CNN
 — 

Here’s a take a look at Ukraine, the second-largest European nation in house after Russia. It borders Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Belarus, Russia and the Black Sea in Eastern Europe.

(from the CIA World Factbook)
Area: 603,550 sq km (fairly smaller than Texas)

Population: 43,528,136 (June 2022 est.)

Median age: 41.2 years previous

Capital: Kyiv

Ethnic Groups: 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%, and different 1.8% (2001 est.)

Unemployment: 8.9% (2019 est.)

Prior to the twentieth century, Ukrainian territories had been managed at other occasions via Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Mongols, Cossacks and others.

From the 18th to twentieth centuries, Russia and the Soviet Union performed a program of Russification to deter Ukrainian nationwide id.

1917-1920 – Following the 1917 Russian Revolution and towards the top of World War I, Ukraine is in brief an impartial country.

Twenties – Ukraine turns into a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

1921-1922 – A famine kills multiple million folks.

1932-1933 – Soviet chief Joseph Stalin’s coverage of collectivization ends up in the Great Famine (Holodomor) during which hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians die of hunger.

1941 – During World War II, Germany invades Ukraine. More than six million Ukrainians, the good majority of them civilians, die within the conflict.

1944 – The Soviet Union regains regulate of Ukraine and expands its borders to incorporate territory taken from Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

April 26, 1986 – Reactor 4 explodes at the Chernobyl, Ukraine, nuclear power plant, freeing massive quantities of radiation into the ambience. More than 30 folks died, and numerous others later died from radiation symptoms. The executive evacuates some 135,000 folks from the world, and the 19-mile exclusion zone across the plant stays uninhabitable.

July 16, 1990 – Ukraine announces sovereignty.

August 24, 1991 – Parliament announces independence, pending a referendum on December 1.

December 1, 1991 – The referendum for independence passes with 90% approval.

December 8, 1991 – Ukraine joins the brand new Commonwealth of Independent States, along side Russia and Belarus.

2004 – President Leonid Kuchma declines to run for a 3rd time period and endorses Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Russian President Vladimir Putin additionally helps Yanukovych’s marketing campaign.

September 2004 – Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko develops a mysterious sickness which leaves his face pock-marked. Medical assessments later display he’s affected by dioxin poisoning.

October 31, 2004 – In the primary spherical of presidential elections, Yanukovych and Yushchenko each obtain about 40% of the vote.

November 21, 2004 – Preliminary go out polls from the run-off election give Yushchenko a lead of 52% to Yanukovych’s 43%, however Yanukovych is formally declared the winner. Independent election screens allege fraud.

November 22, 2004 – Mass protests sweep the rustic, with demonstrators dressed in orange, Yushchenko’s marketing campaign colour. Activist Yulia Tymoshenko turns into a distinguished determine of the pro-Western Orange Revolution.

December 3, 2004 – The Supreme Court laws the former run-off election invalid and orders a brand new run-off.

December 26, 2004 – Yushchenko wins the election with about 52% of the vote and is sworn in as president a month later.

January 2005 – Yushchenko names Tymoshenko as high minister.

September 2005 – Yushchenko fires his complete cupboard, together with Tymoshenko.

January 2006 – Russian power monopoly Gazprom in brief cuts off herbal gasoline provides to Ukraine.

December 18, 2007 – Tymoshenko returns as high minister.

January 2009 – Gazprom once more cuts off provides of herbal gasoline to Ukraine over a cost dispute.

January 17, 2010 – Presidential elections are held. Yushchenko receives handiest 5% of the vote. Yanukovych receives 35% and Tymoshenko receives 25%, necessitating a run-off.

February 14, 2010 – In the run-off, Yanukovych wins 48.95% of the vote to Tymoshenko’s 45.47%. Tymoshenko alleges fraud and is overtly essential of Yanukovych. She loses her place as high minister in March.

June 2010 – Ukraine’s parliament abandons plans to enroll in NATO.

August 2011 – A court docket movement requires Tymoshenko’s arrest. The arrest is in connection to a 2009 gasoline contract negotiated when she used to be high minister. Tymoshenko brushes off all fees in opposition to her as political, calling the trial a “farce.”

