Table of Content 1) Brief Introduction 2) History 3) Milestones – Timeline format 4) Demographics and Socio Cultural Facts 5) Economy – Comparative Analysis with

India. 6) Major Industries and Companies 7) Polity, Government and Leadership 8) Geo Political Significance of the

Country 9) The country’s relations with India 10)Some of country’s recent news У к р а ї н а

Borders wi th: Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Poland, Hungary, Romania, & Slovakia. Sea frontiers: Turkey, Georgia, & Bulgaria. Area: 603,700 sq. km. MAP OF UKRAINE: 95% flat Mounta ins: Carpathian in the West, Highest Hoverla is 2,061 m high, & Crimean in the South. Administ rat ive div is ion: 24 regions (oblasts), AR of Crimea Kyiv (the capital), Sevastopol (naval base) & Kyiv (the Capital) Also known as Center of Slavic culture, the Mother of all Rus cities, the Majestic, & the City of Gardens.

A republic in south-eastern Europe; formerly a European soviet; the centre of the original Russian state which came into existence in the 9th century. Independence of Ukraine was proclaimed on August 24, 1991. Ukraine is the geographical centre of Europe.

1

History Although their northern neighbours disparagingly refer to Ukrainians as ‘little Russians’, it was Ukraine that was home to the first eastern Slavic state. So historically Ukraine is the birthplace of Russia rather than vice versa. Another irony is that this initial state, Kyivan Rus, was founded in the 9th century by neither Russians nor Ukrainians, but by Vikings – an indication of just how much foreigners have meddled in the region’s convoluted history. Invaded by Mongols from the east, encroached upon by Poland and Lithuania from the west and requisitioned by Russia from the north, Ukraine’s national culture was principally forged in the wild, Cossack-held steppes in the middle. The baton of nationalism was taken up again in the 19th century by western Ukrainians under Austro-Hungarian rule, but it took the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union for a centuries-old dream of an independent state to be realised.

Cimmerians to khazars Before Kyivan Rus, Ukraine’s prehistory is tribal. First came the Cimmerians in the 12th century BC. Then, fierce warrior Scythians from Central Asia settled the steppe in the 7th century BC, while Greeks from western Asia Minor established city-states around the Black Sea.

Successive waves of nomadic invaders (Sarmatians from the east, Germanic Ostrogoths from northern Poland and Huns from Mongolia) continued to sweep into Ukraine.

However, the Slavs, thought to originate from near the borders of present-day Poland, Belarus and northwestern Ukraine, remained untouched by these invasions. Turkic-Iranian Khazars from the Caucasus were probably the first to bring the Slavs under subjugation, in the 8th century AD.

Kyivan rus Meanwhile, Scandinavians – known as Varangians or Rus to the Slavs – had been exploring, trading and setting up small states east of the Baltic since the 6th century AD. Travelling south from the Rus power centre of Novgorod (near modern-day St Petersburg) in 879, King Oleh stopped just long enough to declare himself ruler of Kyiv. The city handily lay between Novgorod and Constantinople on the Dnipro River, and under Oleh’s urging it became capital of a huge, unified Rus state. At its largest, under the rule of Volodymyr the Great (978–1015), this empire stretched from the Volga to the Danube and to the Baltic, its prosperity based on trade along the Dnipro. Despite Nordic rule, the territory’s underlying culture remained essentially Slavic.

As well as consolidating Rus territory, Volodymyr firmly established Orthodox Christianity as the pre-eminent religion. By accepting baptism in 989 and marrying the Byzantine emperor’s daughter (at Khersones outside Sevastopol), he opened the door to Byzantine artistic influences and cast Kyivan Rus as a European, rather than Islamic Asian, state. St Sofia’s Cathedral in Kyiv is still testament to Kyivan Rus’ greatness and the importance of Orthodox Christianity within the state.

After the death of Kyivan Rus’s last great ruler, Yaroslav the Wise, in 1054, the empire began disintegrating into separate princedoms. When Mongol warriors sacked Kyiv in 1240, it largely ceased to exist. According to Russian and Western historians, who believe present-day Russia, Ukraine and Belarus all stem from Kyivan Rus, the centres of power then simply shifted north and west, with Russia evolving from the northern princedoms of Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal. Some Ukrainian historians, however, prefer to treat Russia as a distinct civilisation – emanating from and returning to Novgorod after 1240.

