4. Background
• Capital: Kiev
• President: petro poroshenko
• Population: 45.49 million (2013)
• Official language: Ukrainian
• Located: Eastern Europe
• it has an area of 603,628 km², which makes it the largest country in Europe.
• Currency: Ukrainian hryvnia
5. Brief history
• 1989: A reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explodes, releasing a radioactive
cloud over Europe.
• 2008: The global financial crisis leads to a decline in demand for steel, causing the price of
this main export to drop considerably. The value of Ukraine's currency falls sharply.
• 2010: Ukraine agrees to eliminate its stockpile of weapons-grade nuclear material.
• 2013: Huge protests erupt in the capital city of Kiev after the government's sudden
announcement that it is abandoning plans to sign an agreement with the European Union,
and instead looking to integrate more with Russia.
6. Introduction
• Ukraine is a country located in Eastern Europe bordering the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
• Neighboring countries include Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, and
Slovakia.
• Most of Ukraine consists of fertile plains and plateaus, the Carpathian Mountains in the west
and in the Crimean Peninsula in the extreme south.
• The government system is a republic. The chief of state is the President and the head of
government is the Prime Minister.
• Ukraine has a mixed economic system in which there is a limited private freedom, combined
with centralized economic planning and government regulation.
• Ukraine is a member of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).
7. Dates leading to the conflict
• 21 February: President Yanukovych signs compromise deal with opposition leaders.
• 23-26 February: Arseniy Yatsenyuk is nominated prime minister.
• 27-28 February: Pro-Russian gunmen seize key buildings in the Crimean capital, Simferopol.
Unidentified gunmen in combat uniforms appear outside Crimea's main airports.
• 16 March: Crimea's secession referendum on joining Russia is backed by 97% of voters,
organizers say, but vote condemned by West as a sham.
• 18 March: President Putin signs a bill to absorb Crimea into the Russian Federation.
• 25 May: Ukraine elects Petro Poroshenko as president in an election not held in much of the
east.
8. Crimea
• The military commander of Ukraine's Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion has promised his fighters
will not lay down arms until its flags are raised over the regions of Donbass and Crimea;
the unit has marked the first anniversary of its formation.
• They said this because, Crimean's wanted to be part of Russia.
• Which means they had Russian flags.