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Ukraine is
the largest European country, surpassing even France, Spain, and Sweden in
surface area. Its population (50
million) puts it in fifth place in Europe (after Germany, Italy, Great Britain,
and France), and in 21st place worldwide.
Ukraine’s
climate is very beneficial for agriculture and the development of tourism and
recreation, and allows for the ecologically clean use of natural energy
resources such as the sun and wind. In
addition to this, Ukraine has a well-developed scientific and industrial base.
In terms of
geopolitical location and importance, Ukraine’s strategic situation between
Eastern and Western nations and its access to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov
have significantly affected the historical and present-day development of the
country.
Modern
Ukraine is unique and foreigners sometimes find it hard to understand. Even so, as Zbigniew Bzhezinsky has noted,
the country is a “new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard,” that
fulfills the role of “geopolitical axis.”
Ukraine through foreign eyes
“Ukraine will some day become the new
Greece.… Some day a great cultural
nation will rise; her boundaries will spread from the Black Sea to the ends of
the earth.”
(Johann
Gottfried Herder, German Philosopher, Diary of My Travels, 1769)
“In Europe there exists a nation that
has been forgotten by historians – the Ruthenians…. This nation has its own history, separate
from the history of Poland and even more distinct from the history of Muscovy. It has its own traditions, its own language…
its own conspicuous individuality, for which it fights.”
(De la Mar,
French politician, from a speech made to the Senate, 1869)
“Ukrainians are a glorious race that
made the walls tremble in Tsargorod, Belgorod, and Trebizond.”
(Hubert Botren,
Observer in Poland, 1807)
“Ukrainians… are living proof of the
victory of freedom over people who were born as slaves.”
(Charles
Louis Lesur, French author and employee of the French Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, History of the Cossacks,
1813)
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Ukraine