Ukraine Google Maps is a site/tool that offers a wide range of map views (topographic, satellite, street view) and navigation options, with little effort on your part, yet efficiently. If you need to plan a trip to a new place like Ukraine, Google maps are available on desktop, mobile, or tablet. This Google maps and information page is dedicated to Ukraine, Asia/Europe (47 countries), showing its location, country facts, details about its capital city Kyiv (Kiev), bordering countries like Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and plenty of other information which may be interesting when you visit this Asian/European state.
Quick links: Google maps Ukraine, Kyiv (Kiev) Google maps, Driving Directions Ukraine, Printable Road Map.
About Ukraine in a nutshell
- Conventional short form of the name: Ukraine
- The conventional long form of the name: none
- Local long form: none
- Local short form: Ukraina
- Former name(s): Ukrainian National Republic, Ukrainian State, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
- Etymology: name derives from the Old East Slavic word ukraina meaning borderland or march (militarized border region) and began to be used extensively in the 19th century; originally Ukrainians referred to themselves as Rusyny (Rusyns, Ruthenians, or Ruthenes), an endonym derived from the medieval Rus state (Kyivan Rus).
- The legal system in Ukraine: civil law system; judicial review of legislative acts.
- Climate: Mainly continental climate, with distinct seasons. Southern Crimea has Mediterranean climate.
- The national symbols are tryzub (trident); national colors: blue, yellow.
- Internet TLD: .ua
Based on measurements taken during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the geographical center of our continent was marked out in the Tisza valley in the northern foothills of the Máramaros Hills in Transcarpathia and is commemorated by a memorial column. Ukraine, the second most populous republic of the Soviet Union, was the country’s largest agricultural supplier: the excellent quality black soil of the temperate steppe, the chernozem soil, was able to grow almost everything – cereals, sugar beet, cotton, tobacco. Its rich grasslands provided meat and dairy production, while there was even viticulture in the south, and Black Sea fishers supplied the caviar market with sturgeon fish. Part of Ukraine’s iron ore and coal reserves were exported – iron ore from Krivoy Rog and coal from Donetsk were also exported to Dunaújváros.
Tourism was not spared from the severe crisis following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster: it was only in the third millennium that tourism was revived. With their rich cultural and historical heritage, the country’s World Heritage sites have played an essential role in its revival. Kyiv’s 11th century St. Sophia Cathedral symbolizes ‘Christian Constantinople’. At the same time, the Lavra Cave Monastery in Pechersk contributed to the spread of Russian Orthodox thought and faith between the 17th and 19th centuries. The late medieval old town of Lvov (L’viv) and the endpoint of the Struve surveying network ‘close’ the list. Of course, this is far from exhausting all the country’s tourist attractions: the Hungarian settlements of Transcarpathia, the wooden churches of the North-Eastern Carpathians, the famous resorts of the Crimean peninsula, and the rare caves of the Podolian abbey, among others, await visitors wishing to explore the eastern part of our continent.
Ukraine means “on the border,” referring to its position on the edge of the old Russian Empire.
Background
Ukraine was the center of the first eastern Slavic state, Kyivan Rus, which during the 10th and 11th centuries was the largest and most powerful state in Europe. Weakened by internecine quarrels and Mongol invasions, Kyivan Rus was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and eventually into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The cultural and religious legacy of Kyivan Rus laid the foundation for Ukrainian nationalism through subsequent centuries. A new Ukrainian state, the Cossack Hetmanate, was established during the mid-17th century after an uprising against the Poles. Despite continuous Muscovite pressure, the Hetmanate remained autonomous for well over 100 years. During the latter part of the 18th century, most Ukrainian ethnographic territory was absorbed by the Russian Empire. Following the collapse of czarist Russia in 1917, Ukraine achieved a short-lived period of independence (1917-20) but was reconquered and endured a brutal Soviet rule that engineered two forced famines (1921-22 and 1932-33) in which over 8 million died.
