33 interesting facts about Ukraine that you might not know: test your knowledge

24 August 2024 07:15

To celebrate Ukraine’s Independence Day, "Komersant Ukrainian" has compiled 33 fascinating facts that may open up new facets of Ukrainian history – from ancient traditions to the present.

Not The Ukraine. An English-speaking person can say The Ukraine as it was said before independence in 1991. In 1993, it was decided that the country should be called without the article the.
The oldest settlement of Homo sapiens was found in Ukraine, in the village of Mezhyrychchia, Rivne region. They are 14.5-15 thousand years old.
Of the 12 laurels in the world, 4 are in Ukraine.
A song in Ukrainian was the first to be performed in space. “I look up to the sky…” on 12 August 1962, Ukrainian Pavlo Popovych sang this song on board the Vostok 4 spacecraft. He sang the song for the world-famous Ukrainian designer Serhii Koroliov.
As of 1929, more than 60% of all proven gas reserves were concentrated in Ukraine. For some time, our country was one of the largest exporters of natural gas to Europe. Ukraine ranks 3rd in terms of shale gas exploration in Europe.
Ukraine is one of the world’s leading countries in terms of proven reserves of hard coal, iron and manganese ores, titanium, zirconium, kaolin, potassium sulphate and sodium salts, facing and decorative stones, and in most of them it holds the top position on the European subcontinent
¼ of all black soil on the planet Earth is concentrated in Ukraine
Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe after Russia.
The largest desert in Europe, the Oleshky Sands, is located in Ukraine
In 1885-1887, geographers from the Imperial Royal Military Geographical Institute in Vienna determined that the geographical centre of Europe was located in the village of Dilove, Transcarpathian region.
In 1945, Ukraine became one of the founding members of the United Nations.
In the 50s and 60s, gas was supplied to Russia from Ukrainian fields, and in the 70s, 18 flights departed daily from Ivano-Frankivsk to Western Siberia. In other words, Ukrainian gas pipelines operated in the direction from West to East, and it was Ukraine that supplied its gas to Russia, including Moscow and Leningrad
Ukraine is one of the largest grain producers in the world, particularly in terms of sunflower cultivation and sunflower oil production.
Kyiv is home to the largest Orthodox monastery in Europe, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.
There are 7 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ukraine.
The national green symbols of Ukraine are the sunflower and the viburnum.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of honey. The first frame hive was invented in Ukraine in 1814. By Petro Prokopovych. In recent years, Ukraine has been confidently maintaining its place among the top three global leaders, outperforming European countries several times in terms of honey production, and is also the world’s first in terms of honey production per capita (1.5 kg).
Ukraine was one of the founding members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The An-225 Mriya aircraft destroyed during the Russian aggression had the largest cargo capacity in the world. In its time, Mriya set 462 aviation records, including more than 240 world records.
The Americans flew to the moon on a route calculated by a Ukrainian. Yurii Kondratiuk, a native of Poltava, also known as Oleksandr Shargai, developed a “stopping theory” for a celestial body with a strong gravitational field.
Khreshchatyk Street is the shortest main street in the world. It is 1.2 kilometres long.
In 1945, a conference was held in Yalta where Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt met to discuss the division of post-war Europe. Yalta became the centre of historical events after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. Crimea is one of the 3 regions that the British Foreign Office advises against visiting.
The country, which lost its nuclear weapons arsenal after the collapse of the USSR, had the second largest army in Europe (after Russia) before the treacherous aggression of the Russian Federation. Obviously, the situation has now changed in Ukraine’s favour.
Ukraine became home to one of the world’s first constitutions. Pylyp Orlyk created a register of laws in 1710. Orlyk’s constitution already separated the powers of the legislative, executive and judicial branches.
In the Ternopil region, near the village of Korolivka, there is the Optimistic Cave. The cave is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest in Eurasia (250 kilometres long) and the second longest in the world.
The Hutsuls are a distinct ethnic group living in the Carpathian Mountains, with unique traditions and folk art. They make up 1% of all Ukrainian citizens.
Kryvyi Rih is the longest city in Europe and one of the three cities in the world with the longest length: the linear length of the city (the distance between the southern and northernmost points on the city’s boundary) is 66.1 km
The longest musical instrument in the world is the Ukrainian trembita. It can be up to four metres long, and its sounds can be heard more than ten kilometres away.
The oldest educational institution in Eastern Europe is the Ostroh Academy (1576). The Academy was founded by Prince Vasyl Konstantinovich Ostrozky. Hetman Petro Konashevych Sahaidachnyi was among the Academy’s graduates.
One of the world’s most famous Christmas songs is “Shchedryk”, a folk song recorded by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych. The world knows it as Carol of the Bells or Ring Christmas Bells.
Donetsk is considered the city of a million roses. It was here that the largest flag of Ukraine, half the size of a football field, was unfurled on the eve of the Russian aggression.
The largest number of monuments in the world is dedicated to the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. There are 1384 monuments to the Ukrainian Kobzar around the world. This is a record figure for a cultural figure.
The UPA armies set an absolute record by holding on to the de facto occupied territory for almost twenty years. Even Fidel Castro’s Cuban rebels studied the technologies and methods of Ukrainian soldiers.