Thread by @thetimes

🔎 As President Putin’s forces lay siege to Ukraine’s cities, the spirit and determination of its people have grabbed the world's attention.

But for all the coverage of war, the culture and history of this nation is unknown to many

thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain…

🗣 Language

This is one of the key cultural differences between Ukraine and Russia – exemplified by the Ukrainian pronunciation of their capital: kee-yiv rather than the Russian version, kee-yev 👇

Russian is largely spoken in the east, particularly Crimea, which Putin annexed in 2014.

(Our interactive map shows the % of those who speak Russian as their first language in Ukraine)

🗺 Borders

By the 19th century the western part of what is now Ukraine was under Austro-Hungarian control and the east was controlled by the Russian Empire. Ukraine won short-lived freedom from its Slav neighbours after its war of independence, fought between 1917 and 1921

It united west and east, which had been divided between the Habsburg and Romanov empires, into the Ukrainian People’s Republic.

🗣 Khromeychuk: "This started an irreversible process, a realisation that a Ukrainian state was possible"

After the Second World War Ukraine became part of the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was instrumental in the collapse of the Soviet Union, declaring its independence in 1991

🇺🇦 Culture

Ukraine has become increasingly cosmopolitan and its cities are particularly western-facing. Kenneth Nowakowski, bishop of the Ukrainian Church in London, said: "People are always amazed by how vibrant and young people are, among coffee shops, the theatre and ballet"

🗣 “In Kyiv you are going to find Ukrainian food along with Georgian food, sushi, Indian food, as well as McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

"If you go to Lviv you’ll see buildings there, like the opera theatre, which are very similar to Vienna, Budapest or Zagreb"

The sight of Oleksandr Usyk, Vasyl Lomachenko, and Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko taking up arms has been a reminder of Ukraine's impact in the sporting arena. As world champion boxers, their already battle-hardened faces will be familiar to many sports fans across the globe

📺 Popular culture

One of its biggest showbiz stars is now its leader on the biggest stage – Zelensky was a renowned comedian and starred on the Ukrainian version of #StrictlyComeDancing. Voters were used to seeing him in office from popular drama series Servant of the People

💰 Economy

Known as the breadbasket of Europe, Ukraine’s vast expanses of rich soil make it one of the world’s largest grain producers and its single biggest provider of sunflower oil

However, its economy is modest, lying 55th in the global table of GDP. Analysts fear that Covid has lifted the poverty rate above 50 per cent, although that is an improvement on Ukraine’s final years in the Soviet Union

🏫 Education

About 99% of the country’s children are enrolled in schools, which has broadly been the case since Soviet days, and the literacy rate is close to 100%.

In 2017 Ukraine remodelled its education system with Britain as a model

📍 Politics and Crimea

Since the fall of communism Ukraine has endured corruption, oligarchs and poisonings – yet its democracy has endured. Political parties rise and fall but the key division is not between left and right but east and west

(🔎 See our interactive map)

🔺 Early presidents Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005) and Viktor Yushchenko (2005-2010) wanted to balance Russian trading links with closer EU and Nato ties

🔺 Victor Yanukovych won in 2010. Seeking greater Russia ties, he refused to sign a political and free-trade agreement with the EU

This fuelled the Maidan Revolution of 2014, which in turn provoked Putin into annexing Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula with a largely ethnic Russian population.

🔺 It led to the installation of the pro-Kremlin leader Sergei Aksyonov, a referendum declared illegal by the West

🔺 That year Ukraine elected Petro Poroshenko who signed the EU agreement Yanukovych rejected. His slogans included “army, language, faith” and “we’re going our own way”.

🔺 Then came Zelensky who thrashed Poroshenko in 2019 and continued to look westwards for allies 👇