119-519: The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station ( Ukrainian : Запорізька атомна електростанція , romanized : Zaporiz'ka atomna elektrostantsiia ) in southeastern Ukraine is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and among the 10 largest in the world . It has been under Russian control since 2022. It was built by the Soviet Union near the city of Enerhodar , on the southern shore of
238-562: A political association and free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), instead choosing closer ties to Russia. Earlier that year, Ukraine's parliament had overwhelmingly approved finalizing the agreement with the EU. Russia had put pressure on Ukraine to reject it. The scope of the protests widened, with calls for Yanukovych's resignation. Protesters opposed what they saw as widespread government corruption and abuse of power ,
357-636: A body of national literature, institute a Ukrainian-language educational system, and form an independent state (the Ukrainian People's Republic , shortly joined by the West Ukrainian People's Republic ). During this brief independent statehood the stature and use of Ukrainian greatly improved. In the Russian Empire Census of 1897 the following picture emerged, with Ukrainian being the second most spoken language of
476-508: A clash with pro-Russian demonstrators there. Despite this, a report by the BBC said that whilst it appeared that Ukrainian troops and the mayor of Mariupol did enter the building in the early morning, Ukrainian troops had abandoned it by the afternoon. Local pro-Russian activists blamed Ukrainian nationalists for the attack upon the building but said that the DPR had regained control. A representative of
595-463: A closer relationship. This approach has been acceptable to eastern Ukrainian oligarchs , who do not harbour anti-Russian feelings". In 2011 Taras Kuzio stated The traditional Soviet policy of dividing eastern against western Ukrainians, then "bourgeois nationalists" and now "crazy Galicians," remains in place. This tactic was deliberately employed by the Yanukovych administration is promoting
714-646: A drone equipped with an explosive payload. Ukrainian language Ukrainian ( українська мова , ukrainska mova , IPA: [ʊkrɐˈjinʲsʲkɐ ˈmɔʋɐ] ) is one of the East Slavic languages in the Indo-European languages family, and it is spoken primarily in Ukraine . It is the first (native) language of a large majority of Ukrainians . Written Ukrainian uses the Ukrainian alphabet ,
833-509: A large caliber bullet pierced an outer wall of Reactor No. 4 and an artillery shell hit a transformer at Reactor No. 6. The potential catastrophe quickly led Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accuse Russian leader Vladimir Putin of “nuclear terrorism”. Ukrayinska Pravda reported on 12 March 2022 that the plant's management was told by Russian authorities that the plant now belonged to Rosatom , Russia's state nuclear power company. It continued to operate and supply data, including from
952-648: A policy of defending Ukraine's interests within the Soviet Union. He proudly promoted the beauty of the Ukrainian language and developed plans to expand the role of Ukrainian in higher education. He was removed, however, after only a brief tenure, for being too lenient on Ukrainian nationalism. The new party boss from 1972 to 1989, Volodymyr Shcherbytsky , purged the local party, was fierce in suppressing dissent, and insisted Russian be spoken at all official functions, even at local levels. His policy of Russification
1071-489: A political dialogue and the heavy-handed approach. We are ready for both." Acting president Oleksandr Turchynov had already signed a decree which called for the Donetsk regional state administration building, occupied by separatists, to be taken "under state protection". He offered amnesty to any separatists who laid down their arms and surrendered. By 11 April Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that he had been against
1190-689: A referendum on greater autonomy or joining Russia, similar to the one held in Crimea in March. Hundreds of masked men also seized weapons from the SBU building in the city. A large crowd then stormed and occupied the Donetsk RSA building , raising the Russian flag. They demanded the regional council meet by noon the next day and vote for a referendum on joining Russia. Otherwise, they vowed to take control of
1309-647: A regional administration building in Khartsyzk on 13 April, followed by a local administration building in Zhdanivka on 14 April. On 12 April, unmarked pro-Russian militants seized the Donetsk headquarters of the Interior Ministry and two police stations without resistance, while an assault on the general prosecutor's office was repelled. Following negotiations between the militants and those in
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#17327648172811428-464: A remote monitoring system, to the IAEA , and continued to be operated by Ukrainian staff, under Russian control. Satellite imagery from 9 July 2022 and 7 August 2022 shows that Russian forces established bases and defensive positions next to the reactor units, along the central supply route and on the periphery of the facility. On 3 September 2022 an IAEA delegation visited the plant and on 6 September 2022