October 2011 – Tymoshenko is found guilty of criminally “abusing her office” over the 2009 gas deal with Gazprom. She is sentenced to seven years in jail.

November 21, 2013 – President Yanukovych backs out of a industry handle the European Union because of force from Russia. Street protests begin in Kyiv.

December 17, 2013 – Putin is of the same opinion to shop for $15 billion of Ukraine’s debt and cut back the cost of herbal gasoline equipped to the rustic.

January 16, 2014 – Yanukovych indicators regulations proscribing the suitable to protest. This ends up in massive numbers of protesters in Kyiv and clashes with police. The regulation is repealed on January 28.

February 21, 2014 – Negotiations result in a deal which reduces Yanukovych’s powers as president and rolls again portions of the Constitution.

February 22, 2014 – Parliament votes to take away Yanukovych from workplace. On the similar day, former Prime Minister Tymoshenko is released from prison.

February 24, 2014 – An arrest warrant is issued for Yanukovych.

February 28, 2014 – Andrii Parubii, the Ukrainian leader of nationwide safety and protection, says the rustic’s army and police forces have stopped Russian army forces from seizing two airports in Crimea.

March 1, 2014 – The higher space of the Russian parliament votes to ship troops into Crimea at the similar day the pro-Russian chief of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, asks Putin for lend a hand in keeping up peace.

March 2, 2014 – Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says of Russian troops within the Crimean peninsula, “This is a pink alert. This isn’t a risk. This is in fact a declaration of conflict to my nation.”

March 3, 2014 – Ukrainian Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev tells an emergency assembly of the UN Security Council that Russia has used planes, boats and helicopters to flood Crimea with 16,000 troops prior to now week.

March 4, 2014 – US Secretary of State John Kerry visits Ukraine and declares the United States will give Ukraine’s new executive a $1 billion mortgage ensure. Senior US management officers inform CNN this may occasionally lend a hand insulate the Ukrainian economic system from the results of diminished power subsidies from Russia.

March 6, 2014 – Crimea’s parliament votes to carry a referendum on leaving Ukraine and turning into a part of Russia.

March 16, 2014 – In the Crimean referendum, 96.7% vote in desire of leaving Ukraine and being annexed via Russia.

March 17, 2014 – US and EU officers announce sanctions on greater than two dozen Russian officers and their allies in Crimea. Crimea’s regional parliament applies to enroll in with Russia, and in Moscow, Putin indicators a decree that acknowledges the independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Crimea.

March 18, 2014 – In Moscow, Putin indicators an annexation pact with the high minister of Crimea and the mayor of town of Sevastopol.

March 18, 2014 – In reaction to masked gunmen killing a member of Ukraine’s army, wounding every other and hanging the remainder of the group of workers of a base in Crimea below arrest, the Defense Ministry authorizes its forces in Crimea to make use of guns “to offer protection to and maintain the lifetime of Ukrainian infantrymen.”

March 21, 2014 – Yatsenyuk, in Brussels, signs the political elements of a trade pact with the European Union.

March 22, 2014 – In Crimea, Russian particular forces take regulate of Belbek Airbase, and pro-Russian self-defense forces take regulate of Novofederoskoe army base and a Ukrainian send, the Slavutych.

March 27, 2014 – The International Monetary Fund is of the same opinion to permit Ukraine to borrow up to $18 billion over the following two years. The UN General Assembly approves a solution stating Crimea’s succession referendum from Ukraine is not valid; the solution’s vote is 100-11, with 58 abstentions.

April 15, 2014 – Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov tells the rustic’s Parliament an “anti-terrorist operation” is under way in Ukraine’s restive eastern Donetsk region. Tensions have soared in fresh days in jap Ukraine, the place pro-Russian rebels have seized executive and police constructions in as many as 10 cities and towns.

May 25, 2014 – Petro Poroshenko declares victory in Ukraine’s presidential election, following initial go out polls that recommended he were given 56% of the vote.

May 27, 2014 – Authorities announce {that a} battle between pro-Russian rebels and government forces at Donetsk airport has claimed 40 lives.

June 7, 2014 – Poroshenko is sworn in as Ukraine’s new president.

