The geography of Ukraine varies greatly from one region of the country to another, with the majority of the country lying within the

East European Plain The East European Plain (also called the Russian Plain, "Extending from eastern Poland through the entire European Russia to the Ural Mountaina, the ''East European Plain'' encompasses all of the Baltic states and Belarus, nearly all of Ukraine, a ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...

is the second-largest European country, after

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

. Its various regions have diverse geographic features ranging from highlands to lowlands, as well as climatic range and a wide variety in hydrography. Lying between latitudes 44° and 53° N, and longitudes 22° and 41° E, Ukraine covers an area of , with a coastline of . The landscape of Ukraine consists mostly of fertile

steppes In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine ...

Seversky Donets The Seversky Donets () or Siverskyi Donets (), usually simply called the Donets, is a river on the south of the East European Plain. It originates in the Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine (Kharkiv, Don ...

Dniester The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and ...

and the

Southern Bug , ''Pivdennyi Buh'' , name_etymology = , image = Sunset S Bug Vinnitsa 2007 G1.jpg , image_size = 270 , image_caption = Southern Bug River in the vicinity of Vinnytsia, Ukraine , map = PietinisBug ...

as they flow south into the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, ...

and the smaller

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov ( Crimean Tatar: ''Azaq deñizi''; russian: Азовское море, Azovskoye more; uk, Азовське море, Azovs'ke more) is a sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Ker ...

. To the southwest, the

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also r ...

of the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , ...

forms the border with Romania. The country's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest is

Hoverla Mount Hoverla (Ukrainian and rue, Говерла, Hoverla), at , is the highest mountain in Ukraine and part of the Carpathian Mountains (Ukrainian Carpathians). The mountain is located in the Eastern Beskids, in the Chornohora region. The slo ...

at , and the Crimean Mountains, in the extreme south along the coast. Ukraine also has a number of highland regions such as the Volyn-Podillia Upland (in the west) and the Near-Dnipro Upland (on the right bank of the Dnieper). To the east there are the south-western spurs of the Central Russian Upland, over which runs the border with the Russia. Near the

can be found the Donets Ridge and the Near Azov Upland. The snow melt from the mountains feeds the rivers and their

waterfalls A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several w ...

. Significant natural resources in Ukraine include lithium, natural gas,

kaolin Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahed ...

, timber and an abundance of arable land. Despite this, the country faces a number of major environmental issues such as inadequate supplies of potable water, air and water pollution, deforestation, and radioactive contamination in the north-east from the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Geographic location

Ukraine is located in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, wh ...

: lying on the northern shores of the

and the

. The country borders Poland, Slovakia and Hungary in the west, Belarus in the north, Moldova and Romania in the south-west and Russia in the east. The total geographic area of Ukraine is . Ukraine has an Exclusive Economic Zone of in the

. The land border of Ukraine totals . The border lengths with each country are:

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnist ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

on the south and on the west,

, and

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

. Ukraine is also bordered by of coastline. The border with Russia is the country's longest border - it runs in part through the Sea of Azov. The village of Vel'ké Slemence is an anomaly, as it is split between

and

Relief

Most of its territory lies within the

Great European Plain The European Plain or Great European Plain is a plain in Europe and is a major feature of one of four major topographical units of Europe - the ''Central and Interior Lowlands''.

, while parts of western regions and southern regions lay within the

Alpine system Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine Nation ...

. In general Ukraine comprises two different

biome A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...

mixed forest Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These fo ...

towards the middle of the continent, and

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslan ...

towards the Black Sea littoral. Major provinces include,

Polesian Lowland The Polesian Lowland is a lowland in the southwestern portion of the East European Plain in the drainage basins of several rivers including the Dnieper, Prypiat and Desna. It stretches along the Belarus–Ukraine border. The eastern part of the l ...

Dnieper Lowland Dnieper Lowland () is a major geographic feature of the Central Ukraine region and the East European Plain. Location It lies along the midstream of Dnieper river mostly on its left bank from Belarus all the way to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The lowlan ...

, Volhynia-Podolie Plateau, Black Sea-Azov Lowland, Donets-Azov Plateau, Central Russian Upland,

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The ...

, and

Pannonian Basin The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense, with only the ...

. The western regions feature an alpine-like section of Carpathian Mountains, the Eastern Carpathians that stretches across Poland, Ukraine and Romania. The highest peak is Mount Hoverla, which at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''. The ...

is the highest point in the country. Mountains are limited to the west, the southern tip of Ukraine on the

. The western region has the Carpathian Mountains, and some eroded mountains from the

Donets Ridge The Donets Ridge is a highland that is the highest northeastern part of the Donets upland. The ridge is located within the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts and is partially in the Rostov Oblast (Russia). The highest point on the ridge is a hill — Mohy ...

are in the east near the Sea of Azov. Most of Ukraine's area is taken up by the

-like region just north of the

. Most of Ukraine consists of fertile plains (or

s) and

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

s. In terms of land use, 58% of Ukraine is considered arable land; 2% is used for permanent crops, 13% for permanent pastures, 18% is forests and woodland, and 9% is other.

