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From New World Encyclopedia

Ukraine

Location of Ukraine(orange) on the European continent(white)

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe, formerly a part of the Soviet Union, bordering Russia, Romania and the Black Sea.

From at least the ninth century, the territory of present-day Ukraine was a center of medieval East Slavic civilization forming the state of Kievan Rus. After a brief period of independence (19171921) following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ukraine became one of the founding Republics of the Soviet Union in 1922. Ukraine and became independent again after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

The Second World War and German occupation in Ukraine left total civilian losses estimated between five and eight million, including over half a million Jews killed by the Einsatzgruppen, sometimes with the help of local collaborators.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in 1986, and subsequent radiation contamination, along with economic woes, have been blamed for a population decline from 51 million in 1989, to 46.2 million in 2007.

Ukraine's culture has unique art, architecture, cuisine, dance, literature, music, theater, and cinema, all shaped by various eras of domination by other nations, Soviet repression, and an on-going striving for national identity.

The Ukrainian word Ukrayina stems from the Old Slavic root kraj, meaning "edge" or "borderland," and krayina means "country." In English, the country is sometimes referred to as the Ukraine, similar to the Netherlands, or the Congo. However, usage without the article is now more frequent, especially since the country's independence.

Ukraine has a strategic position in Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea and Sea of Azov in the south, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary in the west, Belarus in the north, Moldova and Romania in the south-west and Russia in the east. Some claim the geographical center of Europe is near the small town of Rakhiv, in western Ukraine.

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Ukraine is halting natural gas imports from Russia over price aggression before the worlds biggest exporter of the fuel cuts supplies, raising the risk of disrupted flows to Europe.

Ukraine will stop buying gas this month until a price agreement is reached, Energy Minister Yuri Prodan said in Kiev today. Russian President Vladimir Putin told his cabinet today to wait for further talks with Europe and Ukraine before demanding prepayment for supplies to Ukraine, which owes more than $2.2 billion for gas it imported through March.

About 15 percent of Europes supplies flow through Ukraines pipelines from Russia, making the country a linchpin in the continents energy security. Ukraine, which buys half its gas from Moscow-based OAO Gazprom, is seeking alternative supplies, including imports from Europe. Putin has used gas as a tool to pressure the government in Kiev to abandon attempts to reorient the economy toward the European Union.

Full coverage of the Crisis in Ukraine:

Europe can relax until September, Alexander Paraschiy, an analyst at Concorde Capital in Kiev, said by phone. If Poland and Hungary begin gas deliveries to Ukraine soon, like last year, Ukraine can survive without Russian gas, and transit to Europe wont suffer.

Gazproms price increase of more than 80 percent in April amounted to aggression against Ukraine, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said last week. The move threatens supplies to the country and transit shipments to Europe, Prodan said yesterday, according to Russias Interfax news service.

Putin, speaking at his residence near Moscow, told Gazprom and the government to seek additional talks before demanding prepayments from Ukraine. He criticized Europe for failing to provide financial support to Ukraine, even while recognizing the government in Kiev.

Russia continues to provide economic support and subsidize Ukraines economy with hundreds of millions, billions of dollars, Putin said. This situation, of course, cant go on forever.

Ukraine plans to import fuel via Slovakia, using a pipeline in reverse, Prodan told reporters. While the plan is technically possible, pipeline officials from both countries will hold talks next week to clear remaining legal obstacles, he said.

We have full backing from the EU, Prodan said, citing talks with the EU energy commissioner yesterday. It will help to solve question with reverse gas supplies from Slovakia.

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Ukraine Rejects Russian Gas Imports Before Putin Energy Meeting

Ukraine again missed a payment deadline late Monday on the natural gas it buys from Russia. Ukraine's debt to Russia over natural gas has led to supply cutoffs before, but there are other ways to resolve a long-standing dispute.

Another past-due gas bill is ratcheting up tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

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Ukraine missed a deadline late Monday to make its monthly natural gas payment to Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas company, which Kiev already owes a reported$2.2 billion for fuel for heating and electricity. Monday's blown deadline further strains relations with its primary gas supplier, and echoes past gas disputes in which Russia shut off supplies to Ukraine.

That could happen again, analysts say, but there's hope that the two sides might come to a more peaceful solution to Ukraine's gas debts. Once Western financial aid starts flowing into Kiev's coffers, it can begin to pay off what it already owes Gazprom. As for future debts, it could challenge Gazprom's recent price hikes in an arbitration court a case analysts say Kiev could win.

