Name: How Powerful is Ukraine?
Uploaded: 2017-12-10T18:08:09.000Z
Duration: 3 min 45 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

It’s been a tough few years for Ukraine.

Fighting has been ongoing in the eastern part
of the country for years now, between separatist,

pro-Russian forces and the Ukrainian government.

The fighting started back in 2014, when Russia
invaded and annexed a part of the country,

The United States and NATO allies have been
debating just how much aid, and weaponry,

In the face of internal and external strife,
we wanted to know, just how powerful is Ukraine?

Ukraine is physically the largest country
in Europe, coming in at almost a quarter of

It’s also the 46th largest country in the
world, but for comparison, actually just a

little bit smaller than the state of Texas.

About 44 million people live there, which
puts it on par with Argentina in terms of

But in terms of population density, it’s
fairly spread out.

The former Soviet republic is about 78% ethnically
Ukrainian and 17% ethnically Russian, according

The remaining 5% are a combination of ethnicities
from the surrounding countries.

But the fight over ethnicity and national
identity is what has caused some of the deadliest

While a minority of the country wants to be
seen as Russian, the rest, a majority including

the government, want to stay distinctly Ukrainian.

In terms of economy, the GDP of Ukraine in
2016 was about $93 billion dollars.

They suffered a severe downturn in recent
years, worsened by the political and military

crisis - in 2014, the Ukrainian currency reached
historic lows against the U.S. dollar, and

The International Monetary Fund approved a
bailout for Ukraine, and now the World Bank

has reported a small uptick in growth in 2016
- about 2.3%.

That would mean the economy is recovering
slightly and is out of a recession, with the

2017 GDP projected to rise a little to $104
billion dollars.

The Ukrainian military is ranked 30th in the
world, with 1.1 million troops and a defense

That’s 6% of the country’s GDP, one of
the highest ratios in the world.

This is another area where the Crimean crisis
and war in eastern Ukraine has had a significant

In 2014 they re-established the National Guard
of Ukraine, something that was disbanded 14

years prior, and currently boasts almost 60,000
troops.

They’ve also increased military spending
and have been trying to purchase additional

arms and defense systems from the United States.

Whether or not that happens remains to be
seen, but Ukraine is already conducting military

exercises with NATO allies under the Partnership
for Peace.

the Partnership for Peace has the goal of
establishing trust and cooperation between

Ukraine is not currently a member of NATO,
though they have been pursuing membership,

Ukraine is stuck between its past and the
present; while much of the population yearns

for closer relations with the European Union
and the United States, Russian military and

economic forces have a stranglehold on some
parts of the country.

While they continue to build up their military
and continue to rebuild their economy, they’re

less powerful than they want to be, and still
have a lot of progress to make toward establishing

One of the biggest struggles for Ukraine in
recent years was Russia’s invasion of Crimea.

This form of annexation was surprising, as
this form of forceful and secretive invasion

So how exactly did Putin’s army pull it
off?

Thanks for watching NowThis World, and don’t
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How Powerful is Ukraine?

significant

majority

debate

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