According to the hypothesis of Plato, 10 thousand years ago there at the territory of Ukraine was the first civilization of Atlantis (underwater expeditions from different countries are searching for its location).
In VII thousand BC this land was populated by the first representatives of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture; in V thousand BC Aryan tribes come on this territory. And in one and a half thousand years they have been replaced by Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians.
 The representatives of the Khazar tribal union lived there in the VII century. They played the key role in the world history and become a kind of shield which has blocked the European civilisation from the Arab invasion. Prior to the adoption of Christianity, the Old Russian culture was strongly influenced by the Hazaria Judaic culture.
 In the IX century the East European tribes were united by the powerful medieval European state - the Kyivan Rus. It has reached the highest flourishing at the reign of Prince Volodymyr the Great and Yaroslav the Wise.
The announcement of Christianity as the official religion at the end of the X century has affected the political and cultural relations of Kyivan Rus with European and Eastern countries. At that time Kyiv numbered 50 thousand inhabitants. In 1051 there was founded Pechersk Lavra as the center of Christianity and the religious art of Russia.
 In the XII-XIII centuries the Kyivan Rus has started to weaken as a result of civil dissensions and Mongol-Tatar invasion. The part of its territories was taken by the Moscow kingdom, and another part went to the Lithuanian principality. And in the XIII-XIV centuries the Galicia-Volhynia principality was formed in the west of Ukraine.
 The Cossacks with their military and administrative center in Zaporizhzhya Sich had a great influence on process of history of the country in XVI-XVIII centuries. At the political map of Europe, Ukraine has appeared thanks to the ongoing struggle of the Cossacks in national-liberation wars (though according to the peace treaty in the XVII century, Ukraine was divided between Russia and Poland).
 In the second half of the XIX century nationalist movements (one of the leaders - M. Grushevskyi) activate the struggle for the independence of Ukraine.
Revolution of the 1917 have destroyed the Russian Empire and started the Soviet period in the history of Ukraine.
 30-th years of the XX century was the most difficult and contradictory. As on one hand, there the agrarian crisis, famine, collectivization took place, together with the extermination of national consciousness from Polish and Russian sides. And on the other hand - industrialization, when hundreds of factories destroyed during the First World and the Civil Wars - were quickly restored. It helped Ukraine to be ranked among the highly industrialized countries.
The Second World War (1939-1945) claimed the lives of millions of Ukrainians. It caused the decrease of population from 41,657 to 27,382 people. And it inflicted enormous damage to the economy.
On August, 24th, 1991 Ukraine got independence. The national referendum confirmed that decision with 90 % voices of people. It caused fundamental changes in life of the country The state formation was complicated by problems in the economic sphere. They were associated with unpracticality of the planned economy to operate in conditions of a “free market”.
The first president of Ukraine was Leonid Kravchuk. The Second one – was Leonid Kuchma (elected in 1994, reelected in 1999). In 2004, as a result of the “Orange Revolution” Viktor Yushchenko came to power. In 2004, a political crisis started in the country and continues to this day: a parliamentary crisis, the conflict between the President and the Government, the gas conflict between Ukraine and Russia, etc. In 2010 Viktor Yanukovych became a new president of the country (defeated Yushchenko on the results of 3 rounds in the elections in 2004).