Physiographic division of Ukraine

Most of Ukraine consists of regular plains with the average height

being . It is surrounded by mountains to its west and extreme south. Wide spaces of the country's plains are located in the south-western part of the

. The plains have numerous highlands and lowlands caused by the uneven crystallized base of the

East European craton The East European Craton (EEC) is the core of the Baltica proto- plate and consists of three crustal regions/segments: Fennoscandia to the northwest, Volgo-Uralia to the east, and Sarmatia to the south. Fennoscandia includes the Baltic Shield ...

. The highlands are characterized by

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of th ...

basement rocks In geology, basement and crystalline basement are crystalline rocks lying above the mantle and beneath all other rocks and sediments. They are sometimes exposed at the surface, but often they are buried under miles of rock and sediment. The baseme ...

from the Ukrainian Shield. Plains are considered elevations of no more than among which there are recognized lowlands (plains) and uplands (plateaus, ridges, hill ridges).

Great European Plain The European Plain or Great European Plain is a plain in Europe and is a major feature of one of four major topographical units of Europe - the ''Central and Interior Lowlands''.
(subregion
East European Plain The East European Plain (also called the Russian Plain, "Extending from eastern Poland through the entire European Russia to the Ural Mountaina, the ''East European Plain'' encompasses all of the Baltic states and Belarus, nearly all of Ukraine, a ...
)

* Volhynia-Podillia Upland (Volhynia-Podillia Plateau) ** Volhynian Upland **

Podolian Upland The Podolian Upland (Podolian Plateau) or Podillia Upland ( uk, подільська височина, ''podilska vysochyna'') is a highland area in southwestern Ukraine, on the left (northeast) bank of the Dniester River, with small portions in ...

* Small Polesia Plain * Khotyn Upland (part of

Moldavian Plateau The Moldavian Plateau ( ro, Podișul Moldovei) is a geographic area of the historical region of Moldavia, spanning nowadays east and northeast of Romania, most of Moldova (except the south), and most of the Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine (where it ...

) *

Roztocze Roztocze ( uk, Розточчя, ''Roztochia'') is a range of hills in east-central Poland and western Ukraine which rises from the Lublin Upland and extends southeastward through Solska Forest and across the border into Ukrainian Podolia. Low an ...

* Sian-Dniester Lowland * Eastern Carpathian Foothills *

Dnieper Upland The Dnieper Upland or Cisdnieper Upland ( uk, Придніпровська височина, translit=Prydniprovska vysochyna) is a southeastern European plain occupying the territory between the Dnieper and the Southern Bug. It lies in central Uk ...

* Central Russian Upland * Donets-Azov Plateau **

Donets Upland The Seversky Donets () or Siverskyi Donets (), usually simply called the Donets, is a river on the south of the East European Plain. It originates in the Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine ( Kharkiv, ...

Azov Upland Azov Upland is a plateau or range of hills in East Ukraine within the Donetsk and Zaporizhia oblasts. To the north it borders Dnieper Lowland, to northeast – Donets Ridge, southwest – Black Sea Lowland, south – Azov Lowland. Elev ...

* Black Sea-Azov Lowland **

Black Sea Lowland The Black Sea Lowland is a major geographic feature of the Northern Pontic region and the East European Plain. It is almost completely within the Southern Ukraine covering half of its territory. Location The lowland is located along the northern ...

** Crimean Lowland ** Azov Lowland

Alpine system

Transcarpathian Lowland Zakarpattia Lowland ( uk, Закарпа́тська низовина́ / ''Transcarpathian Lowland''; hu, Kárpátaljai-alföld) or Upper Tysa Lowland is a lowland in the southwestern portion of the Zakarpattia Oblast in the drainage basin of ...

(extension of

Great Hungarian Plain The Great Hungarian Plain (also known as Alföld or Great Alföld, hu, Alföld or ) is a plain occupying the majority of the modern territory of Hungary. It is the largest part of the wider Pannonian Plain. (However, the Great Hungarian plai ...

, part of Eastern

) *

Eastern Carpathians Divisions of the Carpathians are a categorization of the Carpathian mountains system. Below is a detailed overview of the major subdivisions and ranges of the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathians are a "subsystem" of a bigger Alps-Himalaya Sy ...

(part of Carpathian Mountains) **

Outer Eastern Carpathians Divisions of the Carpathians are a categorization of the Carpathian mountains system. Below is a detailed overview of the major subdivisions and ranges of the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathians are a "subsystem" of a bigger Alps-Himalaya ...

