Unless noted otherwise, the following demographics are taken from the "Political Handbook of the World 2018-2019" in our CREDO Reference Database.
Ukrainian People and Places
The country of Ukraine declared independence on August 24, 1991, but the history of Ukraine begins with Kievan Rus in the 10th century. The histories of Russia and Ukraine are tied together and many cultural traditions are shared by people in both countries.
- Area: 233,090 sq. mi. (603,700 sq. km.)
- Ukraine is a 89% the size of Texas
- Population: 44,776,000 (2018E - World Bank)
- Ukraine has as many people as the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, New Jersey, West Virginia, Washington DC, and Oregon combined
- Major Urban Centers: (2018E - UN)
- Kiev (Kyiv, 2,940,000)
- Kharkov (Charkiv, 1,450,000)
- Dnepropetrovsk (Dnipropėtrovsk, 983,836)
- Donetsk (Donėc’k, 923,063)
- Lviv (L’viv, 729,400)
- Odessa (Odėsa, 1,010,000)
- Official Language: Ukrainian (replaced Russian in 1990). Following independence in 1991, the Council for Language Policy and the National Orthography Commission began working to restore syntax, style, and other aspects of Ukrainian to what they were before the 1930s, when Moscow ordered Ukrainian to be made more uniform with Russian. As proposed by the generally pro-Russian Ukrainian government installed in 2010, Ukrainian regions with Russian populations of more than 10 percent were authorized as of August 2012 to give official language status to Russian in addition to Ukrainian. Eight regions had reportedly done so by the end of the month. The status of Russian was an important issue in the political upheaval of the first half of 2014 and subsequently remained a subject of political negotiations, particularly in regard to pro-Russian eastern regions under separatist control.
- Monetary Unit: Hryvna (official rate October 19, 2018: 27.88 hryvnas = $1US).
- President: Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Володимир Зеленський)
- Assumed office on May 20, 2019
- Alternate spellings: Zelensky, Zelenskiy, Zelenskyy
- Biographical Information from CREDO Reference
Russian People and Places
Russian Federation/Russia
Rossiiskaya Federatsiya/Rossiya
Political Status: Formerly the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), a constituent republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR); present official designations adopted on April 17, 1992; current constitution approved by referendum of December 12, 1993.
- Area: 6,592,800 sq. mi. (17,075,400 sq. km).
- Population: 144,064,000 (2018E—World Bank); 142,122,776 (2018E—U.S. Census).
- Major Urban Centers (2018E—World Population Review:
- MOSCOW (10,381,222)
- St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad, 5,028,000)
- Novosibirsk (1,419,007)
- Yekaterinburg (formerly Sverdlovsk, 1,349,772)
- Nizhny Novgorod (formerly Gorky, 1,284,164)
- Samara (formerly Kuibyshev, 1,134,730)
- Omsk (1,129,281)
- Kazan (1,104,738)
- Rostov-na-Donu (1,074,482)
- Chelyabinsk (1,062,919)
- Ufa (1,033,335)
- Volgograd (1,011,417), (1,020,000)
- Perm (982,419)
- Krasnoyarsk (927,200).
- Official Languages: Russian, in addition to languages recognized by the constituent republics and autonomous areas.
- Monetary Unit: Ruble (official rate October 19, 2018: 65.63 rubles = $1US).
- President: Vladimir PUTIN (United Russia); elected on March 4, 2012, and inaugurated for a four-year term on May 7, succeeding Dmitri MEDVEDEV (United Russia); reelected on March 18, 2018, and inaugurated for a six-year term on May 7.
Chair of the Government (Prime Minister): Dmitri MEDVEDEV (United Russia); nominated by the president on May 7, 2012, and approved by the State Duma on May 8 to succeed Vladimir PUTIN.
