Line #21 UsefulNotes/Ukraine


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/up-map.gif]]
2
3	'''Ukraine''' (''Україна'', pronounced ''oo-kra-yee-na'' in Ukrainian) is an Eastern European state that declared its independence in 1991, after the collapse of [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the Soviet Union]], and the easternmost country fully located in Europe.
4
5	The name "Ukraine" is derived from ''krai'', which in Eastern Slavic can mean both "edge" or "borderland", though some scholars have argued that it can also mean "country" or, somewhat poetically, "homeland". Historically, the country was sometimes referred to as "the Ukraine", but this is considered incorrect or even offensive in modern times. The problem has to do with grammar. In Eastern Slavic, the preposition "на" (pronounced "na") is used to refer to regions or areas, while "в" (pronounced "v") is used to refer to proper nouns or definite locations. Until independence it was considered correct to refer to Ukraine using "na", but now most Ukrainians have switched to "v". Russians, however, have stubbornly continued on using "na". This is a problem, because to Ukrainians this signifies that the speaker doesn't consider Ukraine a "real" country, although it is still possible to find Ukrainians who use "на" either out of habit or they just don't see it as a big issue.
6
7	Ukraine as a state draws its history all the way back from the ancient federation of Kievan Rus'. It was the first state to unify the Eastern Slavic tribes. Unsurprisingly, its capital was based in Kyiv. The state was united for approximately 300 years from the late 9th century to the 12th century, when it fractured into various quarreling principalities. This left them easy prey for the Mongol Empire, which easily conquered the East Slavs and made them vassals for almost 300 years. Afterwards, the East Slavs, which had been relatively united under the Kievan Rus', split as national borders were drawn. The main dichotomy was between the Ruthenians to the west, who were ruled by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the sprawling East Slavic principalities to the east, the most significant of which was the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The Ruthenians later gave rise to Belarusians and Ukrainians, while the Muscovites annexed the other principalities and became the Russians.
8
9	The Kievan Rus' and its splinters formed the last "Ukrainian" state for a long, long time. In fact, for the next 700 years from the 13th century all the way up to the end of the 20th century, there was little that could conceivably be called a "Ukrainian state", with Ukrainian land being variously ruled by Tatars, [[UsefulNotes/PolishLithuanianCommonwealth Lithuanians, Poles]], [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic Austrians]], and [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Russians]]. Even [[UsefulNotes/TheCityStateEra Italians]] and Turks had a go at ruling Crimea. There was, however, a period of progressively declining autonomy in 1649-1783. In 1648, Ukraine was site of the famous Khmelnytsky Uprising, named after its leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, which signaled the beginning of the end of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as well as its influence over its Ruthenian subjects. Khmelnytsky was the hetman (military commander) of Zaporozhian UsefulNotes/{{Cossacks}}, a community of East Slavs who were sometimes employed for protection against the Tatars but more well-known for their inclination towards freedom from the establishment. The uprising's success led to the creation of the Cossack Hetmanate, a semi-independent state in Central Ukraine. Although the hetmanate was liquidated and absorbed into Russia in 1764, it became an important precedent for the idea of an independent Ukrainian state in contemporary era. One of the theories on the origin of the name "Ukraine" itself postulates it is thanks to the Cossacks; when they were still allied with Poland, the Cossacks were responsible for the outermost defense of the Commonwealth from Tatars, so their territory was called the "borderland".
10
11	As you can imagine, this makes modern Ukraine a very interesting place. Ukraine has been a divided land for a long time. When UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} came to rule all the East Slavs, it considered itself to be carrying on the legacy of the Rus' - uniting all the Slavic people. As far as Russia was concerned, these people were all "Russian," split into three main groups: Great Russia (modern Russia), White Russia (modern UsefulNotes/{{Belarus}}), and Little Russia (modern Ukraine). They went so far as to deny that Belarusian and Ukrainian were separate languages, considering them merely rustic "dialects" of Russian.