Mongols , Tatars & Turks The Mongol invasion that sounded the death knell for Kyivan Rus in 1240 was led by Genghis Khan’s grandson Batu. As a result of his handiwork, a large swathe of the Rus empire was subsumed into the so-called Golden Horde (‘horde’ meaning region) of the Mongol empire. This encompassed much of eastern and southern Ukraine, along with parts of European Russia and Siberia, with the city of Sarai, on the Volga, as its capital.

Over time, Mongol leaders were gradually replaced by their Tatar colleagues and descendants, and when the horde began to disintegrate in the 15th century, it divided into several smaller khanates. One of these – the Crimean Khanate – eventually became a client state of the Constantinople-based Ottoman Turk Empire in 1475. The Crimean Tatars, as the people of the khanate were known, made frequent slave raids into Ukrainian, Russian and Polish territory until the 18th century. When Russia overran Crimea in 1783, it retaliated. The Tatars suffered dreadfully and often have ever since. Reminders of their once-powerful civilisation can be seen in Bakhchysaray, which is finally becoming resurgent in the 21st century.

2 of 12

Galic ia-volynia Meanwhile, from 1199 under the rule of Prince Roman Mstyslavych, the region of Galicia-Volynia (most of present-day western, central and northern Ukraine, plus parts of northeastern Poland and southern Belarus) became one of the most powerful within Kyivan Rus. This enclave’s geography differentiated it from the rest of the empire. More densely populated than any other part of Kyivan Rus, it developed a rich agricultural society. Until 1340 Galicia-Volynia (also called Halych-Volhynia) enjoyed independent rule under Roman, his son Danylo, grandson Lev and descendants, who kept the Mongols at bay and helped Lviv and other cities to flourish. Political control was wrested from this local dynasty by the Poles and Lithuanians in the 1340s, who split the kingdom between them and used it as a base to expand eastwards into other areas of Ukraine, including Kyiv.

Cossacks Later lionised – perhaps overoptimistically – by nationalist writers such as Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko, the Cossacks are central to the country’s identity. They arose out of the steppe in the country’s sparsely populated mid-south. In the mid-15th century, it was a k i n d o f n o - m a n ’ s - l a n d s e p a r a t i n g t h e Polish-Lithuanian settlements in the northwest from the Tatars in Crimea.

However, the steppe offered abundant natural wealth, and poorer individuals in Polish-Lithuanian society began making longer forays south to hunt or forage for food. The area also attracted runaway serfs, criminals, bandits and Orthodox refugees.

Although officially under Polish-Lithuanian rule from 1569, and sometimes joining the commonwealth army as mercena ries, the Cossacks were largely left to their own devices. As Poland tried to tighten its control in the 17th century, there were Cossack-led uprisings to try to win greater autonomy. In 1654 the Cossacks formed their own so-called Hetmanate to assert the concept of Ukrainian self-determination. While initially successful, ultimately the Cossacks’ ­military uprisings only led to a change of overlord – from Polish to Russian.

Russian control Without Ukraine and its abundant natural wealth, Russia never would have been such a powerful player. It also offered access to the Black Sea, so after a series of wars with the Turks in the 18th century, Russia was keen to expand into southern Ukraine. In 1772 powerful Prusia, Austria and Russia decided to carve up Poland. Under the resulting Partitions of Poland (1772–95), most of western Ukraine was handed to Russia, but the far west around Lviv went to the Austrian Habs-burg empire. The Ukrainian nationalist movement was born in Kyiv in the 1840s, but when the tsarist authorities there banned the Ukrainian language from official use in 1876, the movement’s focus shifted to Austrian-controlled Lviv.

The 20 th Century

Ukraine’s situation changed in the aftermath of the First World War with

the breaking down of both the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires: an independent Ukraine finally arose after several centuries of imperialism. However, from the ruins of the two empires were born not one, but two dif ferent republics: the National Republic of Ukraine (Kyiv) and the National Republic of Western Ukraine. It was only in 1919 that a unification plan was put forth, too late to allow

Ukraine to maintain its independence. As well, its troubled history and lack of national defence made difficult the emergence of a strong state able to cope with the instability of the period difficult.

