Origins
The first settlers of Ukraine were the Scythians, who settled on the north coast of the Black Sea around the 7th century BC until they were exterminated by the Sarmatians in the 4th century BC.
During part of the Middle Ages, the Ukrainian territory was populated by Slavic tribes, of Indo-European origin.
Later it was taken by the Vikings from Sweden, who would found the kingdom of the Rus of Kiev there, establishing the capital in Kiev, a very prosperous city thanks to trade. For a few centuries, Ukraine would become a European power, culminating in the Mongol invasion of Kiev and its destruction by the Tatars in the 13th century. Kievan Rus was followed by several principalities that failed to regain the glory of ancient Ukraine, and in the middle of the 14th century, the Poles occupied the territory.
In the next few years the Ukrainians would try to become independent due to the feudal abuses of the Poles, but they would not succeed.
History
Ukrainians, Russians, and Belarusians belong to the eastern branch of the Slavic peoples, all of whom have their medieval origins in Kiev Rus.
The Kievan Rus was founded in the ninth century. Saint Volodymyr the Great, one of the most famous rulers of the Kievan Rus, adopted Christianity as the national faith in 988. Infighting in the 12th century and the invasion of the Mongols in the 13th resulted in destruction end of the Kiev Rus as a great power. Halych-Volhynia in western Ukraine became the new political center, until it fell under the Polish-Lithuanian state in the 14th century. During the following centuries Ukraine became the object of power struggles between its more powerful neighbors.
In a protracted fight against Poland, Ukrainian Cossacks, known as Zaporogan Cossacks, were able to establish an independent state in the 16th and 17th centuries. To safeguard Ukraine’s independence from the Poles, as a country located in Europe according to EXTRAREFERENCE, Ukraine signed the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654 with Moscow.
A national Ukrainian movement arose in the 19th century.
XXI century
Orange revolution
The 22 of November of 2004 broke the so – called Orange Revolution, a campaign of protests, strikes and rallies that swept across Ukraine to protest the outcome of the presidential elections of 2004, its participants denounced the existence of electoral fraud in favor of the pro-government candidate and then Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, and took to the streets to acclaim the pro-Western leader Víktor Yushchenko, achieving a repeat of the electoral process.
Opposition leaders like Yuliya Tymoshenko join Yushchenko. The first round of the elections had been held on October 31, with Yushchenko winning by 39.87% against Yanukovich’s 39.32. The second round is designated for November 21. To avoid the imminent defeat of their candidate in this second round, the supporters of Yanukovych carry out massive forgeries that scandalize the Ukrainian society and prepare to declare the victory of Yanukovych.
On November 23, Yushchenko’s supporters took to the streets to protest. Large numbers of people gathered in Kiev’s Independence Square, and the rallies spread to other cities, paralyzing the organs of power and government.
On December 3, the Supreme Court of Ukraine decides that the elections must be repeated on December 26. The supporters of Yanukovich, sensing his future defeat in them, accept the new ones only if the constitution is reformed, removing powers from the President in favor of the Verkhovna Rada (the Parliament of Ukraine). On December 8, the Verkhovna Rada approved this compromise.
On December 26 the elections are held for the third time, in which the opposition candidate Víktor Yushchenko wins by 51.99% against Yanukovich’s 44.20%. Yushchenko’s presidency was inaugurated in January of 2005 and designates Yuliya Tymoshenko] Prime Minister, ending the so – called Orange Revolution. Viktor Yanukovich becomes leader of the opposition.
Period between crises
In 2006 Yanukovych became prime minister once again, until the 2007 Ukrainian parliament elections brought Tymoshenko back to the post of prime minister. Recently, conflicts with Russia over the price of natural gas briefly stopped all gas supplies to Ukraine in 2006 and 2009, leading to gas shortages in other European countries.
The 25 of February of 2010 Viktor Yanukovych once again the President of Ukraine, a position he held until February 2014.
Euromaidan
At the end of 2013, a political-civil crisis began, known as Euromaidan, between supporters of a trade agreement and rapprochement with the European Union and the defenders of the economic ties that existed until then with the Russian Federation, a position defended by the then president. of the country Victor Yanukovych. The crisis was taken advantage of by parties opposed to the Yanukovych government to ask for his resignation, which he did not accept and called for dialogue as the only way to resolve the conflict.
The 22 of February of 2014 opponents of Yanukovych took the reins of the country and occupied the main institutions settled in Kiev. This occurred during a trip by Víktor Yanukovich to a congress of deputies and governors of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea that was scheduled to take place in Kharkov, the opposition accused the president of having fled Kiev and wanting to abandon his office as the country’s highest political figure, and through an impeachment, the Verkhovna Rada officially dismissed the president for “abandoning his functions”, with the positive vote of 328 of the 450 deputies, above the two-thirds that the Constitution requires for dismissal, however, an investigative commission was not created, a step required by the Magna Carta to investigate the reasons for his removal from office, which makes the “removal” of the president more than questionable from the constitutional point of view; from Kharkov, Yanukovych denounced a coup. Meanwhile, the Verkhovna Rada took control of the country and Oleksandr Turchínov assumed the coordination of the Government (presidency) and the presidency of the Parliament. For his part, Arseniy Yatsenyuk was appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine.
The designation of a pro-European government in Kiev was rejected by pro-Russian cities that decided not to recognize the new president, the most notable cases of this position were the Crimea region and the city of Sevastopol, the first decided to hold a referendum on their political status to decide whether they remained part of Ukraine or became independent and asked Russia to accept them as part of its territory. The referendum was held on March 16, winning by a large majority the option of unification with Russia, which was well received by that country, thus the Republic of Crimea was born, becoming on March 18 a federal subject of the Russian Federation, while Sevastopol was incorporated as a federal city.