What do you know about... Ukraine?

[u/MarktpLatz]

This is the eleventh part of our ongoing series about the countries of Europe. You can find an overview here.

Todays country:

Ukraine

Ukraine is the largest country that is completely on the european continent. The Ungarian people's republic was founded in 1917, the ukrainian state in 1918. It later became part of the soviet union and finally got independent in 1991. Currently, Ukraine is facing military combat with russia-backed rebels and the crimean peninsula was completely annexed by Russia. Ukraine will host the next eurovision song contest.

So, what do you know about Ukraine?

[u/Huabale]

German here. I was in Odessa, Kiev and Charkov last year. My impressions:

• Night trains between the cities were awesome and funny. The train stations are beautiful .

• Kiev is huge

• People were friendly. We watched Germany-Ukraine in Kiev in a bar full of Ukrainians. They spent us some shots and couldn't believe we're actually Germans.

• In Charkov and Odessa not many people could speak English.

• Charkov centre was really clean. Charkov streets outside the centre were creepy in the night because of no street light.

• The (Soviet) museums and monuments are impressive.

• Learned a lot of the Holodomor and the Ukrainian Holocaust.

• Odessa has a great Mediterranean architecture.

• Also no. 1 HIV city in Europe.

[u/PM_ME_LUCID_DREAMS → u/Huabale]

couldn't believe we're actually Germans.

Why not? Doesn't Ukraine have 100,000s of German tourists annually?

Also no. 1 HIV city in Europe.

Yeah, and sadly this contributes to a staggering population decline. From a peak of over 52 million in 1990, to 45 million today, to around 35 million in 2050, and 25 million in 2100. These estimates are from before the conflict, so I imagine those numbers would be much worse.

[u/[deleted] → u/PM_ME_LUCID_DREAMS]

The USSR had a German SSR in it (Volga Germany) but fled after Stalin decided they were all Nazi state enemies