Portal:Ukraine
The Ukraine Portal - Портал України
Ukraine | |
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| ISO 3166 code | UA |
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the north; Poland and Slovakia to the west; Hungary, Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast. Kyiv is Ukraine's capital and largest city, followed by Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipro. The official language of the country is Ukrainian. Ukraine covers an area of 603,628 km2 (233,062 sq mi) with an estimated total population of 32.3 million in 2026.
Humans have inhabited Ukraine since at least 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, it was the site of early Slavic expansion and later became a key centre of East Slavic culture under the state of Kievan Rus', which emerged in the 9th century. Kievan Rus' became the largest and most powerful realm in Europe in the 10th and 11th centuries, but gradually disintegrated into rival regional powers before being destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century. For the next 600 years the area was contested, divided, and ruled by a variety of external powers, including the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia.
The Cossack Hetmanate emerged in central Ukraine in the 17th century but was partitioned between Russia and Poland before being gradually absorbed by the Russian Empire in the 18th century. Ukrainian nationalism developed and, following the Russian Revolution in 1917, the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic was formed. The Bolsheviks consolidated control over much of the former empire and established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922. In the early 1930s, millions of Ukrainians died in the Holodomor, a human-made famine. During World War II, Ukraine was occupied by Germany and endured major battles and atrocities, resulting in 7 million civilians killed, including most Ukrainian Jews.
Ukraine gained independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved, declaring itself neutral. A new constitution was adopted in 1996 as the country transitioned to a free market liberal democracy amid endemic corruption and a legacy of state control. The Orange Revolution of 2004–2005 ushered electoral and constitutional reforms. Resurgent political crises prompted a series of mass demonstrations in 2014 known as the Euromaidan, leading to a revolution, at the end of which Russia unilaterally occupied and annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and pro-Russian unrest culminated in a war in Donbas with Russia and Russian-backed separatists. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine began the current phase of the war. (Full article...)
In the news
- 3 August 2026 – Russo-Ukrainian war
- At least seven people are killed, including three children, and 40 others are injured in a Ukrainian drone strike on a crowded beach in Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai, Russia. (CNN)
- 3 August 2026 – Human rights in Russia
- Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin, who attempted to contest the 2024 presidential election on a platform against the Russo-Ukrainian war, announces that he has fled the country to France following growing pressure on him and his family. (The Moscow Times)
- 1 August 2026 – Russo-Ukrainian war
- Foreign involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian war
- The Washington Post reports that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked a request by former United States senator Lindsey Graham to transfer an Iron Dome system from the U.S. to Ukraine. (Haaretz)
- Kyiv strikes
- Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko says an overnight Russian missile attack has killed at least nine people and injured 24 others, while damaging buildings and causing fires across several districts of the Ukrainian capital. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters)
- Naval warfare in the Russo-Ukrainian war
- Ukrainian forces sink a Rosatom-owned container ship in the Black Sea, forcing its 17-member crew to abandon it. Rosatom says it had been transporting civilian goods, including frozen food and construction materials. (BBC News)
- 31 July 2026 – Russo-Ukrainian war
- Attacks in Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian war
- Two warehouses in Volgograd and Zelenodolsk, Tatarstan, are attacked and set on fire, causing damage estimated at US$1.5 billion, in the latest of a series of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting the Russian online retailer Wildberries. (AFP via France 24) (Kyiv Post)
Recognized content - 
Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.
The Oleksandr Dovzhenko State Prize of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Державна премія України імені Олександра Довженка, romanized: Deržavna premija Ukrajiny imeni Oleksandra Dovženka) is a state award honoring individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the development of Ukrainian cinema. It is named after acclaimed Soviet Ukrainian film director and screenwriter Oleksandr Dovzhenko, who was among the world's top filmmakers and a major figure of the Soviet film industry. The award was established on 10 September 1994 by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Dovzhenko's birth. Award decisions are made by the Committee for the Oleksandr Dovzhenko State Prize of Ukraine—a group of eleven leading figures in the country's cinema appointed by either the government of Ukraine or the Committee's chair. Committee members serve on a voluntary basis to review prize submissions, identify exceptional works of Ukrainian cinema, and select the prize's recipient(s). Their selection is sent to the Ukrainian president, who officially grants the award and designates its cash amount by 10 September through a presidential decree. As a state award, the prize is the highest national recognition for cinema in Ukraine.
