Ukraine
Ukraine is located in Eastern Europe, and has a population of 45,962,000. It consists of 24 regions and one autonomous republic, the Crimea. The official language is Ukrainian. Kiev is the capital.
The head of state is the president, elected by popular vote for a five-year term. The incumbent president is Viktor Yanukovych, who has held the office since February 25, 2010.
Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, is the country's main legislative body. It is a single chamber composed of 450 members. The current chairman is Volodymyr Lytvyn.
Ukraine's supreme executive body is the Cabinet of Ministers. The parliament appoints a prime minister, choosing from the presidential nominees. The incumbent, Mykola Azarov, was confirmed on March 3, 2010.
The judicial branch consists of the Constitutional Court and courts of general jurisdiction. The Supreme Court is the highest in the judicial hierarchy.
Ukraine is both an industrial and agrarian country. Its industrial mainstays include ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, ship building, the automotive industry, machine building (including for agriculture), and equipment for the oil and gas and chemical sectors.
The country's main exports include metals and metal objects (32.7%), machinery and equipment (12.5%), and mineral resources (9.5%).
Mineral resources (34.5%) and machinery (13.6%) dominate Ukraine's imports. The country's key trading partners include Russia, Germany, Turkey, Poland and China.
A member of the World Trade Organization, since 2008 Ukraine has been in negotiations with the European Union over the possibility of creating a free trade zone.
Ukraine's current leadership has kept to a course toward closer integration with the EU. On the other hand, it seeks to improve ties with Russia and other former Soviet nations, as well as to build a strategic partnership with the United States. Under the Ukrainian law On the Foundations of Domestic and Foreign Policy, adopted by the Ukrainian parliament on July 1, 2010, Ukraine will not expand its current format of cooperation with NATO and will remain unaligned.
The economic reform package for 2010 through 2014 is aimed at propelling Ukraine into the world's top twenty developed nations by the end of the decade.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion in Ukraine . The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is closely linked with the Russian Orthodox Church, and is administered from the Moscow Patriarchate.
St. Sophia Cathedral and the Kiev Pechersk Lavra in Kiev as well as the historical centre of Lviv are listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites.