Still, Europe isn't taking any chances with a supplier that has a history of closing the spigot over unpaid bills. European Union officialshave organized an emergency "gas coordination group," Reuters reported Tuesday, with Ukraine's energy minister and industry leaders. The aim is to determine how to supply Ukraine and others in Europe with gas by tapping storage or reversing pipelines in case Russia cuts off its supply.

The likelihood of that happening is 50/50, according to Dmytro Naumenko, an energy analyst at the Kiev-basedInstitute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting.

"[A gas cutoff] may be used by Russia to escalate the political conflict with Ukraine," Mr. Naumenko writes via e-mail. "But in spring-summer season it's not a very efficient tool of pressure and thus will have limited impact on Ukraine."

A more likely outcome is that the two will negotiate a new price or will settle the dispute in an arbitration court. Ukraine's energy minister, Yuri Prodan, offered that possibility before a cabinet meeting Saturday.

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Ukraine misses gas payment. How will Putin respond?

Ukraine again missed a payment deadline late Monday on the natural gas it buys from Russia. Ukraine's debt to Russia over natural gas has led to supply cutoffs before, but there are other ways to resolve a long-standing dispute.

Another past-due gas bill is ratcheting up tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition

Ukraine missed a deadline late Monday to make its monthly natural gas payment to Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas company, which Kiev already owes a reported$2.2 billion for fuel for heating and electricity. Monday's blown deadline further strains relations with its primary gas supplier, and echoes past gas disputes in which Russia shut off supplies to Ukraine.

That could happen again, analysts say, but there's hope that the two sides might come to a more peaceful solution to Ukraine's gas debts. Once Western financial aid starts flowing into Kiev's coffers, it can begin to pay off what it already owes Gazprom. As for future debts, it could challenge Gazprom's recent price hikes in an arbitration court a case analysts say Kiev could win.

Still, Europe isn't taking any chances with a supplier that has a history of closing the spigot over unpaid bills. European Union officialshave organized an emergency "gas coordination group," Reuters reported Tuesday, with Ukraine's energy minister and industry leaders. The aim is to determine how to supply Ukraine and others in Europe with gas by tapping storage or reversing pipelines in case Russia cuts off its supply.

The likelihood of that happening is 50/50, according to Dmytro Naumenko, an energy analyst at the Kiev-basedInstitute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting.

"[A gas cutoff] may be used by Russia to escalate the political conflict with Ukraine," Mr. Naumenko writes via e-mail. "But in spring-summer season it's not a very efficient tool of pressure and thus will have limited impact on Ukraine."

A more likely outcome is that the two will negotiate a new price or will settle the dispute in an arbitration court. Ukraine's energy minister, Yuri Prodan, offered that possibility before a cabinet meeting Saturday.

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Ukraine misses gas payment. How will Putin respond? (+video)

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian authorities moved to quell pro-Moscow uprisings along the Russian border with mixed results Tuesday, retaking one occupied regional headquarters and watching protesters consolidate their hold on another.

In a third city, Luhansk, Ukraine's Security Service said separatists armed with explosives and other weapons were holding 60 people hostage inside the agency's local headquarters.

Those occupying the building issued a video statement saying they want a referendum on the region's status and warning that any attempt to storm the place would be met with armed force.

In the video, posted by Ukrainian media, a masked man identified the occupiers as Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and said that if authorities try to retake the building, "Welcome to hell, then!"

The Ukrainian government and the U.S. have accused Moscow of fomenting the unrest as a pretext for another Russian military incursion like the takeover of Crimea last month. Up to 40,000 Russian troops are massed along the Ukrainian border, according to NATO.

All the cities affected by the uprisings are in Ukraine's industrial heartland in the east, which has a large population of ethnic Russians and where hostility is strong toward the government that took power in February after the ouster of Kremlin-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych.

European Union envoy Catherine Ashton said she will meet with U.S., Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers next week to discuss the situation the first four-way meeting since the crisis erupted.

In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry threatened tougher economic sanctions against Moscow.

"What we see from Russia is an illegal and illegitimate effort to destabilize a sovereign state and create a contrived crisis with paid operatives across an international boundary," Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Kerry called the demonstrations in eastern Ukraine a "contrived pretext for military intervention just as we saw in Crimea."

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Ukraine Tries To Quell Pro-Moscow Uprisings