12
13	Despite historically close political and cultural ties, Ukraine was never Russified to the same extent as Belarus (where Belarusian is by now only commonly spoken by 10% of the population). The War in Donbas is only the latest in a string of grievances going back centuries, starting with who can claim the mantle of the old Kievan Rus'. While Eastern Ukraine was ruled by Russia for many centuries and the Tsars attempted to impress on them the idea of being part of an All-Russian Brotherhood, many Ukrainians never quite shook the feeling that they were being ruled by a foreign power. Another issue is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor Holodomor ("death by hunger")]], a famine which lasted from 1932-33 due to Soviet crop seizures and agricultural policies, killing around 4 million Ukrainians. Many Ukrainians consider this little less than a Soviet holocaust, while many Russians claim the famine was due to factors outside of human control. Though it should be noted that although the Holodomor is widely regarded as a crime by both sides (at least one of negligence), the real matter of heated controversy is whether it should be seen as a crime of the Soviet regime (specifically UsefulNotes/JosephStalin) against its people or as a genocidal crime of Russia against Ukraine.
14
15	The problem is even bigger in Western Ukraine. While Eastern Ukraine was part of Russia for many centuries, Western Ukraine had only been ruled by Russia since the late 18th century at the very earliest. Until then it had been ruled mostly by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - though in the case of Galicia and Transcarpatia, which were previously part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russian rule only came in the 1940s. This makes Western Ukraine very culturally distinct from the rest of Ukraine, it being considered generally more "European" in everything - from architecture to religion (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Ternopil Oblasts are more than 50% Catholic). This divide is dramatically illustrated by typical Ukrainian voting results, with the country being split exactly down the middle: the east voting for the pro-Russia candidate and the west voting for the pro-Europe candidate.
16
17	However, while many Ukrainians object to being called Russian, there are in fact a large number of people in the east of the country who are ethnically Russian. Even more people speak Russian as a mother language (the hotbed of the current separatism, Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, are more than 50% Russian speaking). This doesn't necessarily mean they want to be part of Russia, though. Historically, eastern Ukraine only became significantly populated after large-scale clearances and plantations were conducted in the 18th century, and by that time, it was under control of the Russian Empire, so Russian influence held firmly. Before that, it was WildWilderness sporadically settled by Tatars. The same holds even true for Crimea, where 90% of the population exclusively speak Russian, although this is a relatively recent post-World War II phenomenon, caused in part by the genocidal deportation of native Crimean Tatars by the Soviet government.
18
19	Another controversy is the spelling of the capital. "Kiev" was the romanization of the ''Russian'' spelling, while "Kyiv" is the romanization of the Ukrainian spelling. Since independence, Ukrainians made it a point that English-speakers should write it as "Kyiv" - even passing legislation to that effect. Accordingly most political organizations, such as the US government and the United Nations, spelled it as "Kyiv" on official documents. "Kiev" remained in widespread colloquial use among English-speakers until the 2014 war in Donbas, when most major western English news sources gradually switched to "Kyiv", seemingly as a gesture of solidarity. This applies to other names as well, such as the river "Dnipro"/"Dnieper" (the former being the Ukrainian name).
20
21	Emotions can run high when discussing the history between Russia and Ukraine, especially when you do it in front of [[PatrioticFervor nationalists]]. Some Russian nationalists see Ukraine as a part of Russia which is not and never was its own state. Conversely, some Ukrainian nationalists see Ukraine as completely unrelated and culturally superior to Russians. During the [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Nazi German]] occupation, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_Ukrainian_Nationalists a particularly radical bunch of Ukrainian nationalists, OUN,]] [[LesCollaborateurs infamously cooperated with the Nazi authorities]] all in the name of breaking away from the Soviet Union, in the process campaigning for ethnic cleansing of both Poles and Russians in their territory (though it should be noted that this was not an unusual event in the Eastern Front; see UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}'s [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Guard Iron Guard]] and UsefulNotes/{{Croatia}}'s [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ustashe Ustaše]], which if anything were even worse. Another important note is that the majority of OUN fought against the Nazis as soon as it became apparent there was no place for independent Ukraine in their genocidal vision).