Any individual or creative team is eligible for the prize, with there being no nationality restrictions. For teams, the award submission cannot exceed five people and must comprise the group's most important contributors. Individuals may receive the prize more than once, provided that at least five years have passed since their last award and that they have made new outstanding achievements in cinematography since then. A person also cannot have nominations for two or more works open at the same time. Submissions are made by various institutions and organizations to the award committee annually by 1 June, after which the committee votes on narrowing down the best works and ultimately selecting the final awardee(s) by 15 August, when the president receives the committee's selection. Laureates of the prize receive three rewards: a diploma, medal, and cash prize. (Full article...)- "Shipment" is a multiplayer map in the Call of Duty series of first-person shooter video games published by Activision. Originally set in a shipping yard outside of Chernobyl, the maps design is a small, compact square with numerous shipping containers inside, some of which the player can traverse through. This creates a design consisting of an intersection, and no other elements are present beyond this basic layout. As a result of its small design, the map is notorious for fast paced combat, as well as being a popular place for players to have duels.
The map was first introduced in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), where it was designed by that game's multiplayer design director as a developer test map. During development, the map was accidentally placed into the game's main multiplayer map selection, with its creator since referring to the map as an accident. "Shipment" has subsequently appeared in numerous other games in the Call of Duty series, with some versions making minor layout differences or changing the setting. "Shipment" has been met with a mostly positive response from critics, with praise towards its fast-paced action and simple layout, though others have criticized it for the same reasons. It has been considered one of the most iconic maps in the Call of Duty series, as well as one of its best. (Full article...) 
Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych (Ukrainian: Микола Дмитрович Леонтович, pronounced [mɪˈkɔlɐ ˈdmɪtrowɪtʃ leonˈtɔwɪtʃ] ⓘ; 13 December [O.S. 1 December] 1877 – 23 January 1921) was a Ukrainian composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist, and teacher. His music was inspired by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko and the Ukrainian National Music School. Leontovych specialised in a cappella choral music, ranging from original compositions to church music to elaborate arrangements of folk music.
Leontovych was born and raised in Monastyrok in the Podolia province of the Russian Empire (now in Vinnytsia Oblast, west of Ukraine). He was educated as a priest in the Kamianets-Podilskyi Theological Seminary. With the independence of the Ukrainian State in the 1917 revolution, he moved to Kyiv, where he worked at the Kyiv Conservatory and the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama. He composed "Shchedryk" in 1914 (premiered in 1916), now known to the English-speaking world as "Carol of the Bells". He was murdered by a Soviet agent in 1921 and is known as a martyr in the Eastern Orthodox Ukrainian Church, where he is also remembered for his liturgy, the first composed in the vernacular, specifically in the modern Ukrainian language. (Full article...)
The coat of arms of Sevastopol is a heraldic symbol representing the city of Sevastopol, Crimea. It is featured in the middle of the flag of Sevastopol on a red background.
From 21 July 1893, until the October Revolution in 1917, Sevastopol, under the Russian Empire, used a royal coat of arms, which featured the monograms of Tsars Nicholas I and Alexander II. The royal coat of arms was disposed by the Soviet Union, and the city went without an official coat of arms until 1969. On 12 February 1969, city council approved a new design containing the Gold Star medal and a silhouette of the Monument to the Sunken Ships. (Full article...)
Prince Jeremi Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, nicknamed Hammer on the Cossacks (Polish: Młot na Kozaków), was a notable member of the aristocracy of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Prince of Vyshnivets, Lubny and Khorol in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the father of the future King of Poland, Michael I.
A notable magnate and military commander with Ruthenian and Moldavian origin, Wiśniowiecki was heir of one of the biggest fortunes of the state and rose to several notable dignities, including the position of voivode of the Ruthenian Voivodship (today Poland and Ukraine) in 1646. His conversion from Eastern Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism caused much dissent in Ruthenian lands (part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth). Wiśniowiecki was a successful military leader as well as one of the wealthiest magnates of Poland, ruling over lands inhabited by 230,000 people. (Full article...)
The Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle (Ukrainian: Кам'янець-Подільська фортеця, romanized: Kamianets-Podilska fortetsia; Polish: twierdza w Kamieńcu Podolskim; Lithuanian: Podolės Kameneco tvirtovė) is a former Ruthenian-Lithuanian castle and a later three-part Polish fortress located in the historic city of Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine, in the historic region of Podilia in the western part of the country. Its name is attributed to the root word 'kamin', from the Slavic word for 'stone'.
Historical accounts date Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle to the early 14th century, although recent archaeological evidence has proved human existence in the area back to the 12th or 13th century. Initially built to protect the bridge connecting the city with the mainland, the castle sits on top of a peninsula carved out by the winding Smotrych River, forming a natural defense system for Kamianets-Podilskyi's historic Old Town neighborhood. (Full article...)
Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria was a conflict beginning in 967/968 and ending in 971, carried out in the eastern Balkans, and involving the Kievan Rus', Bulgaria, and the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines encouraged the Rus' ruler Sviatoslav to attack Bulgaria, leading to the defeat of the Bulgarian forces and the occupation of the northern and north-eastern part of the country by the Rus' for the following two years. The allies then turned against each other, and the ensuing military confrontation ended with a Byzantine victory. The Rus' withdrew and eastern Bulgaria was incorporated into the Byzantine Empire.
In 927, a peace treaty had been signed between Bulgaria and Byzantium, ending many years of warfare and establishing forty years of peace. Both states prospered during this interlude, but the balance of power gradually shifted in favour of the Byzantines, who made great territorial gains against the Abbasid Caliphate in the east and formed a web of alliances surrounding Bulgaria. By 965/966, the warlike new Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas refused to renew the annual tribute that was part of the peace agreement and declared war on Bulgaria. Preoccupied with his campaigns in the East, Nikephoros resolved to fight the war by proxy and invited the Rus' ruler Sviatoslav to invade Bulgaria. (Full article...)
Triangulopteris (from Latin triangulus 'triangular' and Greek πτερόν 'wing') is a genus of centrohelids, single-celled amoebae that are generally covered with scales or spicules. It contains one species, Triangulopteris lacunata (from Latin lacuna 'hole'), which was described in 2021 from soil samples obtained across geographically distant Ukrainian and Russian territories. This species is one of the few representatives of centrohelids in poorly studied soil microbial ecosystems. The type strain, HF-25, was isolated from permafrost.
Triangulopteris lacunata cells are usually covered by two kinds of silica scales: plates cales and spine scales. The organism is distinguished from other centrohelids by the appearance of its spine scales, which are composed of a basal plate from which a thin shaft emerges, surrounded by two lateral wings. Their unique characteristic consists of two 'pockets' formed between the wings and the basal plate, which has not been observed in any other centrohelid. After several years, the type strain was reported to lose its normal scales and developed thin organic spicules instead, a phenomenon reported in a few other centrohelids. (Full article...)
The Vorontsov Palace: the northern entrance façade. The stone was quarried locally as part of a conscious effort to blend the building with its mountainous surroundings.
The Vorontsov Palace (Ukrainian: Воронцовський палац, romanized: Vorontsovs'kyi palats; Russian: Воронцовский дворец, romanized: Vorontsovskiy Dvorets) or the Alupka Palace is a historic palace situated at the foot of the Crimean Mountains near the town of Alupka in Crimea. The Vorontsov Palace is one of the oldest and largest palaces in Crimea, and has been one of the most popular tourist attractions on Crimea's southern coast.
The palace was built between 1828 and 1848 for the Russian Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov for use as his personal summer residence at a cost of 9 million roubles. It was designed in a loose interpretation of the English Renaissance revival style by English architect Edward Blore and his assistant William Hunt. The building is a hybrid of several architectural styles, but faithful to none. Among those styles are elements of Scottish Baronial, Indo-Saracenic Revival Architecture, and Gothic Revival architecture. Blore had designed many buildings in the United Kingdom, and was later particularly well known there for completing the design of Buckingham Palace in London. (Full article...)