1547-873: A report was published documenting damage and potential threats to plant security caused by external shelling and the presence of occupying troops in the plant. With the declared annexation of Zaporizhzhia oblast , Russia also declared legal takeover of the plant, while the actual control over its operations continued to be unclear as of October 2022. Russian forces detained a number of plant's Ukrainian employees—starting from its deputy director Valery Martynyuk, his assistant Oleh Oshek, and IT manager Oleh Kostyukov—without providing any justification for their detainment. As of November 2022, Ukrainian cities had drawn up plans for evacuation centers and secured supplies of potassium iodide pills, and 10% of Ukrainian emergency medical teams had been reconfigured to respond to chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear risks. The destruction of
1666-565: A result of close Slavic contacts with the remnants of the Scythian and Sarmatian population north of the Black Sea , lasting into the early Middle Ages , the appearance of the voiced fricative γ/г (romanized "h"), in modern Ukrainian and some southern Russian dialects is explained by the assumption that it initially emerged in Scythian and related eastern Iranian dialects, from earlier common Proto-Indo-European *g and *gʰ . During
1785-521: A roadmap for ending the war in October 2019, but it remained unresolved. During 2021, Ukrainian fatalities rose sharply and Russian forces massed around Ukraine's borders . Russia recognized the DPR and LPR as independent states on 21 February 2022 and deployed troops to those territories. On 24 February, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine , subsuming the war in Donbas into it. Following
1904-589: A self-aware Ukrainian nation would threaten the unity of the empire. In 1804 Ukrainian as a subject and language of instruction was banned from schools. In 1811, by order of the Russian government, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was closed. In 1847 the Brotherhood of St Cyril and Methodius was terminated. The same year Taras Shevchenko was arrested, exiled for ten years, and banned for political reasons from writing and painting. In 1862 Pavlo Chubynsky
2023-579: A strategy of regional divide-and-rule through polarization, using May 9–style provocations, to maintain its eastern Ukrainian electorate permanently mobilized. Analysts have stated that as of February 2014, Russia was able to: According to the Institute of Modern Russia, the Kremlin also maintained a tight hold on Ukraine's president, Viktor Yanukovych . In November 2013, the ' Euromaidan ' protests began in response to Yanukovych's decision to abandon
2142-890: A variant name of the Little Russian language . In a private letter from 1854, Taras Shevchenko lauds "our splendid Ukrainian language". Valuyev's decree from 1863 derides the "Little Russian" language throughout, but also mentions "the so-called Ukrainian language" once. In Galicia, the earliest applications of the term Ukrainian to the language were in the hyphenated names Ukrainian-Ruthenian (1866, by Paulin Święcicki ) or Ruthenian-Ukrainian (1871, by Panteleimon Kulish and Ivan Puluj ), with non-hyphenated Ukrainian language appearing shortly thereafter (in 1878, by Mykhailo Drahomanov ). A following ban on Ukrainian books led to Alexander II 's secret Ems Ukaz , which prohibited publication and importation of most Ukrainian-language books, public performances and lectures, and even banned
2261-537: A variant of the Cyrillic script . The standard language is studied by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Potebnia Institute of Linguistics . Comparisons are often made between Ukrainian and Russian , another East Slavic language, yet there is more mutual intelligibility with Belarusian , and a closer lexical distance to West Slavic Polish and South Slavic Bulgarian . Ukrainian
2380-401: A variety of weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades . During approximately two hours of heavy combat, a fire broke out in a training facility outside the main complex, which was extinguished by 6:20am, though other sections surrounding the plant sustained damage. The fire did not impact reactor safety or any essential equipment. The plant lost 1.3 GW of capacity. It was later learned that
2499-536: Is a descendant of Old East Slavic , a language spoken in the medieval state of Kievan Rus' . In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , the language developed into Ruthenian , where it became an official language, before a process of Polonization began in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . By the 18th century, Ruthenian diverged into regional variants, and the modern Ukrainian language developed in