German and Soviet armies were responsible for 7 to 8 million more deaths in World War II. Although Ukraine achieved independence in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR, democracy and prosperity remained elusive as the legacy of state control and endemic corruption stalled efforts at economic reform, privatization, and civil liberties. A peaceful mass protest referred to as the Orange Revolution in the closing months of 2004 forced the authorities to overturn a rigged presidential election and allow a new internationally monitored vote that swept into power a reformist slate under Viktor YUSHCHENKO. Subsequent internal squabbles in the YUSHCHENKO camp allowed his rival Viktor YANUKOVYCH to stage a comeback in parliamentary (Rada) elections, become prime minister in August 2006, and be elected president in February 2010. In October 2012, Ukraine held Rada elections, which Western observers widely criticized as flawed due to government resources favoring ruling party candidates, interference with media access, and harassment of opposition candidates. President Yanukovych’s backtracking on a trade and cooperation agreement with the EU in November 2013 – in favor of closer economic ties with Russia – and subsequent use of force against students, civil society activists, and other civilians in favor of the agreement led to a three-month protest occupation of Kyiv’s central square.
The government’s use of violence to break up the protest camp in February 2014 led to all-out pitched battles, scores of deaths, international condemnation, a failed political deal, and the president’s abrupt departure for Russia. New elections in the spring allowed pro-West president Petro POROSHENKO to assume office in June 2014. Volodymyr ZELENSKY succeeded him in May 2019. Shortly after Yanukovych’s departure in late February 2014, Russian President PUTIN ordered the invasion of Ukraine’s the Crimean Peninsula, falsely claiming the action was to protect ethnic Russians living there. Two weeks later, a referendum was held regarding the integration of Crimea into the Russian Federation. The referendum was condemned as illegitimate by the Ukrainian Government, the EU, the US, and the UN General Assembly (UNGA). In response to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, 100 members of the UN passed UNGA resolution 68/262, rejecting the referendum as baseless and invalid and confirming the sovereignty, political independence, unity, and territorial integrity of Ukraine. In mid-2014, Russia began supplying proxies in two of Ukraine’s eastern provinces with workforce, funding, and equipment, driving an armed conflict with the Ukrainian Government that continues to this day. Representatives from Ukraine, Russia, and the unrecognized Russian proxy republics signed the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum in September 2014 to end the conflict. However, this agreement failed to stop the fighting or find a political solution.
In a renewed attempt to alleviate ongoing clashes, leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany negotiated a follow-on Package of Measures in February 2015 to implement the Minsk agreements. Representatives from Ukraine, Russia, the unrecognized Russian proxy republics, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe also meet regularly to facilitate the peace deal. More than 13,000 civilians have been killed or wounded due to the Russian intervention in eastern Ukraine. The United Arab Emirates, The Trucial States of the Persian Gulf coast, granted the UK control of their defense and foreign affairs in 19th-century treaties. In 1971, six of these states – Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Al Fujayrah, Ash Shariqah, Dubayy, and Umm al Qaywayn – merged to form the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They were joined in 1972 by Ras al Khaymah. The UAE’s per capita GDP is on par with leading West European nations. For more than three decades, oil and global finance drove the UAE’s economy. In 2008-09, falling oil prices, collapsing real estate prices, and the international banking crisis hit the UAE especially hard. The UAE did not experience the Arab Spring unrest seen elsewhere in the Middle East in 2010-11, partly because of the government’s multi-year, $1.6-billion infrastructure investment plan for the poorer northern emirates and its aggressive pursuit of advocates of political reform. The UAE, in recent years, has played a growing role in regional affairs. In addition to donating billions of dollars in economic aid to help stabilize Egypt, the UAE was one of the first countries to join the Defeat-ISIS coalition and participate as a critical partner in a Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. On 15 September 2020, the UAE and Bahrain signed a peace agreement (the Abraham Accords) with Israel brokered by the US in Washington DC. The UAE and Bahrain thus became the third and fourth Middle Eastern countries, along with Egypt and Jordan, to recognize Israel.