Nestor Ivanovych Makhno (Ukrainian: Не́стор Іва́нович Махно́, pronounced [ˈnɛstor iˈwɑnowɪtʃ mɐxˈnɔ]; Russian: Не́стор Ива́нович Махно́; 7 November 1888 – 25 July 1934), also known as Bat'ko Makhno (Ukrainian: Ба́тько Махно́ [ˈbɑtʲko mɐxˈnɔ], lit. 'Father Makhno'), was a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and the commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence. He established the Makhnovshchina (loosely translated as "Makhno movement"), a mass movement by the Ukrainian peasantry to establish anarchist communism in the country between 1918 and 1921. Initially centered around Makhno's home province of Katerynoslav and hometown of Huliaipole, it came to exert a strong influence over large areas of southern Ukraine, specifically in what is now the Zaporizhzhia Oblast of Ukraine. Anarchists have cited him as an inspiration during his life and into today.
Raised by a peasant family and coming of age amid the fervor around the 1905 revolution against the autocratic rule of Russian Emperor Nicholas II, Makhno was a member of the Union of Poor Peasants, a local anarchist group, and spent seven years imprisoned for that. With his release during the 1917 Revolution, Makhno became a local revolutionary leader in his hometown and oversaw the expropriation and redistribution of large estates to the peasantry. In the Russian Civil War, Makhno sided with the Soviet Russian Bolsheviks against the Ukrainian nationalists and White movement, but his alliances with the Bolsheviks did not last. He rallied Bolshevik support to lead an insurgency, defeating the Central Powers' occupation forces at the Battle of Dibrivka and establishing the Makhnovshchina. Makhno's troops briefly integrated with the Bolshevik Red Army in the 1919 Soviet invasion of Ukraine, but split over differences on the movement's autonomy. Makhno rebuilt his army from the remains of Nykyfor Hryhoriv's forces in western Ukraine, routed the White Army at the Battle of Perehonivka, and captured most of southern and eastern Ukraine, where they again attempted to establish anarchist communism. (Full article...)
DeepStateMap.Live is an open-source intelligence interactive online map of the military operations of the Russian and Ukrainian armies during the Russo-Ukrainian war. The map was created on 24 February 2022, the day of the invasion, by the non-governmental and volunteer-led organization Deep State UA. It is updated regularly to reflect the current situation on the frontline, in military formations, and other major events of the war.
Before the Russo-Ukrainian war, Deep State UA originally focused on posting content related to global news and politics on the messaging app Telegram, where they created their first updating online map of a global conflict during the Taliban offensive in 2021. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, DeepStateMap.Live separated itself from similar digital maps of the invasion after moving away from using a generic Google Maps background after a dispute with Google, allowing Deep State UA to design their own background and interactive map features. The map is currently sourced using data collected by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, as well as a blend of visual information and confirmations by other Ukrainian sources deemed reliable. (Full article...)
Sarah Ashton-Cirillo (born 9 July 1977) is an American former journalist who has worked as a spokesperson for Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, in which she is a junior sergeant. A self-described "recovering political operative" from Las Vegas, Nevada, she was active in Nevada politics from 2020 to 2021, including an abortive run for Las Vegas City Council. She arrived in Ukraine in March 2022, shortly after the full-scale Russian invasion, and has variously served as a war correspondent, a representative in aid negotiations, a civilian analyst with the Ministry of Defense, and a combat medic.
Ashton-Cirillo drew national media attention in 2021 when she released records of conversations from her time working with Republican candidates, documenting efforts to recruit members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, for a planned "Brooks Brothers Riot" (alluding to the 2000 demonstration) as part of efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 United States presidential election. In 2022, she leaked a text exchange with the Republican nominee for Nevada Attorney General, which became a key controversy in that election. (Full article...)
The Lviv pogroms were the consecutive pogroms and massacres of Jews in June and July 1941 in the city of Lwów in German-occupied Eastern Poland/Western Ukraine (now Lviv, Ukraine). The massacres were perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists (specifically, the OUN), German death squads (Einsatzgruppen), and urban population from 30 June to 2 July, and from 25 to 29 July, during the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Thousands of Jews were killed both in the pogroms and in the Einsatzgruppen killings.