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#17327648172812618-646: Is based on the character of contemporary written sources, ultimately reflecting socio-historical developments, and he further subdivides the Middle period into three phases: Ukraine annually marks the Day of Ukrainian Writing and Language on 9 November, the Eastern Orthodox feast day of Nestor the Chronicler . The era of Kievan Rus' ( c. 880–1240) is the subject of some linguistic controversy, as
2737-754: Is created by the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam, which is a main conflict location of the two war participants. The electricity generated is supplied to the Ukrainian grid through four 750 kV overhead transmission lines and one 330 kV line. One of the 750 kV lines runs northwards across the Kakhovka Reservoir and on to the Dniprovska substation just south of Vilnohirsk in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast . The other three 750 kV lines run south from
2856-781: Is referred to as "Old Ukrainian", but elsewhere, and in contemporary sources, is known as the Ruthenian language, and from the end of the 18th century to the present what in Ukraine is known as "Modern Ukrainian", but elsewhere is known as just Ukrainian. War in Donbas (2014%E2%80%932022) [REDACTED] Ukraine (details) Ukrainian Armed Forces Security Service Internal Affairs Ministry [REDACTED] Russia (details) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Pro-Russian separatists (details) DPR Armed Forces Post-Minsk II conflict Attacks on civilians Related The war in Donbas , also known as
2975-721: The Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Security and Defence Council launched an anti-terrorist operation "in the war waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine". As part of the counter-offensive, Ukrainian troops re-took the airfield in Kramatorsk after a skirmish with members of the Donbas People's Militia. According to Russian media, at least four people died as a result. After
3094-545: The Armed Forces of Ukraine ensued, marking the start of combat in the Donbas. The same day as the capture of Sloviansk, Girkin's men attacked the police station in nearby Kramatorsk , resulting in a shootout. The fighters, claiming to be members of the Donbas People's Militia , later captured the police station. They removed the police station's sign and raised the flag of the Donetsk People's Republic over
3213-912: The Donbas war , was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the Donbas region of Ukraine . The war began in April 2014 , when a commando unit headed by Russian citizen Igor Girkin seized Sloviansk in Donetsk oblast . The Ukrainian military launched an operation against them. The war continued until subsumed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In March 2014, following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity , anti-revolution and pro-Russian protests began in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts , collectively 'the Donbas'. These began as Russia invaded Crimea . Armed Russian-backed separatists seized Ukrainian government buildings and declared
3332-420: The Donetsk and Luhansk republics (DPR and LPR) as independent states, leading to conflict with Ukrainian forces. Russia covertly supported the separatists with troops and weaponry. It only admitted sending "military specialists", but later acknowledged the separatists as Russian combat veterans . In April 2014, Ukraine launched a counter-offensive, called the "Anti-Terrorist Operation" (ATO), later renamed
3451-543: The Kakhovka Reservoir on the Dnieper river. From 1996 to 2022, it was operated by Energoatom , which operates Ukraine's other three nuclear power stations. The plant has six VVER-1000 pressurized light water nuclear reactors (PWR), each fuelled with U ( LEU ) and generating 950 MW e , for a total power output of 5,700 MW e . The first five were successively brought online between 1985 and 1989, and
3570-723: The Latin language. Much of the influence of Poland on the development of the Ukrainian language has been attributed to this period and is reflected in multiple words and constructions used in everyday Ukrainian speech that were taken from Polish or Latin. Examples of Polish words adopted from this period include zavzhdy (always; taken from old Polish word zawżdy ) and obitsiaty (to promise; taken from Polish obiecać ) and from Latin (via Polish) raptom (suddenly) and meta (aim or goal). Significant contact with Tatars and Turks resulted in many Turkic words, particularly those involving military matters and steppe industry, being adopted into
3689-747: The Minsk Protocol , in September 2014. Ceasefire breaches became rife, 29 in all, and heavy fighting resumed in January 2015, during which the separatists captured Donetsk Airport . A new ceasefire, Minsk II , was agreed on 12 February 2015. Immediately after, separatists renewed their offensive on Debaltseve and forced Ukraine's military to withdraw. Skirmishes continued but the front line did not change. Both sides fortified their position by building networks of trenches , bunkers and tunnels , resulting in static trench warfare . Stalemate led to
