UKRAINE

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT: The country is a rolling upland plain, with the highest elevations in the western half of the country and the southeastern Donets’k region. A lowland region of wooded bogs and swamps, called the Poles’ye, is located in northern Ukraine, although much of this region has been drained and cleared for agriculture. Low-lying plains are found in southern Ukraine in the lower Dnieper River Basin and the Black Sea coastal region. Ukraine’s coastline, including Crimea, extends 2,782 km. The Carpathian Mountains in the extreme west and the Crimean Mountains in the southern end of Crimea take up about 5 percent of Ukraine’s territory. Mount Hoverla in the Carpathians is the country’s highest peak at 2,061 m. The Dnieper, Europe’s third largest river, flows through central Ukraine and forms the country’s main river network. More than half of the country’s rivers belong to this system. The Dnieper is Ukraine’s longest river, measuring about 980 km in length within the country’s borders. Other major rivers are the Dniester, the Bug, and the Southern Bug in the west, and the Donets in the east. The Danube forms part of Ukraine’s border with Romania in the extreme southwest. Except for the Bug, which flows northward into the Wisła in Poland, all of Ukraine’s major rivers flow southward and empty into the Black Sea or the Sea of Azov. Ukraine has more than 3,000 small lakes that cover about 3 percent of its territory. Ukraine possesses rich and conveniently located natural resources. About half of its territory, especially the central and southern regions, consists of the exceptionally fertile black chernozem, a type of soil that is ideal for agriculture. Forests cover 17 percent of Ukraine’s territory. The Donets Basin in the southeast is especially well endowed with large deposits of coal, while the east central Kryvyy Rih area is rich in iron ore. Ukraine has some of the world’s largest manganese deposits, located in south central Ukraine at Nikopol’. There are also considerable deposits of oil and natural gas in the Carpathian foothills, the Donets Basin, and along the Crimean coast.
AGRICULTURE: The primary crops are wheat, corn, and sugar beets. Small private plots account for much of the vegetables and fruits that are grown. Livestock raising is widespread and involves cattle, hogs, sheep, and goats. Despite heavy government subsidies, agricultural output in 2004 was 116 percent of the level in 1990. Collective cooperatives and state-owned farms, holdovers from the Soviet period, continue to outnumber privately owned farms; private ownership is allowed, but lack of capital, social attitudes, and the high cost of fuel have discouraged it. The major agricultural regions are located in central and southern Ukraine, where the fertile chernozem soil is found.
ENERGY: Most of Ukraine’s electricity is supplied by steam-driven power plants that burn coal, oil, or natural gas. Only 6 percent of its electricity is supplied by hydroelectric power plants, most notably the Dniprohes hydroelectric station on the Dnieper near Zaporizhzhya, one of Europe’s largest. In the later 1990s Ukraine’s five nuclear power plants generated 45 percent of the country’s electricity. To supply its energy needs, Ukraine must import 80 percent of its natural gas and 90 percent of its oil. Lacking the funds to purchase what it needs, however, Ukraine has had to sharply curtail its consumption of these sources. The resulting energy shortage explains the government’s reluctance to shut down completely the hazardous Chernobyl’ nuclear power plant before 2000. Ukraine’s reliance on nuclear power is expected to increase, with the government planning to complete construction on two plants that were partially built during the Soviet period.