22
23	A notable recent event was the 2004 Orange Revolution, where peaceful demonstrations forced the re-run of a questionable election and changed the government from pro-Russian to pro-Western (later elections changed it back, but were more peaceful). Another event of note was Ukraine holding the Euro-2012 football championship, along with Poland, and preparations for the event were painstakingly made. The most notable event in Ukraine of the 2010s so far has been the semi-violent[[note]]By which we mean, there was shooting, but nothing resembling military operations, and the old leadership wasn't gunned down[[/note]] revolution of 2014 which overthrew the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych; this episode is called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan Euromaidan]], i.e. "Europe Square" (because the triggering event was Yanukovych rejecting a deal with UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion to take a deal with the Russians, and the first protest gatherings began on the aprly-named European Square in Kyiv) and is also known as "The Revolution of Dignity". In response, Russia annexed Crimea and started stirring up trouble in Eastern Ukraine; Website/TheOtherWiki has dubbed this [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimean_crisis the Crimean Crisis]]. For its part, Crimea seems indifferent or possibly happy to be part of Russia ([[EverythingExceptMostThings except for the native Crimean Tatars]], who have terrible memories of Russian occupation; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_of_the_Crimean_Tatars the last time they had to deal with a Russian government]], Stalin sent them all to Central Asia), while most surveys say that Eastern Ukraine is indifferent or possibly happy to remain a (prickly) part of Ukraine (protesters aside). Or rather they ''were''. After protesters took over several regions of Eastern Ukraine, a full-on undeclared war broke out (originally commonly known as the ATO for "Anti-Terrorist Operation" but since officially renamed "Joint Forces Operation") that only seems to have calmed down with the current Minsk treaty. Oh, and "calmed down" here means that the front line didn't move significantly in either direction, but the combat itself never ceased, and there's no end in sight, with reports of losses, shootings, assaults, etc arriving every day. Despite massive amounts of evidence to the contrary (as well as witness reports), Russia has claimed to have no part in the conflict for years, instead pushing the narrative of the conflict being a "civil war" and attempting to position itself as a mediator, only to start gradually dropping all pretense in favor of ''very'' thinly veiled threats of complete military invasion by late 2021.
24
25	Ukraine is also known as the location of the 1986 {{UsefulNotes/Chernobyl}} disaster, near its northern borders. It is home to the former V.I. Lenin Memorial Nuclear Power Station and the surrounding Zone of Alienation, most of that being in neighboring Belarus.
26
27	Ukraine is a developing country and an emerging market. Until recently, the country was known as the "breadbasket of Europe" due to its abundance of fertile farmland. However, the long period of Soviet rule transformed the country into an industrial powerhouse, which remains today. The fall of communism dealt a heavy blow on the overall economic conditions that it never really recovered from (according to the IMF, Ukraine is currently the second-poorest country in Europe, just ahead of UsefulNotes/{{Moldova}} and below the likes of UsefulNotes/{{Albania}} and UsefulNotes/{{Bosnia}}, both experiencing similar downturn related to the fall of communism).
28
29	During Soviet times, Soviet planners wanted to prevent ''any'' one region from establishing totally independent arms production, and a lot of defense and aerospace plants (such as Antonov and Yangel) ended up in Ukraine. When the USSR collapsed, the Russian Federation found itself in the unenviable position of having the vendors of many of its equipment and weapons systems in a foreign country and often they weren't very cooperative. Ukraine is sitting on top of a lot of old Soviet industrial bases, needless to say. Also for a while, they inherited all the nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles the Soviets had stationed in Ukraine, but they decided to give them up, as did Belarus and UsefulNotes/{{Kazakhstan}}, which had found themselves in similar positions.
30
31	Before Crimea was annexed by Russia (and before pro-Russian governments were ousted), the Russians used to lease a naval base there in Sevastopol. The Ukrainian parliament used to have one brawl per year ([[BloodOnTheDebateFloor literally]], with fists flying and things being thrown) over whether to let them stay. The Ukrainian parliament usually has additional brawls each year over other issues; it's that kind of government. Now that Russia controls the entire peninsula and has started invading Ukraine, it's a moot point.
