Geography of Ukraine

Geography of Ukraine

Wheat field in Ukraine
Continent	Europe
Region	Eastern Europe
Coordinates	50°27′N 30°30′E / 50.450°N 30.500°E / 50.450; 30.500
Area	Ranked 45th
• Total	603,500 km2 (233,000 sq mi)
• Land	96%
• Water	4%
Coastline	2,782 km (1,729 mi)
Borders	4,558 km (2,832 mi)
Highest point	Hoverla 2,061 metres (6,762 ft)
Lowest point	Kuyalnik Estuary −5 metres (−16 ft)
Longest river	Dnieper 981 kilometres (610 mi)
Largest lake	Lake Yalpuh 149 km2 (57.53 sq mi)
Exclusive economic zone	147,318 km2 (56,880 sq mi)

Ukraine is the second-largest European country, after Russia. Its various regions have diverse geographic features ranging from highlands to lowlands, as well as climatic range and a wide variety in hydrography. Most of the country lies within the East European Plain.

Lying between latitudes 44° and 53° N, and longitudes 22° and 41° E, Ukraine covers an area of 603,628 square kilometres (233,062 sq mi), with a coastline of 2,782 kilometres (1,729 mi).^[1]

The landscape of Ukraine consists mostly of fertile steppes^[2] and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the Dnieper, Siverskyi Donets, Dniester and the Southern Bug as they flow south into the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. To the southwest, the delta of the Danube forms the border with Romania. The country's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest is Hoverla at 2,061 metres (6,762 ft), and the Crimean Mountains, in the extreme south along the coast.^[3]

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

Significant natural resources in Ukraine include lithium,^[4] natural gas,^[5] kaolin,^[5] timber^[6] 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.