• Ukrainian national-cultural revival (the end of the XVIII c.)

• Communist ideology lost its authority, the society was quickly politicized.

• There began the actions of protest against closing the schools with education in Ukrainian, against forcing out the national language from the sphere of state management, book-publishing and mass media.

Government and politics

• Ukraine is a republic under a mixed semi-parliamentary semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

• The President is elected by popular vote for a five-year term and is the formal head of state.

• Ukraine's legislative branch includes the 450-seat unicameral parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.

• The Ukrainian landscape consists mostly of fertile plains (or steppes) and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the Dnieper (Dnipro), Seversky Donets, Dniester and the Southern Buh as they flow south into the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov.

• The country's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest is the Hora Hoverla at 2,061 m (6,762 ft), and those on the Crimean peninsula, in the extreme south along the coast.

View of Yalta from the coast of the Black Sea.

Azov sea coast near Kerch.

The Dnieper River seen atop a hill in Kiev, Ukraine.

Tiraspol and the Dniester river

A collection of traditional pysanky from Volyn

The Pysanka Museum, Kolomiya, Ukraine

1. Sofiyivsky Park in Uman, Cherkasy Oblast

It was founded in 1796 by Count Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, a noble Polish szlahtich. The park is named after his Greek wife Sofia and was built in 1802. It's one of the world famous garden-park art creations. There are many scenic areas in the park including waterfalls, fountains, ponds and a stone garden. It is one of the most famous examples of late 17th or early 18th century European landscape garden design that has been preserved to the present time.

2. Kiev Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) in Kiev

Since its foundation as the cave monastery in 1015 the Lavra has been a prominent center of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Eastern Europe. Together with the Saint-Sophia Cathedral, it is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Currently, the jurisdiction over the site is divided between the state museum, National Kyiv-Pechersk Historic-Cultural Preserve, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as the site of the chief monastery of that Church and the residence of its leader, Metropolitan Volodymyr.

3. Kamianets-Podilskyi Historical Complex inKamianets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi Oblast

An old street in Kamianets-Podilskyi's old town quarter.

The Stephen Báthory Gate is part of the city's old fortification complex.

4. Khortytsia[8] in Zaporizhia, Zaporizhia Oblast

Nowadays, Khortysia is designated a national museum. The rural landscape of the island features the Zaporizhian Cossack Museum and a Cossack horse show. The museum building is modern, nestling low in the landscape with dramatic views of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station to the north.The museum contains exhibits dating from the Stone Age through the Scythian period (c.750 - 250 BC) down to the 20th century, including a model of the Pecheneg ambush which claimed the life of Svyatoslav in 972 and a panorama representing the Battle for Zaporizhia, fought during World War II on October 14, 1943.

5. Chersonesos[9] in Sevastopol

Chersonesos was an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2500 years ago in the southwestern part of Crimea, known then as Taurica. The colony was established in the 6th century BC. Chersonesos' ancient ruins are presently located in one of Sevastopol's suburbs. The buildings mix influences of Greek, Roman and Byzantine culture. The defensive wall is hundreds of meters long. Buildings include Roman amphitheatre and a Greek temple.

6. Saint Sophia Cathedral[10] in Kiev

7. Khotyn Fortress[11] in Khotyn, Chernivtsi Oblast

The Khotyn Fortress is a fortification complex located on the shores of the Dniester River in Khotyn, Chernivtsi Oblast of western Ukraine. Construction on the current fortress was started in 1325, while major improvements were made in the 1380s and in the 1460s.The fortress is a large tourist attraction for the area and Ukraine. It is also a National Ukrainian Architectural Preserve as of 2000.

Demographics• According to the Ukrainian Census of 2001,

ethnic Ukrainians make up 77.8% of the population.

• Other significant ethnic groups are Russians (17.3%), Belarusians (0.6%), Moldovans (0.5%), Crimean Tatars (0.5%), Bulgarians (0.4%), Hungarians (0.3%), Romanians (0.3%), Poles (0.3%), Jews (0.2%), Armenians (0.2%), Greeks (0.2%) and Tatars (0.2%).

• The industrial regions in the east and southeast are the most heavily populated, and about 67.2 percent of the population lives in urban areas.

• Ukraine is considered to be in a demographic crisis due to its high death rate and a low birth rate.

• A factor contributing to the relatively high death is a high mortality rate among working-age males from preventable causes such as alcohol poisoning and smoking.

• To help mitigate these trends, the government continues to increase child support payments. Thus it provides one-time payments of 12,250 hryvnias for the first child, 25,000 hryvnias for the second and 50,000 hryvnias for the third and fourth, along with monthly payments of 154 hryvnias per child.

Lilacs in the Central Botanical Garden, with Vydubychi Monastery and the Left Bank of Kiev in the background.

E40, the longest of all European routes, going through Kiev.

General view of the Andriyivskyy Descent with the Castle of Richard Lionheart on the left and the St Andrew's Church in the background.

This ensemble of authentic windmills is the centrepiece of a 1.5 square kilometres (0.58 sq mi) open air Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine

Fire safety is a significant concern as most of the museum's structures are wooden, and many houses have thatched roofs.

View of the historic Old Town of Lviv.

A Lviv tram on a small cobblestone sidestreet in the Old Town.

The Lviv Opera and Ballet Theatre, an important cultural centre for residents and visitors.

Lychakivskiy Cemetery, 2007

Kharkiv's Freedom Square.

The ruins of an ancient Greek theatre. Chersonesus, Sevastopol.

Ruins of Panticapaeum. 6th century BC (Kerch)

Yenikale fortress. Built by the Turks in the 18th (Kerch)

The Massandra Palace near Yalta is one of the official residences of Ukraine.

                        

Swallow's Nest, a symbol of Crimea, one of the best-known, romantic castles near Yalta. It was built in 1912 in the Neo-Gothic style by the order of the German Baron Stengel.

The Hansaray, succession home of the Crimean Khans, in Bakhchisaray.

The Greek colony of Chersonesos, Sevastopol.

Genoese fortress of Caffa in Feodosia

View of the Sevastopol port.

Bay of Sudak.

View of Yalta and the surrounding Crimean Mountains, as seen from the "Tsar's Path".