June 27, 2014 – Ukraine indicators a industry handle the European Union, the similar settlement that Yanukovych subsidized out of in 2013.

July 17, 2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashes in jap Ukraine after being shot down by a surface-to-air missile, according to the United States. All 298 folks aboard are killed.

July 24, 2014 – Yatsenyuk and his cupboard announce their resignation. Per week later, parliament rejects his resignation.

September 20, 2014 – Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists conform to a ceasefire.

October 26, 2014 – Ukrainians vote in parliamentary elections. Ukrainian voters in Russia-annexed Crimea and the jap spaces managed via pro-Russian separatists don’t take part within the elections on account of ongoing violence. Poroshenko hails go out ballot effects and says the projected result offers “a formidable and irreversible backing to Ukraine’s trail to Europe.”

January 26, 2015 – Poroshenko declares that Ukraine will ask The Hague tribunal to analyze alleged “crimes in opposition to humanity” within the battle in jap Ukraine.

February 5, 2015 – With Kerry via his aspect, Yatsenyuk says the Russian military is on the ground in the country.

February 11, 2015 – French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Poroshenko and Putin meet in Minsk, Belarus, for peace talks.

February 12, 2015 – Peace talks end in a step forward: A ceasefire and an settlement for either side to drag again heavy guns. In March, heavy guns are pulled again from the entrance strains, however the violence continues.

April 10, 2016 – Yatsenyuk announces he will resign.

September 28, 2016 – The Joint Investigation Team, a Dutch-led team of prosecutors amassing proof for a possible legal trial, says that it has concluded that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 used to be downed over jap Ukraine via a Buk missile introduced in from Russia to a pro-Russian house of jap Ukraine.

October 16, 2016 – Pro-Russian separatist commander Arsen Pavlov, known by the nickname “Motorola,” is killed within the town of Donetsk, in jap Ukraine.

February 20, 2017 – A ceasefire aimed at ending the bloody fight between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists starts. The ceasefire is a renewed try to implement the Minsk peace protocol – an settlement that has many times failed because it used to be first partly applied in 2015.

March 23, 2017 – Denis Voronenkov, a onetime Communist member of Russia’s lower house of parliament, dies after being shot outdoor a lodge in Kyiv. Poroshenko calls the taking pictures a “Russian state terrorist act.” Voronenkov, who fled to Ukraine in 2016, is the most recent in a string of Putin and Russia’s critics who had been killed or injured below mysterious instances.

July 20, 2018 – The Pentagon releases $200 million in security assistance to the Ukraine. The funds were contingent on Ukraine passing a series of defense reforms to help bring the country’s defense practices into line with modern standards. Ukraine’s passage of a brand new nationwide safety regulation, signed via Poroshenko on July 5, met the necessities enshrined in the United States regulation, thereby permitting the Pentagon to unencumber the finances.

November 25, 2018 – The Ukrainian army says Russian boats opened hearth on and seized 3 of its ships close to Crimea, detaining 23 of its sailors and wounding no less than 3. The ships had been making plans to go into the Kerch Strait, a shared waterway of strategic significance for each nations. Russia claims the vessels illegally entered Russia’s territorial waters and had been wearing out bad maneuvers, in line with Russian state information company TASS.

November 26, 2018 – Ukrainian lawmakers vote to introduce martial regulation within the border spaces with Russia. It might be offered on November 28 and can closing 30 days.

January 24, 2019 – Yanukovych is located responsible of treason via a Ukrainian court docket for serving to Russia and for his makes an attempt to quash demonstrations in 2014. He is sentenced in absentia to 13 years in jail.

April 21, 2019 – Political newcomer and television comedian Volodymyr Zelensky announces victory in Ukraine’s presidential elections after go out polls display he’s on target for a landslide win in opposition to incumbent Poroshenko. Zelensky’s populist marketing campaign targeted on his vow to fight corruption and jumpstart the economy.

