Country Report: Ukraine

Ukraine is one of the largest European countries by the area. In the west it borders with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, and with Belarus and Russia in the north and east. Ukraine has also access to the year-round ice-free Black Sea. Ukraine has a relatively low population density. Ukraine’s landscape is mostly flat, with small mountainous area in the West (about 5%). About 70.8% of Ukrainian territory is occupied by agricultural land (Ukraine accounts for 1/3 of the world-wide stock of the most fertile black soils, which are ideally suited for crop production (see Annexes, Figure 27), 17.6% is occupied by forests, 4.9% is covered by water and 4.2% is land under buildings, the rest 3.4% is occupied by other types of land. The predominant climate type in Ukraine is temperate continental and semiarid in the South-East (see Annexes, Figure 25), only southeast of Crimea is subtropical. Average 5 temperature ranges between -2 and -7.5 °С in January and 17.5 and 22 °С in July, with the maximum temperature range from -40 °С to 42 °С across the country and year. Humidity declines from west to east, creating milder and moister conditions in the west and making the ‘continental’ climate more pronounced (see Annexes, Figure 26).