Ukraine's total area equals 603.7 thousand sq. kilometers.  Of the 6,500 km of state frontiers, 1,050 km are naval borders with exit to Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Russia and Georgia.

At the nation-wide referendum on December 1, 1991 Ukraine proclaimed its independence.

In terms of administrative division, the territory of Ukraine is made up of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and 24 regions.  The cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol have the status of republican subordination.  The capital is Kyiv.

Ukraine is a plain country with mixed forests, forest-steppes and steppes.  The land is rich in black, sandy and loam soils.  The temperate and subtropical climate makes it a genuine oasis for agricultural production in the world.

The population of Ukraine amounts to 51.7 million.  It is inhabited by 110 nationalities: 72.7% - Ukrainians, 22.1% - Russians; the rest are Jews, Belorussians, Moldovians, Bulgarians, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Greeks, Tatars, Armenians, Gypsies, Crimean Tatars, Germans and other.

Ukraine is the ancestral homeland for 11.8 ethnic Ukrainians who now live abroad.  The eastern diaspora (from the Don area to Russian's Far East) accounts for approximately 6.8 million people, the western diaspora (Canada, USA, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, great Britain, Germany, France and elsewhere) - 5 million.

Ukraine has been recognized by 152 states.  It has embassies and representative offices in 144 countries.

Ukraine is a founding member of the United Nations, participant in 150 odd international covenants and nearly two dozen organizations, member of the Council of Europe.

Ukraine is a nonaligned, nuclear-free and neutral state.  It is the world's first country to have renounced nuclear armaments.  Unfortunately, other do not haste to follow us.

Ukraine is a unique scientific, cultural and technological center in the world, the homeland of spacecraft designers Yuri Kondratiuk and Sergiy Korolyov; Oleksandr Bohomolets, an academician in medicine; and Borys Paton, an academician in electric welding; of poet and painter Taras Shevchenko and the world's renowned film director, Oleksandr Dovzhenko; many laureates of the Nobel and other prestigious prizes.

Ukraine is basically a Christian Orthodox country, although all other religions are professed here.

Ukraine maintains trade contacts with more than 140 countries.