32
33	People tend to get the flag upside-down. An easy way to remember the correct orientation is the flag represents the blue sky over rich fields of grain. This is a modern mnemonic however, and not official. There is occasionally confusion even among Ukrainians about what order the colors should be, possibly because historically sometimes the flag ''was'' flown with gold above blue. In those cases, the gold was said to symbolize the domes of Orthodox cathedrals while the blue represented the river Dnipro which flows through Kyiv. In any case, the blue-gold flag of Ukraine goes back centuries, and any definite original symbolism, if there ever was one, has been lost.
34	----
35	!!Some trivia
36
37	* During the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, Ukraine had its own representative in the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations, with the entire USSR and Belarus having representatives as well. Initially, Stalin attempted to have each of the sixteen Soviet republics to get a vote, under the reasoning that each was still sovereign. However, UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman pointed out that with this logic, each of the 48 (at the time) American states should be given a vote as well. However, Ukraine and Belarus were still given votes because Stalin made some changes to the Soviet, Ukrainian, and Belarusian constitutions to give the latter two the right to have their own militaries and foreign services[[note]]and thus, qualify as separate countries for international law purposes[[/note]] (which they never exercised until the USSR's breakup) and America was willing to humor him and the Soviet Union had far fewer allies than the West.
38	* The popular "Carol of the Bells" originated in Ukraine. As a New Year's Carol. In fact, Christmas is a very strict religious holiday in Ukraine, and all merriment happens on Saint Nicholas Day, which falls on either December 6 or 19 (depending on which calendar you use), and on New Year's, which is celebrated on January 14th thanks to the Ukrainian Orthodox Calendar being chronically behind. Also, the translation is horribly, horribly wrong. It's not about bells at all. It's about a swallow flying into people's homes to signal the coming of Spring.
39	* Although it is associated with the Russians and is present in the kitchen of all by all the Eastern Slavs, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht Borscht]] originated in Ukraine. They also have their own national kind of vodka, called Horilka (means "something that burns").
40	* Ukraine used to have one of the biggest Jewish populations in Europe, second only to UsefulNotes/{{Poland}}. Before World War II, it's estimated that the country hosted around 2.7 million Jews. The Holocaust wiped out about 70% of that. The combination of Soviet persecution, assimilation, intermarriage, and immigration following UsefulNotes/HoleInFlag caused what remained of the community to plummet to between 71,500 to 400,000 strong depending on population estimates. The country's current president, comedian-turned-politician Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish. In the past, Ukraine also had a Jewish prime minister, Volodymyr Grossman (2016-2019), and, for the brief period of time their tenures overlapped, Ukraine was one of the only two nations in the world alongside UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} to have both heads of state and government of Jewish descent.
41	----
42	!!Famous Ukrainians and Ukrainian diaspora include:
43
44	* Director Creator/SergeiBondarchuk was born in the village of Bilozirka, in modern-day Lanivtsi Raion (Ternopil Oblast).
45	* UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev, architect of ''zastoi'' ("peaceful co-existence and resource economics") came from Dnipro (Dnepropetrovsk). He was also totally bros with UsefulNotes/RichardNixon.
46	* Soviet director Alexander Dovzhenko (''Film/Earth1930''), born in Sosnytsia.
47	* Creator/VeraFarmiga (''Film/TheDeparted'', ''Film/UpInTheAir'', ''Film/TheConjuring'') and her sister Creator/TaissaFarmiga (of ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'' fame) were born in the USA from Ukrainian parents.
48	* The classic 19th century writer [[Creator/NikolaiGogol Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol]] ([[SmallReferencePools though he's often lumped together with Russian-born writers like Tolstoy and Chekhov]]). Although he was evidently Ukrainian and the events of his books took place in Ukraine, he is also considered a Russian writer by Russians because of his monarchical views, which regularly causes conflicts between Ukrainians and Russians.
49	* Creator/GSCGameWorld, a video game studio, creator of the ''VideoGame/{{Cossacks}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' series most notably.
