Ukraine explained to kids

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest country in Europe, after Russia. Ukraine is bordered by Russia to the east and north, Belarus to the north, Poland to the northwest, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. Kyiv is the capital and largest city of Ukraine. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers: legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Its economy is the world's 39th largest and is characterized by a high level of marketization, protectionism, interventionism, regulation, and corruption. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, the area was a key center of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kyivan Rus' forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled, and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, but was divided between Poland and the Russian Empire. In 1918, after the Russian Revolution and the Ukrainian War of Independence, Ukraine was briefly unified with the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic, but was occupied and incorporated into Soviet Russia in 1921. In 1991, Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union in the aftermath of its dissolution at the end of the Cold War. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as "The Ukraine", but sources since then have moved to drop "the" from the name of Ukraine in all uses.