the southwestern frontier of Ukraine. Marshland, covering almost 3 percent of Ukraine, is found primarily in the northern river valleys and in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, Danube, and other rivers.
The rivers are most important as a water supply, and for this purpose a series of canals has been built, such as the DonetsDonets Basin, the DnieperKryvyy Rih, and the North Crimea. Several of the larger rivers are navigable, including the Dnieper, Danube, Dniester, Pripet, Donets, and Southern Buh (in its lower course). Dams and hydroelectric plants are situated on all the larger rivers.
Ukraine has a few natural lakes, all of them small and most of them scattered over the river floodplains. One of the largest is Lake Svityaz, 11 square miles (28 square km) in area, in the northwest. Small saltwater lakes occur in the Black Sea Lowland and in the Crimea. Larger saline lakes occur along the coast. Known as limans, these bodies of water form at the mouths of rivers or ephemeral streams and are blocked off by sandbars from the sea. Some artificial lakes have been formed, the largest of which are reservoirs at hydroelectric damse.g., the reservoir on the Dnieper upstream from Kremenchuk. The Kakhovka, Dnieper, Dniprodzerzhynsk, Kaniv, and Kiev reservoirs make up the rest of the Dnieper cascade. Smaller reservoirs are located on the Dniester and Southern Buh rivers and on tributaries of the Donets River. Small reservoirs for water supply also are found near Kryvyy Rih, Kharkiv, and other industrial cities. Three large artesian basinsthe Volyn-Podilsk, the Dnieper, and the Black Seaare exceptionally important for municipal needs and agriculture as well.
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Ukraine's prime minister told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that Russia had carried out "military aggression" in Crimea, and dramatically switched from English to Russian to ask Russia whether it wants war.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin gave him a direct answer: "Russia does not want war and neither do the Russians, and I'm convinced the Ukrainians don't want that either."
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Ukraine has had "warm and friendly relations" with Russia for decades and he is also convinced "that Russians do not want war."
"And I hope that the Russian government and the Russian president will heed the wishes of their people and that we return urgently to dialogue and solve this conflict," he said.
Churkin did not respond to Yatsenyuk's call to return to talks. Instead, he criticized the "illegal" and "forceful overthrow" of President Viktor Yanukovich and asked why a European-mediated plan signed by Yanukovych and Ukraine's protest leaders to form a new government and hold an early election wasn't seized upon and implemented. Russia refused to sign the agreement but now supports it.
"Instead of a government of national unity as provided for in the Feb. 21 agreement," Churkin said, "in Kiev what you had was a government of the victors."
In his brief speech, Yatsenyuk accused Russia of violating the U.N. Charter and several treaties and urged Moscow to pull back its troops in the Crimean Peninsula to barracks and to start real negotiations to tackle the conflict.
The public in Crimea will vote on Sunday whether to break away from Ukraine and become part of Russia. Russia on Thursday conducted new military maneuvers near its border with Ukraine.
"This aggression has no reasons and no grounds," Yatsenyuk said. "This is absolutely and entirely unacceptable in the 21st century, to resolve any kind of conflict with tanks, artillery and boots on the ground."
Later, speaking to reporters, he wondered aloud whether "the final destination" of Russia's military is Crimea, Kiev or other cities ruled by the Soviet Union 60 years ago.
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