Ukrainian militia as well as Ukrainian residents and to a lower degree Poles targeted Jews in the first pogrom, which was triggered by the discovery of thousands of bodies in three Lviv prisons of victims of the Soviet NKVD prisoner massacres, which were widely blamed on "Jewish Bolsheviks". The subsequent massacres were directed by the Germans in the context of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. The pogroms have been widely debated in the historiography, including the extent to which Ukrainian nationalists played a central or complicit role. (Full article...)- The Battle of Dibrivka was a military conflict between Ukrainian anarchist insurgents, led by Nestor Makhno and Fedir Shchus, and Austro-Hungarian forces that were occupying southern Ukraine, supported by the collaborationist Ukrainian State. It took place on 30 September 1918, towards the end of World War I. The battle began when Makhno, Shchus, and a group of anarchist supporters ambushed the Austrian and Ukrainian detachments stationed in Dibrivka. The anarchists were armed with machine guns and were assisted by local peasants, who together captured ammunition, arms, and prisoners of war. It resulted in an insurgent victory and the establishment of an autonomous territory in the region, following the subsequent defeat of the Central Powers. (Full article...)
The Grand Crimean Central Railway was a military railway built in 1855 during the Crimean War by the United Kingdom. Its purpose was to supply ammunition and provisions to Allied soldiers engaged in the Siege of Sevastopol who were stationed on a plateau between Balaklava and Sevastopol. It also carried the world's first hospital train.
The railway was built at cost and without any contract by Peto, Brassey and Betts, a partnership of English railway contractors led by Samuel Morton Peto. Within three weeks of the arrival of the fleet carrying materials and men the railway had started to run and in seven weeks 7 miles (11 km) of track had been completed. The railway was a major factor leading to the success of the siege. After the end of the war the track was sold and removed. (Full article...)
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Featured pictures
These are Featured pictures that the Wikimedia Commons community has chosen as the highest quality on the site.
Photograph: George ChernilevskyThe ChS8 is an electric mainline passenger locomotive used in Russia and Ukraine. Built between 1983 and 1989, it was developed for pulling long passenger trains (28–32 carriages) at speeds of 100 kilometres per hour (60 mph) or faster. Since 2010 Russia has switched to more energy-efficient designs, such as the EP10 and EP20.
Artist: William Simpson; Restoration: NativeForeignerThe 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons and 5th Dragoon Guards engage the Russians in this lithograph of the "Charge of the Heavy Brigade", a short engagement during the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. Russian cavalry had attacked the British camp, but in roughly ten minutes of fighting, they suffered 40 to 50 killed and more than 200 wounded and were forced to retreat.
Photograph credit: Max AlpertKombat (Russian for 'battalion commander') is a black-and-white photograph by Soviet photographer Max Alpert. It depicts a Soviet military officer, armed with a TT pistol, raising his unit for an attack during World War II. This work is regarded as one of the most iconic Soviet World War II photographs, yet neither the date nor the subject is known with certainty. According to the most widely accepted version, it depicts junior politruk Aleksei Gordeyevich Yeryomenko, minutes before his death on 12 July 1942, in Voroshilovgrad Oblast, now part of Ukraine. The photograph is in the archives of RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency.
Photograph: Anatoly ShcherbakThe Royal Kurgan is a 4th century BC kurgan (burial barrow) located near present-day Kerch, Crimea. The mound is almost 20 metres high and its base perimeter is about 250 metres. It holds a burial chamber with a square floor plan which gradually merges into the circular shape of a corbelled dome ("false vault"). It is assumed that the Royal Kurgan was the final resting place of a ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom.
Map credit: Nicolas de FerA 1691 French map of Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine, depicting the city's old town neighborhood and castle, surrounded by the winding Smotrych River. It was originally part of Kievan Rus' and annexed into the First Polish Republic, but at the time of the map's creation, the city was part of the Ottoman Empire. It shortly returned to Poland and later became part of the Russian Empire with the Second Partition of Poland in 1793.
