UKRAINE

Ukraine is a republic in eastern Europe which borders Russia to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest and the Black Sea to the south. It is the largest country wholly in Europe, with a population of about 48 million people.
The territory of present-day Ukraine was a key centre of East Slav culture in the Middle Ages before being divided between a variety of powers, notably Russia, Poland, Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire. A brief period of independence following the Russian Revolution was ended by Ukraine's absorption into the Soviet Union, and the republic's present borders were only established in 1954. It became independent once more following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Name
The country is often referred to as the Ukraine in English. This usage is now deprecated by many media organizations, partly for stylistic reasons (compare "the Lebanon" and "the Sudan") and partly because of its implication that Ukraine is merely a region rather than an independent state. There was, however, no change in Ukrainian or Russian usage with Ukraine's independence, as there is no definite article (the) in either language.
Various Slavic etymologies have been suggested for the name. Most translate it as "borderland" or "frontier" (compare Krajna, Krajina - in Polish, or Okraina in Russian) and also "country" (compare Krayina in Ukrainian and Kraina in Belarusian). Other more legendary ethymologies trace the name to a verb meaning, "to cut" (krayaty), indicating the land the Rus' people (or Ruthenians or Ukrainians) carved out for themselves; some take it to mean "homeland" or "one's own land" ("Kray").