Ukraine is located in the south-eastern part of central Europe. It is bordered by Russia, Byelorussia, Slovakia, Roumania, Hungary, Poland, and Moldova. The climate is moderate, dry and hot in the summer, with lots of snow and frozen rivers in the winter (except in the south).

Ukraine is rich in coal, gas, mineral salts, clay, and iron ore. Most of the country is level, treeless plainsland (the "steppe"), but there are mountains and forests, too. The capital, Kiev ("Kyiv") is situated in the midst of a huge pine forest, and is a very modern city in many ways.

The economy is primarily a mix of agrarian and industrial, with much of the industy centering around hydroelectric power production and manufacturing. The agrarian areas produce sugar, fruits, melons, wheat and other grains.

Languages

Many Ukrainians speak both Russian and Ukrainian, plus a smattering of other languages. During the time when Ukraine was part of the USSR, the official language was Russian, and Russian is the primary language for most people living in the western half of Ukraine. Now that Ukraine is an independent republic, the Ukrainian language is making a bit of a comeback, and Ukrainian is the official language for all government documents and court proceedings, although it's rare to find someone outside the eastern half of the country who doesn't also speak Russian.

Ukrainian and Russian are both slavic languages with Indo-European roots, like Polish, Bulgarian, and Czech, so there are many cognates with English, French, Dutch, and German. To non-slavic ears, Russian and Ukrainian sound very much alike, although the situation is much the same as with Dutch and German—native speakers will tell you the two languages are barely related, while non-native speakers recognize that most nouns and verbs share the same roots with only incidental vowel shifts and minor mutations.

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