3 of 12

Between the two world wars Ukraine’s short-lived independence deteriorated in March 1921 with the sign-ing of the Riga Treaty which ended the fight between the Russian and Polish armies, and split Ukrainian territory between them. The majority of Ukraine became a socialist Republic of the Soviet Union, enjoying a certain degree of autonomy, at least on paper. After a relative tolerance from Moscow towards the Ukrainian culture – tolerance aiming to “convince” the population mostly peasantry of the well founded proletarian revolution, occurred the Stalinist repression with its fate of purges and famines. In his fight against bourgeoisie and peasantry, he tried hard to repress all kind of identity or religious affirmation – deporting or executing 4/5 of the Ukrainian elite. To bring into line the peasantry which resisted to the collectivization, exceptional and unworkable quotas of production were established on harvests. This policy turned dramatically and led to the biggest drama in Ukrainian history : the Holodomor. Those famines caused the death of more than 7 millions of Ukrainian between 1932 and 1933 and are still not recognized by Russian government.

The Second World War

The events preceding the Second World War prompted Ukrainian nationalists’ push for independence. Carpathian Ukraine was the first to declare independence in 1939, before being invaded by Hungary. Later, in June 1941, A Ukrainian State was proclaimed by the OUN, but its leaders were executed or exiled by the Germans shortly thereafter. After the reversal of the Nazi-Soviet alliance by Nazi Germany, Ukraine became a mere theatre for German-Russian conflict. The Nazis invaded the Soviet army on the lands of Ukraine in the summer of 1941 (Lviv in June; Kyiv in September; the Crimea in July of 1942). The Ukrainian people were also victim to the extermination policy of the Nazi regime. Around 1.5 million Jews were executed in a two year span in Ukraine and more than 2 million forced laborers were from Ukraine. In addition, the greater part of many towns’ harvests were confiscated, which led to another famine. The Red Army started to regain control of Ukraine in late 1943 and Stalin hurried to repress nationalists considered Nazi collabora-tors. The Soviet regime also deported 250 000 Tatars of Crimea in a two day span for the same reason. The Second World War was particularly hard for Ukrainians; causalities are

estimated at around 6 million victims and the country was left totally devastated. That being said, the borders set at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 – the same borders that remain to this day – gathered for the first time all Ukrainian people under one

The Sovie t per iod After Stalin died, de-Stalinization was initiated by Khrushchev to allow for the development of heavy industry (a sector in which Ukraine surpassed previous records), coal mining, agriculture, and even as

Ukrainian culture and identity. However, this cultural renewal was limited by a counterproductive repression policy. Indeed, the Ukrainian KGB, known to be the toughest in Soviet Union, suppressed all nationalist claims, unacceptable due to the prosperity of Ukraine, the fruits of which were being reaped by the Soviet Union. The Brezhnev era was marked by a period of political stagnation and

economic decline. Grain importation became necessary to feed the Ukrainian people. Repression of dissidents increased greatly. Some historians believe that deportation of Ukrainian nationalists to gulags only strengthened their convictions and endowed them with concrete political claims.

Perestroika (reorganization) and glasnost (transparency) undertaken by the Gorbachev administration in the 1980s quelled the fears of many Ukrainians rather than cementing the communist regime. Finally, political protest would be possible within the Union.

The independence There were two nationalist movements in 1989 that played a fundamental role: the Shevchenko Scientific society and the Rukh movement. The latter enjoyed electoral success in its support of the independent 'Democratic Bloc' during

Supreme Soviet elections of March 1990. Under the pressure of student movements and other forms of street protest in Kyiv in the autumn of 1990 that this one part of communists, displeased with perestroika, joined the the independents and made a vote for independence possible. Finally, the declaration of Independence, voted on unanimously by Parliament on the 24th of August 1991, superseded the rule of the Communist Party and marked Ukrainian as the official language in official statute of the newly independent country. This independence was confirmed on a larger scale by the referendum of 1st December 1991, which granted Ukraine international recognition. L. Kravchuk, former member of the 'pro-sovereignty' faction of the Communist Party, was elected President of Ukraine on the same day.