50	* Eugene Hutz of Music/GogolBordello, which is named for the writer Gogol. Hutz often refers to himself as Russian, however.
51	* Susana Alimivna Jamaladinova (better known as Music/{{Jamala}}), winner of the 2016 Series/EurovisionSongContest for Ukraine. Her paternal family are Crimean Tatars deported to Central Asia during WWII. The singer herself was born and spent her childhood years in Kyrgyzstan before glasnost allowed her family to return to Crimea. The song she submitted (and won through) in the Eurovision is based on her great-grandmother's life as a deportee.
52	* Music/{{Jinjer}}, a metal band from Horlivka that has been making waves in the {{Metalcore}} scene in the 2010s.
53	* Creator/MillaJovovich of ''Film/ResidentEvilFilmSeries'' and ''Film/TheFifthElement'' fame was born in Kyiv, although she identifies more with Russia, as she was raised in Moscow until she emigrated to the US at the age of five. Her parents are likewise not Ukrainians; her mother is a Russian actress from Tuapse (with roots in Tula), while her father is a Serbian expat from Yugoslavia.
54	* UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev, who led the entire Soviet Union after Stalin's death. While not Ukrainian (he was from Kursk Oblast, near the Russia/Ukraine border), he (among other things) inadvertently laid the ground for the current situation in Crimea, by taking it from Russian Soviet Republic and giving it to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. This no doubt seemed to Khrushchev like a more logical geographical fit, seeing as Crimea is actually connected by land to Ukraine and not to Russia, but whether it was a proper ''cultural'' fit is a completely separate issue and much more complicated.
55	* The Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir, some of the greatest heavyweight boxers ever and very well known ones in that sport -- Vitali mainly held the WBC belt, and Wladimir the IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring Magazine ones. They promised their mother they would never fight, hence a single one of them never unified the belts. Vitali became a politician, taking a seat in Parliament, and was a major leader of the Euromaidan, and briefly ran for president in 2014 before withdrawing and endorsing Petro Poroshenko for the post. Vitali is currently the Mayor of Kyiv. Wladimir focused more fully on his boxing career, and broke several records, including the most opponents beaten in title matches and the longest heavyweight champion reign. Wladimir retired from boxing at the end of 2017, following a fantastic (though losing) effort against current unified champion Anthony Joshua at the age of 41.
56	* Wladimir Korolenko, a short story writer, journalist, {{Human Rights\|Issues}} activist and humanitarian.
57	* Sergei Korolev, the father of [[UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace the Soviet space program]].
58	* Sydir Kovpak: The famous Ukrainian-Soviet partisan, known for their bold actions, one of the leaders of the partisan movement in the USSR during the Second World War.
59	* Creator/MilaKunis. ''Series/That70sShow'', ''Film/BlackSwan'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Born there, moved to the US.
60	* Model and actress Creator/OlgaKurylenko was born there. She later moved to France and took French citizenship. Appeared in films like ''Film/{{Hitman}}'', ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' or ''Film/{{Oblivion\|2013}}''.
61	* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestor_Makhno Nestor Makhno]], leader of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine (an anarcho-communist army) named "Makhnovshchina" after him during the 1917-1921 Ukrainian War of Independence, which was a part of the Russian Civil War. Initially on the Bolsheviks' side until 1919, they ended up fighting them and ''[[MeleeATrois everyone else]]''. Bolsheviks prevailed and Makhno fled, dying in Paris in 1934.
62	* Writer Creator/ChuckPalahniuk (of ''Literature/FightClub'' fame) is of Ukrainian descent on his father's side. He is related to Jack Palance.
63	* Actor Creator/JackPalance's birth name was Volodymyr Palahniuk. His parents were Ukrainian immigrants who settled in Lattimer, Pennsylvania.
64	* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalia_Poklonskaya Natalia Poklonskaya]]. She was the Prosecutor General of the pro-Russian Crimean government presently in power, before her election to Russian Parlament, but you probably [[BestKnownForTheFanService know her better]] as the latest [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff out-of-left-field]] [[CrushFilter infatuation]] of [[{{Main/Otaku}} Japanese online culture]], and [[MemeticMutation the internet in general]] and all.
