Ukraine – National Geographic Kids

EARLY HISTORYHumans have settled in Ukraine since prehistoric timesarchaeologists believe that humans were using stone tools there some 30,000 years ago. Around the 8th century B.C., long-term settlers began to arrive; these included Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians, tribes of people from whats now the country of Iran.

Around the 6th century B.C., ancient Greeks and Romans began to colonize the coast of the Black Sea, trading wine, iron, silver, and gold. Around the same time, tribes of people called Slavs were settling throughout the country. By the 11th century, Slavs had joined Viking invaders called Varangians to form the powerful kingdom of Kyivan Rus, the largest empire in Europe at the time.

In the 13th century, Mongols from central Asia attacked the kingdom and ended the Kyivan Rus reign. In the 1300s, Lithuania took control of most of Ukraine.

RUSSIA TAKES OVERPolish invaders arrived in Ukraine in the late 1500s. The Poles forced most Ukrainians to be serfs, or to work as farmers on land they didnt own. Some serfs rebelled and formed a military force called the Cossacks. In 1648, the Cossacks asked for Russias help to defeat the Poles, and the Cossacks won independence. But by the late 1700s, Russia had gained control of almost all of Ukraine.

In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, many Ukrainians tried to keep their culture and traditions alive. But Russia pushed back and banned the Ukrainian language in print and in public. By 1922, Ukraine was part of the newly formed Soviet Union. (The Soviet Union was the largest country to have ever existed and included what are now the separate countries of Russia, Lithuania, and Belarus, among others.)

In the 1930s, Soviets took over Ukrainian farms, leading to the death of millions of Ukrainians from starvation. During World War II in the 1940s, Ukraine was invaded by Germany. German forces enslaved millions of Ukrainians and murdered some hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian Jews. In 1944, Germans were driven out of Ukraine by the Soviets.

UKRAINIAN INDEPENDENCEAfter the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Ukraine declared its independence and elected the countrys first president, Leonid Kravchuk. The country did well at first. It established new currencythe hryvnia (like the U.S. dollar)and adopted the 1996 constitution under its second president, Leonid Kuchma. But in the early 2000s, Kuchma was accused of rigging elections, meaning that he and others in his party might have cheated to win.

POLITICAL UNRESTIn 2004, Viktor Yanukovych was elected president. But he also was suspected of cheating, and many Ukrainians who supported the losing candidate, Viktor Yuschencko, protested the results. When Yuschencko mysteriously became ill, supporters thought pro-Yanukovych forces had poisoned him so they started a protest called the Orange Revolution. Yuschencko was finally put in power.

In 2010, Yanukovych ran for president again and this time was elected. He began to establish closer ties with Russia, something not all Ukrainians liked. Some people in the Russian-speaking eastern part of the country agreed with this move, but much of the rest of the country didnt want to get involved with the Russian government. Violent protests broke out all over the country, with many calling for Yanukovych to step down.

Yanukovych was removed from office in 2014, and Petro Poroshenko was elected to replace him. Around the same time, Russian troops invaded the Crimean Peninsula, an area of land in southern Ukraine bordered by the Black Sea. Russias president, Vladimir Putin, said that the people of Crimea had voted for independence from Ukraine.

Many Ukrainians and leaders from several other countries didn't like Putins actions and thought the "vote" wasn't real. But in March 2014, Putin signed a treaty with some Crimean leadersthat said that Crimea was part of Russia. Ukrainian officials announced that they would not recognize the agreement and still considered Crimea part of Ukraine, not Russia.

Russian forces remained in Crimea to keep Ukraine from taking it back. Later in 2014, fights along the eastern border broke out between Ukrainians and Russian-backed rebels who wanted all of Ukraine to become part of Russia.

In 2019, comedian and actor Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine. Zelensky ran on a platform of uniting the country and ending border battles in the east with Russia. To help with that, the United States planned to give Ukraine millions of dollars in military aid to help fight the Russian occupations.

In July 2019, U.S. president Donald Trump was accused of withholding those funds unless Zelensky investigated Trumps political rival,Joe Biden. He refused, and Trump was eventually impeached, or formally accused of misconduct in office, by the U.S. House of Representatives over these claims. (Ukraine received the aid later in the year.)

WAR WITH RUSSIAIn February 2022, Putin announced an invasion on the country and sent troops to take over major cities, including the capital, Kyiv. Ukrainian citizens have been fighting back against the attacks, and Zelensky has vowed to remain in the country and fight until Ukraine regains its freedom.

Many world leaders strongly condemned Putins actions, and some punished Russia by stopping trade with the country or putting travel bans in place. The hope is that these punishmentscalled sanctionswill hurt Putin and Russia enough to stop the fighting before the war spreads into other European nations.

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Ukraine - National Geographic Kids