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3808-569: The Novgorod Republic did not call themselves Rus ' until the 14th century; earlier Novgorodians reserved the term Rus ' for the Kiev , Pereyaslavl and Chernigov principalities. At the same time as evidenced by contemporary chronicles, the ruling princes and kings of Galicia–Volhynia and Kiev called themselves "people of Rus ' " (in foreign sources called " Ruthenians "), and Galicia–Volhynia has alternately been called
3927-559: The Revolution of Dignity . Immediately following the revolution, unmarked Russian troops occupied the Ukrainian territory of Crimea . After an illegal referendum , Crimea was annexed by Russia . Following the revolution, counter-revolutionary and pro-Russian protests began in parts of the Donbas. A national survey held in March–April 2014 found that 58% of respondents in the Donbas wanted autonomy within Ukraine, while 31% wanted
4046-406: The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022, Energoatom shut down Units 5 and 6 to reduce risk, keeping Units 1 to 4 in operation on 25 February. At 11:28 pm local time on 3 March 2022, a column of 10 Russian armored vehicles and two tanks approached the power plant. Fighting commenced at 12:48am on 4 March when Ukraine forces fired anti-tank missiles . Russian forces responded with
4165-399: The law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" was approved by the parliament, formalizing rules governing the usage of the language and introducing penalties for violations. The literary Ukrainian language, which was preceded by Old East Slavic literature, may be subdivided into two stages: during the 12th to 18th centuries what in Ukraine
4284-466: The "Joint Forces Operation" (JFO). By August 2014, Ukraine had re-taken most separatist-held territory and nearly regained control of the Russia–Ukraine border . In response, Russia covertly sent troops, tanks and artillery into the Donbas . The Russian incursion helped pro-Russian forces regain much of the territory they had lost. Ukraine, Russia, the DPR and LPR signed a ceasefire agreement,
4403-425: The 11th–12th century, but started becoming more similar to them around the 13th–15th centuries. The modern Russian language hence developed from the fusion of this Novgorod dialect and the common dialect spoken by the other Kievan Rus', whereas the modern Ukrainian and Belarusian languages developed from dialects which did not differ from each other in a significant way. Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky denies
4522-456: The 13th century, eastern parts of Rus (including Moscow) came under Tatar rule until their unification under the Tsardom of Muscovy , whereas the south-western areas (including Kyiv ) were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . For the following four centuries, the languages of the two regions evolved in relative isolation from each other. Direct written evidence of the existence of
4641-680: The 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of the Kingdom of Ruthenia, German words began to appear in the language spoken in Ukraine. Their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts. Examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh ("roof"), rura ("pipe"), rynok ("market"), kushnir ("furrier"), and majster ("master" or "craftsman"). In
4760-716: The Armed Forces of Ukraine re-took the airfield, the commanding general of the unit that had retaken it, Vasyl Krutov , was surrounded by hostile protesters who demanded to know why the Ukrainian troops had fired upon local residents. Krutov was then dragged back to the airbase along with his unit. They were then blocked by the protesters, who vowed not to let the troops leave the base. Krutov later told reporters that "if they [the separatists] do not lay down their arms, they will be destroyed". Donbas People's Militia insurgents entered Sloviansk on 16 April, along with six armoured personnel carriers they claimed to have obtained from
4879-606: The Cossack motherland, Ukrajina , as a self-appellation for the nation of Ukrainians, and Ukrajins'ka mova for the language. Many writers published works in the Romantic tradition of Europe demonstrating that Ukrainian was not merely a language of the village but suitable for literary pursuits. However, in the Russian Empire expressions of Ukrainian culture and especially language were repeatedly persecuted for fear that
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant - Misplaced Pages Continue
4998-568: The Donbas War. He said "I'm the one who pulled the trigger of war. If our unit hadn't crossed the border, everything would have fizzled out, like in Kharkiv, like in Odesa". He explained that "nobody there wanted to fight" until his unit seized Sloviansk. After militants took over the city, Sloviansk mayor Nelya Shtepa briefly appeared at an occupied police station, and expressed support for
5117-649: The IAEA reported the presence of mines along the perimeter of the power plant's territory, in the buffer zone between the inner and outer fences of the facility. According to the Agency it is "inconsistent with the IAEA safety standards." Mines that had been found there previously were removed in November 2023. On 7 April 2024, the IAEA reported that the plant was attacked by drones , apparently targeting surveillance and communication equipment. Russian troops tried to shoot down