Geography
Mainly fertile steppes and forests. The Carpathian Mountains in the west, Crimean chain in the south. Pripet Marshes in the northwest.
The former breadbasket of the Soviet Union, Ukraine, lies on the Black Sea. Divisions between pro-Russian sentiments and pro-European nationalism erupted into civil war in 2014.
This state is located in Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland, Romania, and Moldova in the west and Russia in the east, under the coordinates of 49 00 N, 32 00 E, covering an area of 603,550 sq km with a coastline of 2,782 km. Ukraine is almost four times the size of Georgia, slightly smaller than Texas.
Ukraine has 5,581 km of land boundaries in total and borders (7 nations): Belarus 1111 km, Hungary 128 km, Moldova 1202 km, Poland 498 km, Romania 601 km, Russia 1944 km, Slovakia 97 km.
Mostly fertile plains (steppes) and plateaus, with mountains, found only in the west (the Carpathians) or the extreme south of the Crimean peninsula, with Hora Hoverla 2,061 m as the highest point of Ukraine, while the Black Sea 0 m as the lowest point, causing a mean elevation at 175 m throughout the country. With a total of 603,550 sq km, Ukraine has 579,330 sq km of land and 24,220 sq km of water surface area.
The principal rivers are the Danube (shared with Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova) – 2,888 km, Dnieper (shared with Russia and Belarus) – 2,287 km, Don (shared with Russia) – 1,870 km, Dniester (shared with Moldova) – 1,411 km, Vistula (shared with Poland and Belarus) – 1,213 km. The significant watersheds for Ukraine are Atlantic Ocean drainage: (Black Sea) Danube (795,656 sq km), Don (458,694 sq km), Dnieper (533,966 sq km).
Strategic position at the crossroads between Europe and Asia; second-largest country in Europe after Russia.
The climate in Ukraine is as follows: Temperate continental, the Mediterranean only on the southern Crimean coast, precipitation disproportionately distributed, highest in west and north, lesser in east and southeast, winters vary from cool along the black sea to cold farther inland, warm summers across the more significant part of the country, hot in the south.
When you visit Ukraine, the natural hazards shall be considered: Occasional floods; occasional droughts.
The following major health-threatening issues shall be considered when visiting Ukraine: none.
Current environmental issues affecting the Ukrainian people: air and water pollution; land degradation; solid waste management; biodiversity loss; deforestation; radiation contamination in the northeast from the 1986 accident at Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Google maps Ukraine
The capital and other divisions
Capital city: Kyiv (Kiev) found under the coordinates 50 26 N, 30 31 E, applying the time zone UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time), using the following daylight saving time: +1hr begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October.
Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine and its largest city, with a metropolitan area population of 3 million. As well as being the most populous city in Ukraine, it is also one of the oldest inhabited cities in Europe. Kyiv was founded by the Slavs, who named it after the Kyiv River. From ancient times to the mid-18th century, Kyiv was a key trade center between the East and West. Famed for its beautiful architecture, Kyiv was home to a thriving Jewish community in the 16th century.
Ukraine became independent on 24 August 1991 (from the Soviet Union); notable earlier dates: ca. 982 (VOLODYMYR I consolidates Kyivan Rus); 1199 (Principality (later Kingdom) of Ruthenia formed); 1648 (establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate); 22 January 1918 (from Soviet Russia), and its national holiday is Independence Day, 24 August (1991).
Administrative divisions: 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), Dnipropetrovsk (Dnipro), Donetsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad (Kropyvnytskyi), Kyiv, Kyiv, Luhansk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sevastopol, Sumy, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Volyn (Lutsk), Zakarpattia (Uzhhorod), Zaporizhzhia, Zhytomyr, note: administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses); plans include the eventual renaming of Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad oblasts, but because these names are mentioned in the Constitution of Ukraine, the change will require a constitutional amendment note: the US Government does not recognize Russias illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the municipality of Sevastopol, nor their redesignation as the Republic of Crimea and the Federal City of Sevastopol.