65	* Petro Poroshenko, the president in 2014-2019, an oligarch owning several lucrative manufacturing businesses such as Roshen Confectionery Corporation (which earned him the nickname "Chocolate King"), several financial assets and a TV channel.
66	* Vadim Pruzhanov, keyboard player for the power metal band Music/{{DragonForce}}.
67	* Singer Ruslana Stepanivna Lyzhychko (aka [[StageName Ruslana]]), winner of the 2004 Series/EurovisionSongContest for Ukraine.
68	* Andriy Schevchenko, [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball football]] striker.
69	* Taras Shevchenko, 19th century poet, writer, artist, as well as folklorist, ethnographer, and political figure. Saying that he is to modern Ukrainian language what Creator/WilliamShakespeare is for English language or Creator/{{Moliere}} for French language would be an {{Understatement}}. His influence on Ukrainian culture has been so immense that even during Soviet times, the official position was to downplay the strong Ukrainian nationalism expressed in his poetry, suppressing any mention of it, and to put an emphasis on the social and anti-Tsarist aspects of his legacy.
70	* Yakov Smirnoff (he of the RussianReversal fame), though he usually identifies as Russian, probably because it was still part of the USSR when he left and everybody in America called the USSR "Russia" at the time.
71	* Creator/StevenSpielberg's paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine who settled in Cincinnati in the 1900s.
72	* [[MethodActing Lee Strasberg]] was born in a part of Galicia, Austrian Poland, which is now part of Ukraine.
73	* Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko, one of the most notable commanders of the [[UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets Red Army]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
74	* A small-time politician who worked with Lenin during UsefulNotes/RedOctober, [[UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein]].
75	* Yulia Tymoshenko, the country's former PM. Considered one of the sexiest female politicians in the world, a fact she uses, she once posed in designer dresses for the local version of ''Magazine/{{Elle}}'' magazine (during her first premiership) and commented that she'd like to pose for ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}''. You may know her best from her role as TokenEvilTeammate in ''Manga/TheLegendOfKoizumi''.
76	** Oh and she's an important opposition figure and a powerful woman in her own right, but let's [[MaleGaze just concentrate on her looks]].
77	** She is currently serving yet another term... this time in prison for abuse of power. Though it was widely accused of being a political prosecution, with sending her to prison being the ''actual'' abuse of power.
78	*** Since February, 2014 she's a free woman. It was just in time for the Russian [[InsistentTerminology intervention]] in Crimea...
79	* Creator/KatherynWinnick is of Ukrainian descent and speaks Ukrainian as her first language.
80	* Viktor Yanukovych, the country's President from 2010 until forced out of the office in 2014 by the events dubbed Euromaidan. He has since fled to Russia. His opulent mansion was opened to the public, revealing just how much money he was embezzling from his office, including a toilet made of solid gold and a private restaurant aboard a ship on his lake. No matter how unusual it may sound, even the pro-Russian Ukrainians did not like him.
81	* Viktor Yushchenko, the country's former President until his epic defeat in the 2010 election. Him of the pockmarked face, which was the result of alledged attempted poisoning.
82	* Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a showman and actor (of the ''Series/ServantOfThePeople'' fame), and the current President of Ukraine since 2019.
83	* The {{serial killer}}s known as the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnepropetrovsk_maniacs Dnepropetrovsk maniacs]]", of [[ShockSite 3Guys1Hammer]] infamy.
84	* Andrei Chikatilo, "the Butcher of Rostov", also of SerialKiller infamy.
85	----
86	!!Works set in Ukraine
87
88	[[AC:Anime & Manga:]]
89	* There's a [[CoolBigSis sweet]] and tearful MoeAnthropomorphism of Ukraine in ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers''.
90	* ''Manga/MagicalGirlSpecOpsAsuka's'' second major story arc goes to the disputed region of eastern Ukraine with M Squad being sent to investigate if the Donbas Republic has magical girls assisting them in their war against Kyiv.