5236-798: The Old East Slavic vowel system into the system found in modern Ukrainian began approximately in the 12th/13th century (that is, still at the time of the Kievan Rus') with a lengthening and raising of the Old East Slavic mid vowels e and o when followed by a consonant and a weak yer vowel that would eventually disappear completely, for example Old East Slavic котъ /kɔtə/ > Ukrainian кіт /kit/ 'cat' (via transitional stages such as /koˑtə̆/, /kuˑt(ə̆)/, /kyˑt/ or similar) or Old East Slavic печь /pʲɛtʃʲə/ > Ukrainian піч /pitʃ/ 'oven' (via transitional stages such as /pʲeˑtʃʲə̆/, /pʲiˑtʃʲ/ or similar). This raising and other phonological developments of
5355-549: The Orthodox church spoke Ruthenian. The 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement between Cossack Hetmanate and Alexis of Russia divided Ukraine between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia. During the following century, both monarchies became increasingly intolerant of Ukrainian own cultural and political aspirations. Ukrainians found themselves in a colonial situation. The Russian centre adopted
5474-574: The Polish nobility. Many Ukrainian nobles learned the Polish language and converted to Catholicism during that period in order to maintain their lofty aristocratic position. Lower classes were less affected because literacy was common only in the upper class and clergy. The latter were also under significant Polish pressure after the Union with the Catholic Church . Most of the educational system
5593-542: The Principality or Kingdom of Ruthenia. Also according to Andrey Zaliznyak, the Novgorodian dialect differed significantly from that of other dialects of Kievan Rus during the 11th–12th century, but started becoming more similar to them around 13th–15th centuries. The modern Russian language hence developed from the fusion of this Novgorodian dialect and the common dialect spoken by the other Kievan Rus, whereas
5712-499: The Republic, Irina Voropoyeva , said, "We, the Donetsk People's Republic, still control the building. There was an attempted provocation but now it's over." On the same day, Ukrainian government officials said that the Armed Forces had intended to retake the city of Sloviansk, but that an increased threat of "Russian invasion" halted these operations. Russian forces had mobilised within 10 kilometres ( 6 + 1 ⁄ 4 mi) of
5831-620: The Russian Empire. According to the Imperial census's terminology, the Russian language ( Русскій ) was subdivided into Ukrainian (Малорусскій, ' Little Russian '), what is known as Russian today (Великорусскій, ' Great Russian '), and Belarusian (Бѣлорусскій, 'White Russian'). The following table shows the distribution of settlement by native language ( "по родному языку" ) in 1897 in Russian Empire governorates ( guberniyas ) that had more than 100,000 Ukrainian speakers. Although in
5950-450: The Russian company Rosatom claimed control over the plant. Since its capture, the plant does not generate power and is mostly shut down. The spent nuclear fuel is stored in cooling pools inside the reactor containments for up to five years. It is then transferred to an on-site dry cask storage facility that was commissioned in 2004. The reactors and spent fuel pools depend on water from the Kakhovka Reservoir for cooling. The reservoir
6069-460: The Soviet Union and a special term, "a language of inter-ethnic communication", was coined to denote its status. After the death of Stalin (1953), a general policy of relaxing the language policies of the past was implemented (1958 to 1963). The Khrushchev era which followed saw a policy of relatively lenient concessions to development of the languages at the local and republic level, though its results in Ukraine did not go nearly as far as those of
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#17327648172816188-519: The Soviet policy of Ukrainianization in the 1920s. Journals and encyclopedic publications advanced in the Ukrainian language during the Khrushchev era, as well as transfer of Crimea under Ukrainian SSR jurisdiction. Yet, the 1958 school reform that allowed parents to choose the language of primary instruction for their children, unpopular among the circles of the national intelligentsia in parts of
6307-551: The USSR, meant that non-Russian languages would slowly give way to Russian in light of the pressures of survival and advancement. The gains of the past, already largely reversed by the Stalin era, were offset by the liberal attitude towards the requirement to study the local languages (the requirement to study Russian remained). Parents were usually free to choose the language of study of their children (except in few areas where attending
6426-475: The Ukrainian 25th Airborne Brigade , which had surrendered in the city of Kramatorsk . Reports say members of the brigade were disarmed after the vehicles were blocked from passing by angry locals. In another incident, several hundred residents of the village of Pchyolkino, south of Sloviansk, surrounded another column of 14 Ukrainian armoured vehicles. Following negotiations, the troops were allowed to drive their vehicles away, but only after agreeing to surrender