People and society
Over 90% of people in the west are Ukrainian, but in cities in the east and south, and Crimea, Russians form a majority. Tatars returned to Crimea after the Soviet Unions collapse and comprised around 12% of the population there. Pro- Russian President Yanukovych’s refusal to sign an EU deal provoked protests ousted him from power in 2014. Russia responded by backing eastern rebels and annexing Crimea.
The population in Ukraine is 43,745,640 (July 2021 estimate), with an average of -0.49% (2021 estimate) change. That means Ukraine is the No. 34 in the world’s populated rank list. With an average of 41.2 years median age (38.2 years for males and 38.2 years for women), Ukraine ranks No. 45 on the globe’s median age rank list.
The people living in this country are the Ukrainian(s) (noun) or Ukrainian (adjective) and belong mainly to the following 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%, other 1.8% (2001 estimate).
They speak Ukrainian (official language) 67.5%, Russian (regional language) 29.6%, other (includes small Crimean Tatar-, Moldovan/Romanian-, and Hungarian-speaking minorities) 2.9% (2001 estimate); languages and practice the following religions: Orthodox (includes the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), and the Ukrainian Orthodox – Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP)), Ukrainian Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish (2013 estimate). Note: Ukraine’s population is overwhelmingly Christian; the vast majority – up to two thirds – identify themselves as Orthodox, but many do not specify a particular branch; the OCU and the UOC-MP each represent less than a quarter of the country’s population, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church accounts for 8-10%, and the UAOC accounts for 1-2%; Muslim and Jewish adherents each compose less than 1% of the total population.
We can conclude the following about the population in Ukraine: Densest settlement in the eastern (Donbas) and western regions. There are notable concentrations in and around major urban areas of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Odesa. In Ukraine, we are talking about 69.8% (2021) of the total population lives in cities, and most of them reside in the following municipalities: 3.001 million, Kyiv (capital city), 1.426 million, Kharkiv, 1.009 million, Odesa, 952,000 Dnipropetrovsk, 899,000 Donetsk (2021).
Industry
Minerals: 5% of global reserves. Political instability and conflict in the east. Slow reform of land laws, holding back agriculture. Oil/natural gas transit from Russia and the Caspian to Europe: natural gas price disputes with Russia.
After Russia, the Ukrainian Republic was the most important economic component of the former Soviet Union, producing about four times the output of the next-ranking republic. Its fertile black soil accounted for more than one-fourth of Soviet agricultural output, and its farms provided substantial quantities of meat, milk, grain, and vegetables to other republics. Likewise, its diversified heavy industry supplied unique equipment such as large diameter pipes and vertical drilling apparatus and raw materials to industrial and mining sites in other regions of the former USSR. Shortly after independence in August 1991, the UkrainianGovernmentt liberalized most prices and erected a legal framework for privatization. Still, widespread resistance to reform within the government and the legislature soon stalled reform efforts and led to some backtracking. Output by 1999 had fallen to less than 40% of the 1991 level. Outside institutions – particularly the IMF, encouraged Ukraine to quicken the pace and scope of reforms to foster economic growth. Ukrainian Government officials eliminated most tax and customs privileges in a March 2005 budget law, bringing more economic activity out of Ukraine’s large shadow economy.
From 2000 until mid-2008, Ukraine’s economy was buoyant despite political turmoil between the prime minister and president. The economy contracted nearly 15% in 2009, among the worst economic performances in the world. In April 2010, Ukraine negotiated a price discount on Russian gas imports to extend Russia’s lease on its naval base in Crimea. Ukraine’s oligarch-dominated economy grew slowly from 2010 to 2013 but remained behind peers in the region and among Europe’s poorest. After former President YANUKOVYCH fled the country during the Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine’s economy fell into crisis because Russia annexed Crimea, there was a military conflict in the eastern part of the country, and a trade war with Russia, resulting in a 17% decline in GDP, inflation at nearly 60%, and dwindling foreign currency reserves. The international community began efforts to stabilize the Ukrainian economy, including a March 2014 IMF assistance package of $17.5 billion. Ukraine has received four disbursements, most recently in April 2017, bringing the total disbursed to approximately $8.4 billion. Ukraine has made progress on reforms designed to make the country prosperous, democratic, and transparent, including creating a national anti-corruption agency, an overhaul of the banking sector, the establishment of a transparent VAT refund system, and increased transparency in government procurement. But more improvements are needed, including fighting corruption, developing capital markets, improving the business environment to attract foreign investment, privatizing state-owned enterprises, and land reform.
