Ukraine is a country in Europe, with about 39 million people (2025) and an area of 603,550 square kilometres. Its capital is Kyiv, and it shares land borders with 7 countries.
By Team Geography·Last reviewed
Flag of UkraineUkraine in solid, land neighbours outlined, capital marked.
The app teaches each country through short hand written lenses: PLACE for physical geography, STORY for history and identity, NOW for the news, and THREAD for the ties between countries. Here is one of Ukraine's 8, in full.
PLACELens 1 of 8
The black earth that empires kept fighting over
Ukraine sits on chernozem, a black topsoil rich in humus that can run more than a meter deep and holds moisture through dry summers. Something like a quarter of the world's stock of it lies within the country's borders. That soil is the reason Ukraine fed the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union, the reason Stalin's grain requisitions produced famine here rather than elsewhere, and the reason a war on the Dnipro moves the price of bread in Cairo.
More on chernozem
Chernozem forms only under long-grass steppe over thousands of years and cannot be manufactured, which is why degraded black earth is effectively unrecoverable within a human lifetime. The Holodomor of 1932 and 1933 killed roughly four million people in this landscape, an engineered famine in the most fertile ground in Europe. Shelling and mining now contaminate fields that took millennia to build.
7 more lenses on Ukraine in the app
PLACE Ukraine is the frontier between European plain and Russian power
THREAD The war in Ukraine reordered Europe faster than almost anything else this century
STORY Ukrainian national identity crystallized through resistance
NOW Ukraine fights on while its European path opens
PLACE The Dnipro River divides Ukraine into two different landscapes
NOW The war moved from the fields to the docks
PLACE Europe's largest nuclear plant sits inside a war
Titles only. The app brings each lens back on a spaced repetition schedule set by how well you knew it: New, Hazy or Clear.
Compare Ukraine with another country
Opens the country comparison tool with population, area, income and more side by side, every figure dated.
Common questions
What is the capital of Ukraine?
The capital of Ukraine is Kyiv. Kyiv lies at about 50.4 degrees north and 30.5 degrees east. Ukraine is in Europe. It is home to about 39 million people. The world capitals quiz on this site tests every capital, and the printable capitals sheets cover each continent.
What is the population of Ukraine?
About 39 million people live in Ukraine, according to the World Bank figures for 2025. That makes it the 40th most populous of the 195 countries. With an area of 603,550 square kilometres, that is about 65 people per square kilometre.
What countries border Ukraine?
Ukraine shares land borders with 7 countries: Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia. The map on this page outlines each of them around Ukraine. The count includes only borders on land, not neighbours across a sea or a lake.
How big is Ukraine?
Ukraine covers 603,550 square kilometres, or about 233,032 square miles. That makes it the 46th largest of the 195 countries. The figure is total surface area, which includes inland water such as lakes and rivers. Its population of about 39 million gives a density of 65 people per square kilometre.
Ukraine is a country in Europe, with about 39 million people (2025) and an area of 603,550 square kilometres. Its capital is Kyiv, and it shares land borders with 7 countries.
Capital
Kyiv
Continent
Europe
Population
38,980,376 2025, World Bank. 40th of 195.
Area
603,550 km² (233,032 sq mi) World Bank, surface area. 46th largest of 195.
Population density
65 people per km²
Land neighbours
7: Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia
UN status
Member state
PLACE · from the Geography app
The black earth that empires kept fighting over
Ukraine sits on chernozem, a black topsoil rich in humus that can run more than a meter deep and holds moisture through dry summers. Something like a quarter of the world's stock of it lies within the country's borders. That soil is the reason Ukraine fed the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union, the reason Stalin's grain requisitions produced famine here rather than elsewhere, and the reason a war on the Dnipro moves the price of bread in Cairo.
Keep going on your iPhone. Scan for Geography: the world, one country at a time, about five minutes a day. No quizzes and no streaks. playgeography.app/countries/ukraine/ · Map data: Natural Earth. Figures: World Bank and national sources, as listed on the page.
Geography · Country report
Ukraine
NameDate
Draw the flag
Colour Ukraine on the map, then fill in what you find.
Capital
Continent
Population
Area
Languages
Currency
Neighbours
Landmarks
Rivers or mountains
Three things I learned
1
2
3
One question I still have
?
Keep going on your iPhone. Scan for Geography: the world, one country at a time, about five minutes a day. No quizzes and no streaks. playgeography.app/countries/ukraine/ · Map data: Natural Earth. Figures: World Bank and national sources, as listed on the page.
BelarusMinsk
HungaryBudapest
MoldovaChisinau
PolandWarsaw
RomaniaBucharest
RussiaMoscow
SlovakiaBratislava