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Countless children across the world have heard of Ukraine - not from maps or geography textbooks, but from the compilations of Ukrainian Folk Tales which seem to be universally popular. Stories of magical bears and wolves; of witches and the handsome princes who outwitted them. Stories which bring a country to life- a country of bitter cold winters and warm, friendly households. Of potent vodka and onion-domed churches; of some of the most spectacular architecture in the CIS; of grasslands stretching as far as the eye can see, of warm Black Sea beaches and the Battleship Potemkin. This is a country dotted with names familiar to any student of history: Odessa, Sevastopol, Kiev, Yalta and Chernobyl.

A country which has weathered many storms, from nuclear disaster to forced communism- a country which is now on the upswing, opening its doors to tourists flocking to Kiev’s St Sophia Cathedral, to the beaches of Crimea, the national parks of the Western Carpathians.

Did you know that the Ukrainians were the first people to have lived on Earth? Well, Trypillia, a village that is situated in Ukraine, 40 km from Kyiv has been traced as the most ancient civilization in the world. Trypillians lived on the Earth in the period 5,400 - 2,700 BC!!

Historically Speaking

Ukraine was inhabited in pre-historic times by nomadic tribes from Central Asia. `Western civilisation’ came to the country only in the 1st millennium BC, when the Greeks, the Romans and the kingdom of Byzantium set up outposts in Ukraine. East Slavic peoples arrived in about 6 AD, and set up the first Ukrainian state, governed from Kyyiv, three hundred years later. The Rus empire, as it was called, spread into neighbouring Russia and Belarus, but was wiped out, in the 13th century, by marauding Mongols. By the 14th century, Ukraine was divided, one part ruled by Poland and the other under the control of Lithuania.

Foreign rule, as was probably to be expected, was not welcomed by the freedom-loving Cossacks, who engineered an insurrection in the mid-17th century. The situation did change, but not drastically; Ukraine became a part of Russia, with the region of Galicia being annexed by Austria.

The 20th century was a tumultuous period for Ukraine. Russian attempts to suppress Ukrainian nationalism took their toll, and forcible inclusion in the USSR, followed by famines and the Second World War, and wrecked Ukraine.

By the 1970s, a nationalist movement had again started gathering force, but it remained subdued until 1991, when the collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in the independence of Ukraine.

Habitat

Fractionally larger than France, Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe (Russia, of course, beats everybody hollow when it comes to sheer size!). Ukraine’s a landlocked mass, bounded on the east by Russia; on the west by Poland, Slovakia and Hungary; and on the north by Belarus. To the south lie two inland lakes, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov . Nearly 95% of Ukraine consists of flat lowlands, drained by rivers like the Dnieper, the Dniester and the Siversky Donets. To the west of the country lie the mountain ranges of the Ukrainian Carpathians; and along the southern part of the Crimean Peninsula are the Crimean Mountains. Most of inland Ukraine consists of rolling grasslands, nearly half of which have now been cultivated- what was once known as the `bread basket of the USSR’.

There is little forest in Ukraine; whatever remains is in the north of the country. Prominent trees include linden, ash, willow, aspen, oak, maple, beech and spruce. Almost a quarter of Ukraine’s endemic flora is found in its forests, especially in the Ukrainian Carpathians and the Crimean Mountains.

The alpine areas of the country are also among the few places where much of Ukraine’s native wildlife is still found. There are an estimated 45,000 species of animal life in Ukraine, of which the bulk- about 35,000 species- consists of insects (avoid the great outdoors if you don’t like creepy-crawlies!). More visible fauna includes mammals like foxes, martens, wolves, bears, elk and gazelles; some 200-odd species of fish, and a rich bird life, which includes some highly endangered species like the steppe eagle, the Eurasian black vulture and the grey heron.