Photograph: AmakuhaThe burning of the Trade Unions Building—used as the headquarters of the Euromaidan movement—during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, following a failed attempt by the Ukrainian police to capture the building. After the fire, the damaged building was covered with large canvas screens on two sides with the words "Glory to Ukraine" printed on them in large letters.
Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin sitting together at the Yalta Conference, which took place February 4–11, 1945. The so-called "Big Three" met to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of Europe following World War II. Although a number of agreements were reached, Stalin broke his promises regarding Poland, and the Soviet Union annexed the regions of Eastern Europe it controlled, or converted them to satellite states.
Photo credit: Peter DuhonUkrainian fashion model Nataliya Gotsiy modeling for Cynthia Rowley, Spring 2007 New York Fashion Week. She was the winner of the Ford Supermodel of the World 2004 search. She has appeared on the cover of French Elle and Italian Marie Claire and modeled for Behnaz Sarafpour, Christian Lacroix, Diane von Furstenberg, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Dries van Noten, Gucci, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino, and Vivienne Westwood, among others.
Artist: William Simpson; Lithographer: Edmond Morin; Restoration: NativeForeignerA tinted lithograph, titled "Embarkation of the sick at Balaklava", shows injured and ill soldiers in the Crimean War boarding boats to take them to hospital facilities. Modern nursing had its roots in the war, as war correspondents for newspapers reported the scandalous treatment of wounded soldiers in the first desperate winter, prompting the pioneering work of women such as Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, Frances Margaret Taylor and others.
A map showing caesium-137 contamination in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine (in curies per square kilometer) in 1996, ten years after the Chernobyl disaster struck the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The disaster contaminated 162,160 square kilometres (62,610 sq mi) of land and is widely considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history.
Painting: UnknownThe Adoration of the Shepherds is a common subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art. The scene, based on the Biblical account in Luke 2, depicts shepherds as near witnesses to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, arriving soon after the actual birth. It is often combined in art with the Adoration of the Magi, in which case it is typically just referred to by the latter title. The example here comes from 17th-century Ukraine and is currently held at the Ivan Honchar Museum.
Photo: Noodle snacksMushrooms of Armillaria hinnulea, a species of honey fungus (or "pidpenky", from Ukrainian). Honey fungi are parasitic fungi that live on trees and woody shrubs. As a forest pathogen, it can be very destructive because unlike most parasites, it does not need to moderate its growth in order to avoid killing its host, since it will continue to thrive on the dead material. Honey fungi are long lived and form some of the largest living organisms in the world, including one that covers more than 3.4 sq mi (8.8 km2) and is thousands of years old. The mushrooms are edible, but can be easily confused with poisonous Galerina species, which can grow side-by-side with Armillaria.
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Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that Ukrainian Sheriffs went to summer school after being shot?
- ... that the vodka brand Zirkova raised funds for Ukraine after the Russian invasion, and brought its master distiller to Canada to continue production?
- ... that the diary of Erich Lassota von Steblau is an important primary source on the 16th-century Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine?
- ... that the Canadian Joint Forces Command was created based on operational lessons from the war in Ukraine?
- ... that following the energy price shock caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Turkish government intervened to have the country's renewable energy subsidise coal and gas?
- ... that in March 2022 Sonja van den Ende was the only Dutch journalist to report from the Russian-occupied Donbas on the war in Ukraine?
More did you know -
- ... that the Kryvbas economic region in Ukraine is one of the largest iron ore and steel industry centers in Europe?
- ... that the married Western Ukrainian Clergy became a hereditary caste that dominated western Ukrainian society?
- ... that Vasyl Avramenko is often referred as "The father of the Ukrainian dance"?
- ... that the Khreschatyk is the main street of Ukrainian capital Kyiv on which Orange Revolution and other historical events mainly took place?
- ... that at its first years Kiev Zoo had to move its animals into the food storage of the main Kiev railway station for the winter?
- ... that among many historic landmarks at the Andrew's Descent in Kyiv, there is a medieval Gothic style castle that locals call the "Castle of Richard the Lion Heart" due to the legend the 12th century King of England had visited the building?
Selected article -
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Lviv is the fifth-largest city in Ukraine, as well as the largest city in the western part of the country, with a population of 723,403 (2025 estimate). It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. The city also hosts the administration of Lviv urban hromada. Lviv was named after Leo I of Galicia, the eldest son of Daniel, King of Ruthenia. During its history the city has had several names.