The fifth tranche of the IMF program, valued at $1.9 billion, was delayed in mid-2017 due to a lack of progress on outstanding reforms, including adjusting gas tariffs to import parity levels and adopting legislation establishing an independent anti-corruption court. Russia’s occupation of Crimea in March 2014 and ongoing Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine have hurt economic growth. With the loss of a significant portion of Ukraine’s heavy industry in Donbas and ongoing violence, the economy contracted by 6.6% in 2014 and by 9.8% in 2015, but it returned to low growth in 2016 and 2017, reaching 2.3% and 2.0%, respectively, as crucial reforms took hold. Ukraine also redirected trade activity towards the EU following the implementation of a bilateral Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, displacing Russia as its largest trading partner. A prohibition on commercial trade with separatist-controlled territories in early 2017 has not impacted Ukraine’s key industrial sectors as much as expected, mainly because of favorable external conditions. Ukraine returned to international debt markets in September 2017, issuing a $3 billion sovereign bond.
Ukraine is rich in the following natural resources: Iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas, oil, salt, sulfur, graphite, titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel, mercury, timber, arable land.
The main industrial sectors are coal, electric power, ferrous and nonferrous metals, machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, and food processing.
The country’s export sectors are particularly strong in corn, sunflower seed oils, iron, and iron products, wheat, insulated wiring, rapeseed (2019), partnering with these nations: Russia 9%, China 8%, Germany 6%, Poland 6%, Italy 5%, Turkey 5% (2019). The export trade resulted in $60.67 billion. Note: Data are in current year dollars (2020 estimate). In a global rank of the export, values resulted in Ukraine’s position of 52.
Land use in Ukraine: 16.8% (2018 estimate) forest, 12% (2018 estimate) other.
The arable land area is 56.1% (2018 estimate), and the agricultural land is 71.2% (2018 estimate). Land use for permanent crops 1.5% (2018 estimate), permanent pasture 13.6% (2018 estimate). The sum of the area of the irrigated land is 21,670 sq km (2012).
The main agro-industrial products of Ukraine are maize, wheat, potatoes, sunflower seed, sugar beet, milk, barley, soybeans, rapeseed, and tomatoes.
The country typically needs to import: refined petroleum, cars, packaged medicines, coal, natural gas (2019), partnering with the following nations: China 13%, Russia 12%, Germany 10%, Poland 9%, Belarus 7% (2019) in a sum value of $62.46 billion. Note: data are in current year dollars (2020 estimate) $76.07 billion. Note: data are in current year dollars (2019 estimate) $70.56 billion. Note: data are in current year dollars (2018 estimate). This sum value on the global ranking list of imports resulted in Ukraine 51.
Ukraine Driving Directions
In this post, you learned about Ukraine, Eastern Europe bordering the Black Sea, Poland, Romania, and Moldova, and Russia in the east. We published some basic information about its capital Kyiv (Kiev), and the Ukrainian nation.
Are you interested in visiting Ukraine and looking for driving directions? Click here to plan your route, or see a printable road map of Ukraine below for an overview of the route network.
Printable map of Ukraine
Did you know about Ukraine?
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe that borders Russia and the Black Sea. It has an area of 33,000 square miles, has a population of 44 million people, and is the second-largest country in Europe after Russia. Ukraine is also prosperous with natural resources such as coal, iron ore, manganese, and fertile soil for agriculture.
After virtually visiting Ukraine, you may also be interested in the neighboring countries: Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Slovakia.
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