May 1, 2019 – The New York Times publishes a piece of writing about allegations in opposition to former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden associated with a Ukrainian power corporate known as Burisma Holdings. The more youthful Biden served at the board of Burisma and in 2016, his father harassed Ukraine to oust a prosecutor who had investigated the corporate. Rudy Giuliani, the private legal professional of US President Donald Trump, tells the Times that he’s having a look into the subject on behalf of his shopper, indicating that the vice chairman’s transfer used to be motivated via a need to offer protection to his son from legal fees. Giuliani’s claims are later undermined when Bloomberg reviews that the Burisma investigation used to be “dormant” when Biden pressed the prosecutor to surrender.

May 7, 2019 – The US Embassy in Kyiv declares that Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch will go away her put up previous than deliberate.

May 20, 2019 – Zelensky is sworn in as president. He orders a snap election for parliament.

July 21, 2019 – Zelensky’s birthday party wins a majority of seats in parliament all over the snap election.

July 25, 2019 – Zelensky speaks with Trump by way of telephone. Trump asks Zelensky to paintings with Giuliani and Attorney General Bill Barr on a Biden investigation, in line with notes from the call launched within the wake of a whistleblower criticism concerning the president’s behavior. It is later reported that Trump informed his appearing leader of group of workers to block nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine ahead of he spoke to Zelensky.

September 1, 2019 – Zelensky meets US Vice President Mike Pence in Poland to mark the anniversary of the outbreak of WWII. Pence travels to Poland instead of Trump, who canceled his go back and forth to watch Hurricane Dorian because the typhoon approaches the southeastern United States. Zelensky and Pence speak about military assistance as well as corruption in Ukraine.

September 7, 2019 – Ukrainian and Russian media document that 70 people had been launched in a long-awaited prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia, a transfer this is supposed to ease tensions between the 2 nations.

September 25, 2019 – Zelensky meets Trump at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. During a joint press convention, Zelensky says he does no longer need to grow to be keen on American politics and he stresses that he didn’t really feel harassed via Trump all over the July telephone name.

October 1, 2019 – Zelensky is of the same opinion to carry an area election in jap Ukraine, signing accords with Russia, European screens and separatists from the area. The settlement may just pave the best way for peace talks between Zelensky, Putin and European leaders. Ukrainian nationalists protest the settlement, describing it as a capitulation to Russia.

January 8, 2020 – Iran unintentionally shoots down a Ukrainian plane near Tehran, killing 176 people. According to the overall group of workers of Iran’s militia, the airplane used to be by accident shot down because of human error.

February 20, 2020 – Protesters attack a convoy of buses carrying Ukrainian citizens and other nationals evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan. Protesters blocked roads within the Ukrainian the city of Noviy Sanzhari, the place 72 evacuees are to be monitored for the novel coronavirus.

March 4, 2020 – Zelensky replaces the rustic’s Prime Minister, pronouncing he was hoping the brand new PM would “do the inconceivable.” Ukraine’s Parliament approves Denis Shmygal as the new PM, after accepting the resignation of Oleksiy Honcharuk at an strange consultation of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.

June 11, 2020 – In a observation to CNN, the Pentagon confirms it is moving forward with a $250 million security assistance package to Ukraine, part of which used to be contingent on Kyiv making growth on reforms and anti-corruption efforts. The observation says that the “finances – $125 million of which used to be conditional on Ukraine’s growth on protection reforms – will supply apparatus to beef up ongoing coaching methods and operational wishes.”

December 3, 2021 – After months of steady increases alongside the Russia-Ukraine frontier, CNN reviews that Russian forces have capabilities in place alongside the Ukraine border to hold out a swift and speedy invasion, together with erecting provide strains comparable to scientific devices and gasoline that might maintain a drawn-out battle, must Moscow make a selection to invade.

December 8, 2021 – Biden rules out sending US troops to Ukraine to shield the rustic from a Russian invasion a day after laying out the consequences for such an incursion all over a telephone name with Putin.

February 24, 2022 – Russian military forces enter Ukraine and start a complete scale attack throughout airfields, army headquarters, primary towns and ports. Putin threatens “those who may be tempted to intervene” in Russia’s invasion.

June 29, 2022 – A report released by the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights paperwork 10,000 civilian casualties in Ukraine, together with 4,731 deaths, for the reason that invasion via Russia on February 24.