91	* The original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' series had one of its most pivotal arcs consisting of the Federation trying to take the city of Odessa, Ukraine, from Zeon occupation.
92	\
93
94	[[AC:Comic Books:]]
95	* ''ComicBook/{{Cossacks\|2022}}'', a French comic book about a young early 17th century Lithuanian Hussar from the UsefulNotes/PolishLithuanianCommonwealth who deserts the Polish army to join a group of Ukrainian Cossacks and [[GoingNative live among them]].
96	\
97
98	[[AC:Films:]]
99
100	Since the country has been included in USSR for the biggest part of the 20th century, expect a ''lot'' of Soviet era films to show up here.
101	* In ''Film/TheBattleshipPotemkin'' (1925). The mutiny happens in Odessa and it was filmed on location, using the famous Potemkin Stairs, originally known as "Boulevard steps", "Giant Staircase", "Primorsky Stairs" or the "Richelieu steps" (renamed "Potemkin" in 1955 for the 50th anniversary of the mutiny).
102	* ''Film/{{Commissar}}'' (1967) is a Soviet film set in a largely Jewish Ukrainian village during the [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russian Civil War]].
103	* ''Film/Earth1930'' is a Soviet propaganda film from 1930, presenting a highly inaccurate version of collectivization of farming, in one Ukrainian village.
104	* The 1929 experimental Soviet film ''Film/ManWithAMovieCamera'', a visual collage of urban life in Stalin's Soviet Union, was shot exclusively in Ukraine. Footage was taken in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odessa.
105	* ''Film/OnlyOldMenAreGoingToBattle'' is a 1973 Soviet film set in Ukraine, directed by and starring Ukranian Leonid Bykov, about a Soviet fighter squadron going up against the Germans during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
106	* ''Film/TheAsthenicSyndrome'' was made and set in Odessa as well as many other films by Creator/KiraMuratova.
107	* ''Film/WinterOnFire'' is a documentary chronicling the anti-government protests in Kyiv in 2013-14, which led to revolution.
108	* ''Film/MrJones2019'' is a Polish-British-Ukrainian historical drama set in 1933-1934 and focusing on the British journalist [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gareth_Jones_(journalist) Gareth Jones]] travelling in Ukraine, and [[spoiler:discovering the Holodomor, then attempting to reveal it in Britain, with little success.]]
109	\
110
111	[[AC:Literature:]]
112
113	* The first novel of Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz's [[Literature/SienkiewiczTrilogy trilogy]], ''With Fire and Sword'' (''Ogniem i mieczem'' in Polish), takes place during [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmelnytsky_Uprising Bohdan Khmelnytsky's 1647 Cossack rebellion]] against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
114	* The fourth novel in ''Literature/TsarGorokhsDetectiveAgency'' has the arrival of Zaporozhian Cossacks as a plot point. The unit's commander, Colonel Levko Chornyi, goes to Nikita and tells him that someone stole the ceremonial mace his hetman has gifted the Tsar. Should the mace fail to turn up, Chornyi's honor will demand that he put a bullet in his head rather than return in shame. The protagonist Nikita sends his "[[DumbMuscle junior assistant]]" to visit the Cossack unit and look for clues. The assistant ends up "going native" and refuses to take orders from a "Muscovite", while also planning a pogrom of the local Jewish family. [[spoiler:The mace was actually stolen by the Austrian ambassador in order to sabotage the alliance between Russia and the Cossacks.]] The Cossacks end up liking the "hockey" game Nikita has introduced and form their own team, even making it to the finals. The Colonel ends up being a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, if a little anti-semitic.
115	\
116
117	[[AC:Live-Action TV:]]
118	* ''Series/ServantOfThePeople'' is a 2015 WorkCom about an idealistic history teacher becoming the president of the country. Became reality in 2019 with the main actor Volodymyr Zelenskyy becoming the sixth President of Ukraine.
119	* Episode 2 of ''Series/TheBrave'' is set in 2017 eastern Ukraine as the SOG team searches for a CIA agent who is being hunted by Ukrainian rebels and their Russian handlers.