Lviv emerged as the centre of the historical regions of Red Ruthenia and Galicia in the 14th century, superseding Halych, Chełm, Belz, and Przemyśl. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia from 1272 to 1340, when it went to King Casimir III the Great of Poland in a war of succession. In 1356, Casimir the Great granted it town rights. From 1434, it was the regional capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship in the Kingdom of Poland. In 1772, after the First Partition of Poland, the city became the capital of the Habsburg semi-autonomous Polish-dominated Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Between 1918 and 1939, the city was the centre of the Lwów Voivodeship in the Second Polish Republic. During this period the city's culture and industry flourished, as did its academic institutions, such as the Lwów School of Mathematics, the Lwów Historical School, and the Lwów School of Economics. After the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, Lwów was annexed by the Soviet Union. It survived Soviet and German occupations during World War II largely unscathed. In February 1946, the city became a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, having lost an estimated 80-90% of its prewar population. In 1991, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Lviv stayed part of Ukraine. (Full article...)
In the news
- 3 August 2026 – Russo-Ukrainian war
- At least seven people are killed, including three children, and 40 others are injured in a Ukrainian drone strike on a crowded beach in Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai, Russia. (CNN)
- 3 August 2026 – Human rights in Russia
- Russian opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin, who attempted to contest the 2024 presidential election on a platform against the Russo-Ukrainian war, announces that he has fled the country to France following growing pressure on him and his family. (The Moscow Times)
- 1 August 2026 – Russo-Ukrainian war
- Foreign involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian war
- The Washington Post reports that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked a request by former United States senator Lindsey Graham to transfer an Iron Dome system from the U.S. to Ukraine. (Haaretz)
- Kyiv strikes
- Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko says an overnight Russian missile attack has killed at least nine people and injured 24 others, while damaging buildings and causing fires across several districts of the Ukrainian capital. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters)
- Naval warfare in the Russo-Ukrainian war
- Ukrainian forces sink a Rosatom-owned container ship in the Black Sea, forcing its 17-member crew to abandon it. Rosatom says it had been transporting civilian goods, including frozen food and construction materials. (BBC News)
- 31 July 2026 – Russo-Ukrainian war
- Attacks in Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian war
- Two warehouses in Volgograd and Zelenodolsk, Tatarstan, are attacked and set on fire, causing damage estimated at US$1.5 billion, in the latest of a series of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting the Russian online retailer Wildberries. (AFP via France 24) (Kyiv Post)
Selected anniversaries for August
- August 2, 2026 — Airborne forces day
- August 17, 1649 — Treaty of Zboriv was signed after the Polish army was defeated in the Battle of Zboriv by the Cossacks, led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
- August 22, 2006 — An aircraft crashed near the Russian border over eastern Ukraine while en route from Vityazevo Airport (Anapa) to Pulkovo Airport (St. Petersburg)
- August 24, 1991 — Ukraine declares independence from the Soviet Union
Photo gallery
Streets of Mukacheve in the old part of town
Trinity Church and Monastery in Chernihiv, Ukraine
View on the lower fortress of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle
Zbarazh (Ukrainian: Збараж, Polish: Zbaraż, Yiddish: Zbarj) is a small city in the Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Zbarazh Raion (district), and is located in the historic region of Galicia. The major attraction of the city is the Zbarazh Castle that played a key role during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the heroic defense of which eventually led to change of momentum and extinguishing the Cossack revolt.
A wooden bridge leads to the entrance to the Khomutovska Steppe in Donetsk Oblast.
Potemkin Stairs in Odesa, Ukraine. The higher perspective allows a person to see both the stairs and landings.- An 1691 French map of the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi, located in western Ukraine.
A view of Lviv
Interiour view of the Pochayiv Lavra in Ukraine.
A view of Lviv Old Town from the High Castle.
The square in front of the theater in Chernivtsi.
The Swallow's Nest is one of the Neo-Gothic châteaux fantastiques near Yalta; it was built in 1912.
St Andrew's Church of Kyiv (1749–1854)
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