6545-404: The Ukrainian border. The officials said that seven troops were killed during the day's operations. President Turchynov issued a statement later in the day, and said that the "Anti-Terrorist Operation" would be resumed, citing the ongoing hostage crisis in Sloviansk as a reason. By 6 May, 14 Ukrainian troops had died and 66 had been injured in the fighting. Insurgents took over the offices of
6664-564: The Ukrainian language dates to the late 16th century. By the 16th century, a peculiar official language formed: a mixture of the liturgical standardised language of Old Church Slavonic , Ruthenian and Polish . The influence of the latter gradually increased relative to the former two, as the nobility and rural large-landowning class, known as the szlachta , was largely Polish-speaking. Documents soon took on many Polish characteristics superimposed on Ruthenian phonetics. Polish–Lithuanian rule and education also involved significant exposure to
6783-415: The Ukrainian language held the formal position of the principal local language in the Ukrainian SSR . However, practice was often a different story: Ukrainian always had to compete with Russian, and the attitudes of the Soviet leadership towards Ukrainian varied from encouragement and tolerance to de facto banishment. Officially, there was no state language in the Soviet Union until the very end when it
6902-465: The Ukrainian language. Examples include torba (bag) and tyutyun (tobacco). Because of the substantial number of loanwords from Polish, German, Czech and Latin, early modern vernacular Ukrainian ( prosta mova , " simple speech ") had more lexical similarity with West Slavic languages than with Russian or Church Slavonic. By the mid-17th century, the linguistic divergence between the Ukrainian and Russian languages had become so significant that there
7021-409: The Ukrainian school might have required a long daily commute) and they often chose Russian, which reinforced the resulting Russification. In this sense, some analysts argue that it was not the "oppression" or "persecution", but rather the lack of protection against the expansion of Russian language that contributed to the relative decline of Ukrainian in the 1970s and 1980s. According to this view, it
7140-440: The Zaporizka substation north of Znackove in Zaporizhzhia Oblast . The 330 kV line runs to the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia thermal power station . In 2017, modernization work was completed on reactor unit 3, enabling a 10-year life extension to 2027. In 2021, modernization work was completed on unit 5, enabling a 10-year life extension. On 27 January 1984, a major fire started during commissioning of unit 1, before any nuclear fuel
7259-485: The building after a tense standoff with the police. Some members of the local police unit had defected to the Donetsk People's Republic earlier in the day, whilst the remaining officers were forced to retreat, allowing the insurgents to take control of the building. The local chief of police was captured and badly beaten by the insurgents. A Horlivka city council deputy, Volodymyr Rybak , was kidnapped by masked men believed to be pro-Russian militants on 17 April. His body
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#17327648172817378-510: The building, the chief of the office resigned from his post. According to anonymous witnesses, some militants wore uniforms of the Berkut special police force, which had been dissolved by the new government following the February revolution. The militants also took over the municipal administration building unopposed on 16 April. Demonstrators hoisted the DPR flag over the city administration buildings in Krasnoarmiisk and Novoazovsk on 16 April. The local administration building in Siversk
7497-413: The building. They then issued an ultimatum that stated that if the city's mayor and administration did not swear allegiance to the Republic by the following Monday, they would remove them from office. Concurrently, a crowd of demonstrators surrounded the city administration building, captured it, and raised the Donetsk People's Republic flag over it. A representative of the Republic addressed locals outside
7616-407: The chancellery and gradually evolved into the Ruthenian language. Polish rule, which came later, was accompanied by a more assimilationist policy. By the 1569 Union of Lublin that formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from Lithuanian rule to Polish administration, resulting in cultural Polonization and visible attempts to colonize Ukraine by
7735-428: The city administration building and raised the DPR flag over it. The city administration buildings in Yenakiieve and Druzhkivka were also captured. Police repelled an attack by pro-Russian militants upon an office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Krasnyi Lyman on 12 April, but the building was later captured by the separatists after a skirmish. Insurgents affiliated with the Donbas People's Militia occupied
