, privatization, and civil liberties. A peaceful mass
protest "Orange Revolution" in the closing months of 2004 forced the
authorities to overturn a rigged presidential election and to allow
a new internationally monitored vote that swept into power a
reformist slate under Viktor YUSHCHENKO. Subsequent internal
squabbles in the YUSHCHENKO camp allowed his rival Viktor YANUKOVYCH
to stage a comeback in parliamentary elections and become prime
minister in August of 2006. An early legislative election, brought
on by a political crisis in the spring of 2007, saw Yuliya
TYMOSHENKO, as head of an "Orange" coalition, installed as a new
prime minister in December 2007.

Geography
Ukraine

Location:

Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland, Romania,
and Moldova in the west and Russia in the east

Geographic coordinates:

49 00 N, 32 00 E

Map references:

Asia, Europe

Area:

total: 603,700 sq km
land: 603,700 sq km
water: 0 sq km

Area - comparative:

slightly smaller than Texas

Land boundaries:

total: 4,566 km
border countries: Belarus 891 km, Hungary 103 km, Moldova 940 km,
Poland 428 km, Romania (south) 176 km, Romania (southwest) 362 km,
Russia 1,576 km, Slovakia 90 km

Coastline:

2,782 km

Maritime claims:

territorial sea: 12 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: 200-m or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:

temperate continental; Mediterranean only on the southern Crimean
coast; precipitation disproportionately distributed, highest in west
and north, lesser in east and southeast; winters vary from cool
along the Black Sea to cold farther inland; summers are warm across
the greater part of the country, hot in the south

Terrain:

most of Ukraine consists of fertile plains (steppes) and plateaus,
mountains being found only in the west (the Carpathians), and in the
Crimean Peninsula in the extreme south

Elevation extremes:

lowest point: Black Sea 0 m
highest point: Hora Hoverla 2,061 m

Natural resources:

iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas, oil, salt, sulfur, graphite,
titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel, mercury, timber, arable land

Land use:

arable land: 53.8%
permanent crops: 1.5%
other: 44.7% (2005)

Irrigated land:

22,080 sq km (2003)

Total renewable water resources:

139.5 cu km (1997)

Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):

total: 37.53 cu km/yr (12%/35%/52