120	* ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', a 2019 miniseries about the lives of the staff and workers of the Chernobyl nuclear plant right up until the disaster in 1986.
121	\
122
123	[[AC:Video Games:]]
124	* The 2000 RealTimeStrategy game ''VideoGame/CossacksEuropeanWars'' has 17th century Zaporozhian Hetmanate Ukraine as a playable nation. The Ukrainian campaign includes Cossack uprisings against Poland (the Khmelnytsky rebellion most notably) and the Polish campaign in ''The Art of War'' is mostly about crushing said uprisings. Ukrainian peasants cannot be captured, the serdiuk is the best rifleman of the game and the hetman is the cavalry unit with the most health points and hit points in the game.
125	* The ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' games (2006-2009) are all set in the Zone of Exclusion around the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
126	* The final mission of ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter: The Omega Strain'' takes place in Kyiv where Chechen terrorists have set up shop.
127
128	----
129	[[AC:the Ukrainian flag]]
130	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flag_of_ukraine.png]]
131	->The simple blue and yellow colors symbolize an allegorical landscape of grain fields underneath the clear sky, befitting Ukraine's reputation as the breadbasket of Europe.
132	----
133	[[AC:Coat of arms of Ukraine]]
134	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/coat_of_arms_of_ukraine.png]]
135	->The coat of arms was adopted in 1992 and it is the same design used by Volodymyr the Great. It bears resemblance to an old Khazar symbol.
136	----
137	[[AC:The Ukrainian national anthem]]
138	->Ще не вмерла України і слава, і воля,
139	->Ще нам, браття молодії, усміхнеться доля.
140	->Згинуть наші воріженьки, як роса на сонці.
141	->Запануєм і ми, браття, у своїй сторонці.
142
143	->Душу й тіло ми положим за нашу свободу,
144	->І покажем, що ми, браття, козацького роду.
145
146	->Душу й тіло ми положим за нашу свободу,
147	->І покажем, що ми, браття, козацького роду.
148	[[note]]
149	->Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy, i slava, i volia,
150	->Shche nam, brattia molodii, usmikhnetsia dolia.
151	->Zhynut nashi vorizhenky, yak rosa na sontsi,
152	->Zapanuiem i my, brattia, u svoii storontsi.
153
154	->Dushu i tilo my polozhym za nashu svobodu,
155	->I pokazhem, shcho my, brattia, kozatskoho rodu.
156	->Dushu i tilo my polozhym za nashu svobodu,
157	->I pokazhem, shcho my, brattia, kozatskoho rodu.
158	[[/note]]
159
160	--
161
162	->Ukraine has not yet died, nor her glory, nor her freedom,
163	->Upon us, fellow Ukrainians, fate shall smile once more.
164	->Our enemies will vanish, like the dew in the sun,
165	->And we too shall rule, brothers, in a free land of our own.
166
167	->Souls and bodies we'll lay down, all for our freedom,
168	->And we'll show that we, brothers, are of the Cossack nation!
169
170	->Souls and bodies we'll lay down, all for our freedom,
171	->And we'll show that we, brothers, are of the Cossack nation!
172	----
173	[[AC:Government]]
174	* Unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic
175	** President: Volodymyr Zelenskyy
176	** Prime Minister: Denys Shmyhal
177	** Chairman of Parliament: Ruslan Stefanchuk
178	----
179	[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
180	* '''Capital and largest city:''' Kyiv
181	* '''Population:''' 41,527,205 (excluding Crimea and Sevastopol)
182	* '''Area:''' 603,628 km
183	(233,062 sq mi) (45th)
184	* '''Currency''': Ukrainian hryvnia (₴) (UAH)
185	* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' UA
186	* '''Country calling code:''' 380
187	* '''Highest point:''' Hoverla (2061 m/6,762 ft) (123rd)
188	* '''Lowest point:''' Kuyalnik Estuary (−5 m/−16 ft) (27th)

Context UsefulNotes / Ukraine