7854-634: The city was still not under Ukrainian government control. On 22 April pro-Russian demonstrators in Kostiantynivka burned down the offices of a newspaper that had been critical of the DPR. On 21 April, demonstrators gathered for a 'people's assembly' outside the SBU building in Luhansk and called for a 'people's government', demanding either federalization or joining Russia. At this assembly, they elected Valery Bolotov as "People's Governor". Two referendums were announced, one to be held on 11 May to determine whether Luhansk region should seek greater autonomy, and another scheduled for 18 May to determine whether
7973-418: The drones without success. There was at least one casualty outside a laboratory, three direct hits on reactor containment structures and minor superficial scorching on the Unit 6 reactor dome. Although the nuclear safety was not compromised as there was no evidence of any structural damage to systems, the Agency considers strike as a major threat to nuclear safety. On 11 August 2024, a fire broke out at one of
8092-407: The existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko , Vsevolod Hantsov , Olena Kurylo , Ivan Ohienko and others. According to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language
8211-453: The influence of oligarchs , police brutality , and human rights violations . The protests culminated in February 2014 with clashes in Kyiv between protesters and Berkut special riot police, in which 108 protesters were killed . Yanukovych and the opposition signed an agreement on 21 February, but he secretly fled the city that evening. The following day, parliament voted to remove him from office . This series of events became known as
8330-430: The insurgents, but were forced to retreat after many men were wounded by insurgent fire. Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov said that the insurgents were led by a man with "an extensive beard". Some 30 militants seized the police headquarters in Konstantinovka on 28 April. The Internal Affairs Minister, Arsen Avakov , said on 24 April that Ukrainian troops had captured the city administration in Mariupol, after
8449-437: The invasion, Russia held illegitimate referendums on the Ukrainian territory it occupied, annexing the LPR and DPR as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, despite not controlling all of the area of any of these territories nor defining borders for them. Russia now thus views the LPR and DPR as a Republic of Russia , but the international community still overwhelmingly views them as About 14,000 people were killed in
8568-417: The language of much of the literature was purely or heavily Old Church Slavonic . Some theorists see an early Ukrainian stage in language development here, calling it Old Ruthenian; others term this era Old East Slavic . Russian theorists tend to amalgamate Rus' to the modern nation of Russia, and call this linguistic era Old Russian. However, according to Russian linguist Andrey Zaliznyak (2012), people from
8687-607: The magazines from their assault rifles. These incidents led President Turchynov to say he would disband the 25th Airborne Brigade , although this was later cancelled. Three members of the Donbas People's Militia were killed, 11 wounded, and 63 were arrested after they attempted and failed to storm a National Guard base in Mariupol . On 20 April, separatists in Yenakiieve left the city administration building there, which they had occupied since 13 April. Despite this, by 27 May
8806-603: The militants. Others gathered outside the building and similarly voiced their support for the militants. They told Ukrainian journalists who were reporting on the situation to "go back to Kyiv ". Shtepa was later detained by the insurgents, and replaced by the self-proclaimed "people's mayor" Vyacheslav Ponomarev . The pro-Russian militants killed a member of Solviansk town council, Volodymyr Ivanovych Rybak , as well as four other Ukrainians, including 25-year-old Yuri Dyakovsky and an unnamed 19-year-old man. Girkin took responsibility for these summary executions in 2020, even though in
8925-462: The modern Ukrainian and Belarusian languages developed from the dialects which did not differ from each other in a significant way. After the fall of the Kingdom of Ruthenia, Ukrainians mainly fell under the rule of Lithuania and then Poland . Local autonomy of both rule and language was a marked feature of Lithuanian rule. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Old East Slavic became the language of
9044-508: The name Little Russia for Ukraine and Little Russian for the language, an expression that originated in Byzantine Greek and may originally have meant "old, original, fundamental Russia", and had been in use since the 14th century. Ukrainian high culture went into a long period of steady decline. The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was taken over by the Russian Empire. Most of the remaining Ukrainian schools also switched to Polish or Russian in