4 of 12

Milestones - Timeline

5 of 12

Demographics

Population: 43 million (2014) Capital: Kiev Area: 603,700 sq km (233,090 sq miles) Major languages: Ukrainian (official), Russian Major religion: Christianity

Life expectancy: 64 years (men), 75 years (women) (UN) Monetary unit: 1 hryvnya = 2.55 Indian Rupee Main exports: Military equipment, metals, pipes, machinery, Petroleum products, textiles, agricultural products. GNI per capita: US $6,540 (PPP, 2013) International dialling code: +380

6 of 12

Socio Cultural

Facts

Ethnic Make-up: Ukrainian 77.8%, Russian 17.3%, Belarusian 0.6%, Moldovan 0.5%, Crimean Tatar 0.5%, Bulgarian 0.4%, Hungarian 0.3%, Romanian 0.3%, Polish 0.3%, Jewish 0.2%, other 1.8% (2001 census)

Rel ig ions: Ukrainian Orthodox - Kyiv Patriarchate 19%, Orthodox (no particular jurisdiction) 16%, Ukrainian Orthodox - Moscow Patriarchate 9%, Ukrainian Greek Catholic 6%, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox 1.7%, Protestant, Jewish, none 38%

7 of 12

India GDP 1,498.87 USD (2013) Ukraine GDP 177.4 billion USD (2013) Between Ukraine and India India has a higher GDP Ukraine has a higher GDP per capita Ukraine has a lower unemployment rate Ukraine has higher current account balance

Economy – Comparative

Analysis with India

Cur rency Ukraine - Hryvnya India - Rupee

GDP per capi ta Ukraine $7,500

INDIA $3,900

Human Deve lopment Index

INDIA 0.586

Ukraine 0.734

8 of 12

Major Industries

and Companies

Oi l & gas :

Institute of Oil Transportation UkrTransNafta

Reta i l :

EpiCentre K, home improvement/gardening Fozzy Group, retail

Techno logy:

EKTA, display tech Travel & leisure

Aerosv i t Ai r l ines : Ukraine International Airlines

Ut i l i t i es :

Ukrtelecom

Bas i c mater ia ls :

Central Iron Ore Enrichment Works, iron ore Ingulets Iron Ore Enrichment Works, iron

Kryvorizhstal, steel

Zaporizhstal, steel

Consumer goods

ATB-Market, grocery Chumak, food processing

Nemiroff, alcoholic beverages

Obolon CJSC, beverages

Roshen, confectionery

Karl Marx Confectionery Factory

I ndust r i a ls :

Aeromeh, machinery Aeros, aircraft

Antonov, aircraft

AvtoZAZ, automotive

Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, steel/iron

Berdichev machine-building plant, machinery

Bogdan group, automotive

FOM-Ukraine, political/polling

Holography Ltd.

Interpipe Group

InvestUkraine

Kaalbye Group

Headliners Shipping

Motor Sich, engines

Novokramatorsky Mashinostroitelny Zavod, heavy equipment

Yuzhmash

Ukrainian Automobile Corporation, automotive

Ukrspetsexport

F inanc ia ls

ASKA Insurance Company, insurance Bank Forum, banking

BG Capital, investment banking

ESTA Holding, real estate

KDD Group, real estate

PrivatBank, banking

SCM Holdings, investments

9 of 12

Politics, Government

and Leadership

Government type : Republic Admin is t ra t ive d iv is ions : 24 provinces (oblasti, singular - oblast'), 1 autonomous republic* (avtonomna respublika), and 2 municipalities (mista, singular - misto) with oblast status**; Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Crimea or Avtonomna Respublika Krym* (Simferopol'), Dnipropetrovs'k, Donets'k, Ivano-Frankivs'k, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmel'nyts'kyy, Kirovohrad, Kyiv**, Kyiv, Luhans'k, L'viv, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sevastopol'**, Sumy, Ternopil', Vinnytsya, Volyn' (Luts'k), Zakarpattya (Uzhhorod), Zaporizhzhya, Zhytomyr Lega l system : civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts Judicial branch: highest court(s): Supreme Court of Ukraine (consists of 95 judges organized into civil, criminal, commercial, and administrative chambers, and a military panel); Constitutional Court (consists of 18 justices)

Po l i t i ca l par t ies and leaders : Batkivshchyna ("Fatherland") [Yuliya TYMOSHENKO] Communist Party of Ukraine or CPU [Petro SYMONENKO] Party of Regions [vacant] People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) [Borys TARASYUK] People's Party [Volodymyr LYTVYN] Radical Party [Oleh LYASHKO] Socialist Party of Ukraine or SPU [Oleksandr MOROZ] Svoboda ("Freedom") [Oleh TYAHNYBOK] Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms or UDAR [Vitaliy KLYCHKO] Union [Lev MIRIMSKY] United Center [Viktor BALOHA]

F lag desc r ip t ion: Two equal horizontal bands of azure (top) and golden yellow represent grain fields under a blue sky

10 of 12

Geo Political

Significance of the

Country

If Russia were to regain control over Ukraine with its 46 million people, major resources and access to the Black Sea, Russia would automatically regain the wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state. Number of key gas pipelines from Russia to Western Europe run through Ukraine. In pure economic terms, a shift to Russia would likely change the dynamics of how Western Europe is powered.