(more Eastern Beskids and the

Ukrainian Carpathians The Ukrainian Carpathians ( uk, Українські Карпати) are a section of the Eastern Carpathians, within the borders of modern Ukraine. They are located in the southwestern corner of Western Ukraine, within administrative territor ...

) **

Inner Eastern Carpathians Divisions of the Carpathians are a categorization of the Carpathian mountains system. Below is a detailed overview of the major subdivisions and ranges of the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathians are a "subsystem" of a bigger Alps-Himalaya ...

(more

Vihorlat-Gutin Area The Vihorlat-Gutin Area ( sk, Vihorlatsko-gutinská oblasť; uk, Вигорлат-Гутинський хребет; hu, Vihorlát–Gutin-hegyvidék) is a region of mountain ranges ranging from eastern Slovakia, through western Ukraine, into ...

) * Crimean Mountains

Soil

From northwest to southeast the soils of Ukraine may be divided into three major aggregations: * a zone of sandy

podzol In soil science, podzols are the typical soils of coniferous or boreal forests and also the typical soils of eucalypt forests and heathlands in southern Australia. In Western Europe, podzols develop on heathland, which is often a construct of hum ...

ized soils * a central belt consisting of the extremely fertile Ukrainian black earth (

chernozems Chernozem (from rus, чернозём, p=tɕɪrnɐˈzʲɵm, r=chernozyom; "black ground"), also called black soil, is a black-colored soil containing a high percentage of humus (4% to 16%) and high percentages of phosphorus and ammonia compound ...

) * a zone of chestnut and salinized soils As much as two-thirds of the country's surface land consists of black earth, a resource that has made Ukraine one of the most fertile regions in the world and well known as a "breadbasket". These soils may be divided into three broad groups: * in the north, a belt of deep chernozems, about thick and rich in humus * south and east of the former, a zone of prairie, or ordinary, chernozems, which are equally rich in humus but only about thick * the southernmost belt, which is even thinner and has still less humus Interspersed in various uplands and along the northern and western perimeters of the deep chernozems are mixtures of gray forest soils and podzolized black-earth soils, which together occupy much of Ukraine's remaining area. All these soils are very fertile when sufficient water is available. However, their intensive cultivation, especially on steep slopes, has led to widespread soil erosion and gullying. The smallest proportion of the soil cover consists of the chestnut soils of the southern and eastern regions. They become increasingly salinized to the south as they approach the Black Sea.

Hydrography

The territory of Ukraine is bordered by the waters of the

and the

. More than 95% of the rivers are part of those two seas'

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

s. A few rivers are part of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and fr ...

basin. There are seven major rivers in Ukraine: Desna,

Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper R ...

Dnister The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and th ...

, Prypiat,

Siverian Donets The Seversky Donets () or Siverskyi Donets (), usually simply called the Donets, is a river on the south of the East European Plain. It originates in the Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine ( Kharkiv, ...

, and

Southern Buh , ''Pivdennyi Buh'' , name_etymology = , image = Sunset S Bug Vinnitsa 2007 G1.jpg , image_size = 270 , image_caption = Southern Bug River in the vicinity of Vinnytsia, Ukraine , map = PietinisBug ...

Climate

Ukraine has a mostly

temperate climate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...

, with the exception of the southern coast of Crimea which has a

subtropical climate The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north a ...

. The climate is influenced by moderately warm, humid air coming from the Atlantic Ocean. Average annual temperatures range from in the north, to in the south.

Precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hai ...

is disproportionately distributed; it is highest in the west and north and lowest in the east and southeast. Western Ukraine, particularly in the Carpathian Mountains receive around of precipitation annually, while Crimea and the coastal areas of the Black Sea receive around . Water availability from the major river basins is expected to decrease, especially in summer. This poses risks to the agricultural sector. The negative impacts of

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

on agriculture are mostly felt in the south of the country, which has a

climate. In the north, some crops may be able to benefit from a longer growing season. The

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

has stated that Ukraine is highly vulnerable to climate change.

Natural resources

Significant natural resources in Ukraine include: iron ore, manganese,

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon ...

, titanium, kaolin, uranium, and arable land.

Environmental issues

Ukraine has many environmental issues. Some regions lack adequate supplies of potable water. Air and water pollution affects the country, as well as deforestation, and radiation contamination in the northeast stemming from the 1986 accident at the

Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about ...

Nuclear Power Plant.

References

Notes

External links

* Zastavnyi, F. D.
Physical geography of Ukraine
lowlands and uplands of Ukraine''. "Heohrafiya". {{Danube

Geographic location

Relief

Physiographic division of Ukraine

Alpine system

Soil

Hydrography

Climate

Natural resources

Environmental issues

See also

References

Notes

External links