Ukraine historical timeline

Origins

Kyiv was the centre of Kievan Rus’, the medieval state from which Ukraine, Russia and Belarus all trace descent — a shared inheritance that has been argued over ever since. Vladimir accepted Orthodox Christianity here in 988. The Mongols destroyed Rus’ in 1240, and the lands passed to Lithuania and then to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Out of the steppe frontier came the Cossacks, self-governing communities of free men who elected their leaders and who supplied Ukraine with its founding political idea.

Turning points

The Cossack Hetmanate under Bohdan Khmelnytsky rose against Poland in 1648 and then made an agreement with Moscow that Russian and Ukrainian historians read very differently. Russian imperial rule followed, with the language banned from print for a period in the nineteenth century. Independence was declared in 1917 and lost by 1921. Then came the Holodomor: Stalin’s grain requisitions in 1932 and 1933 caused a famine that killed millions, now recognised as a genocide by many states. The Second World War was fought across the whole territory twice, killing perhaps eight million Ukrainians. Chornobyl exploded in 1986. Independence came with the Soviet collapse in 1991, confirmed by a referendum won in every region. The Orange Revolution of 2004 and the Maidan protests of 2013–14 pushed the country westward; Russia annexed Crimea and backed war in the Donbas in 2014, and launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Influential people

Taras Shevchenko, a serf who bought his freedom and whose poetry made the modern language and the modern nation; his portrait hangs in Ukrainian homes the way few writers’ do anywhere. Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Mykhailo Hrushevsky, the historian who became the first head of state in 1917. Serhiy Korolev, the chief designer of the Soviet space programme. And Volodymyr Zelensky.

Cultural evolution

Ukrainian and Russian have both been widely spoken, and the balance has shifted sharply towards Ukrainian since 2014. Pysanky, wax-resist decorated eggs, follow patterns older than Christianity in the region. The bandura, a plucked instrument with dozens of strings, carried the Cossack epic songs, and the players were largely killed under Stalin. Borscht — its cooking recognised by UNESCO in 2022 — and the black earth beneath it are both national symbols: Ukraine’s chernozem is among the most fertile soil in the world, which is why the country has been called a breadbasket and why it has been fought over.

Present-day significance

Ukraine is one of the largest exporters of grain and sunflower oil in the world, and the disruption of those exports since 2022 has affected food prices from North Africa to South Asia. It is a candidate for European Union membership. The war continues, the reconstruction bill is already counted in hundreds of billions, and several million Ukrainians remain displaced abroad.