Ukraine is a huge country, and a huge country with a well-developed military industrial complex. Country could become a failed state and a "giant bazaar for customers seeking ICBM [Intercontinental ballistic missiles] and other deadly technologies."

11 of 12

B i la te ra l t rea t ies and agreements

More than 17 bilateral agreements have been signed between India and Ukraine, including agreements on Co-operation in Science and Tech., Foreign Office Consultation, Co-operation in Space Research, Avoidance of Double Taxation and Promotion and Protection of Investments.

Po l i t i ca l re la t ions

India has friendly relations with Ukraine. Annual Foreign Office consultations are held at Secretary level. The Deputy Foreign Minister in charge of the Asia region represents the Ukrainian side in these consultations. Ukraine has been positively co-operating with India at the international level also. Ukraine supports the resolution of the issue of Jammu & Kashmir on the basis of Simla agreement. Ukraine also supports reforms of the UN structure.

T rade re la t ions

The India Ukraine trade relation and economic co-operation has developed on the basis the long-standing friendship between the two countries. In March, 1992 the Treaty on Friendship and Co-operation was signed between India and Ukraine, providing a major boost to India-Ukraine trade relations.

India Ukraine trade relations have been developing at a very fast pace. There has been a threefold increase in the India Ukraine trade during 2003-2005 and it has exceeded US$1 billion. Ukraine imports from India have doubled and stand at US$ 3,214 million in 2006, while Ukraine exports to India have increased by 3.6 times and stands at US$ 7,369 million in 2006. The total turnover in India Ukraine trade during 2005-2006 has exceeded US$ 3.1 billion (as of January, 2014). The main items being imported by Ukraine from India are drugs, pharmaceutical production,Ores and minerals, tobacco products, tea, coffee, spices, silk and jute. The main items imported by India from Ukraine are chemicals, equipment, machines and engines.

Both the Ukrainian and Indian governments take part in the sessions of the Ukraine Indian Inter-Governmental Commission which hold the Joint Business Council Meeting of Ukraine-India. This has given a major boost to India Ukraine trade relations. After Russia, Ukraine is India's second largest trading partner in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Ukraine is not a new member in the Indian industry as its enterprises are actively involved and form the backbone of Indian power sector and heavy industries among others.

There are such joint stock companies as 'Ukrindustry' that has won contracts for conducting coke battery reconstruction at the plants of metallurgy in Rourkela and Bokaro. There are also Azovmash and Novokramatorskyi machine building plants that supply oxygen converter manufacturing equipment. India-Ukraine trade relations has also been successful in increasing co-operation between the two countries in technology and scientific field.

Sc ience and techno logy re la t ions

Under the Agreement signed between India and Ukraine in May 1992, the Joint S&T Committee meets annually to discuss implementation of projects, holding of exhibitions and co-operation in scientific research.The Committee last met in Kiev in October 2007 and approved 11 S&T projects for implementation. Days of Ukrainian Science and Technology were held in New Delhi in December 2004. National Space Agency of Ukraine and ISRO have ongoing co-operation in the space sector. Ukraine has a very strong IT Sector. Many offshore call centres have been successful. Aptech Limited from Mumbai has signed an Agreement in May 2004 with International Institute of Personnel Management (the biggest IT training centre in Ukrai ne) to organise IT programmes for schools and institutions in Ukraine. Bio-technology is the latest sector where companies such as Biocon, Genome etc. are co-operating with each other. It also supplies turbines for thermal, hydel and nuclear power plants.

In 2005, then President A P J Abdul Kalam expressed interest in strengthening co-operation with Ukraine in the field of space research during a speech given to Indians in Ukraine. He and members of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) later visited the Ukrainian space agency Yuzhnoye, one of the largest rocket manufacturing units in the world.

The country’s relations

with India

12 of 12

Architecture for B2B models

in Ecommerce Next

Slide

Connect with me, just by one click