9163-463: The native language for the majority in the nation on the eve of Ukrainian independence, a significant share of ethnic Ukrainians were russified. In Donetsk there were no Ukrainian language schools and in Kyiv only a quarter of children went to Ukrainian language schools. The Russian language was the dominant vehicle, not just of government function, but of the media, commerce, and modernity itself. This
9282-494: The nearby Kakhovka Dam on 6 June 2023 was reported to have no immediate risk to the plant. Generally five units have been in cold shutdown with one unit kept in hot shutdown, which the IAEA reported was necessary to produce steam for nuclear safety purposes, including the processing of liquid radioactive waste in storage tanks. The IAEA is urging the investigation of whether an external boiler can be installed as an alternative to keeping one unit in hot shutdown. On 19 January 2024,
9401-501: The occupied police station, but was received negatively and booed. Pro-Russian militants attempted to seize the police headquarters in Horlivka on 12 April, but were halted. Ukrainska Pravda reported that police said that the purpose of the attempted seizure was to gain access to a weapons cache. They said that they would use force if needed to defend the building from "criminals and terrorists". By 14 April militants had captured
9520-598: The occurrence of an incident several days before at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The cause of the incident was reported as a short circuit in the power outlet system and was not linked to the site's production. One of the six reactors of the plant was shut down twice in December 2014. This and lack of coal for Ukraine's coal-fired power stations led to rolling blackouts throughout the country from early until late December 2014. After
9639-410: The plant's cooling towers (which are not in use as long as the reactors remain shut down), leading to mutual accusations between Ukraine and Russia over its cause. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian forces intentionally started the fire to blackmail Kyiv, while Russian-installed officials in the region blamed Ukrainian shelling. Despite the tensions, both sides confirmed that there
9758-607: The plant. One diverges from the others near the village of Zapovitne and runs to the Kakhovska substation just west of Nova Kakhovka . This is the newest of the lines and was commissioned in 2021. Two lines continue south-southeast, diverging at the urban-type settlement of Mykhailivka . One continues southeast to the Pivdennodonbaska mines in Donetsk Oblast , while the other continues east and then north to
9877-425: The population said Ukrainian was their native language. Until the 1920s the urban population in Ukraine grew faster than the number of Ukrainian speakers. This implies that there was a (relative) decline in the use of Ukrainian language. For example, in Kyiv, the number of people stating that Ukrainian was their native language declined from 30.3% in 1874 to 16.6% in 1917. During the seven-decade-long Soviet era ,
9996-417: The preceding years he and other pro-Russian militants had claimed Rybak had been released. The militants gained control of the city's police weapons cache and seized hundreds of firearms, which prompted the Ukrainian government to launch a "counter-terrorism" operation to retake the city. This government counter-offensive began on the morning of 13 April. An entrenched standoff between pro-Russian forces and
10115-516: The present-day reflex is /ɣ/. Ahatanhel Krymsky and Aleksey Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the common spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century. Russian linguist Andrey Zaliznyak stated that the Old Novgorod dialect differed significantly from that of other dialects of Kievan Rus' during
10234-589: The printing of Ukrainian texts accompanying musical scores. A period of leniency after 1905 was followed by another strict ban in 1914, which also affected Russian-occupied Galicia. For much of the 19th century the Austrian authorities demonstrated some preference for Polish culture, but the Ukrainians were relatively free to partake in their own cultural pursuits in Halychyna and Bukovina , where Ukrainian
10353-456: The region should join Russia, or declare independence. Turchynov relaunched the stalled counter-offensive against pro-Russian insurgents on 22 April, after two men, one a local politician, were found "tortured to death". The politician, Volodymyr Rybak , was found dead near Sloviansk after having been abducted by pro-Russian insurgents. Turchynov said that "the terrorists who effectively took
10472-594: The region to separate from Ukraine. Pro-Russian protesters occupied the Donetsk Regional State Administration Building from 1 to 6 March 2014, before being removed by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Pavel Gubarev , a member of the neo-Nazi group Russian National Unity , was proclaimed "people's governor" of Donetsk Oblast. On 6 April, 1,000–2,000 people gathered at a rally in Donetsk to demand
10591-560: The regional government with a "people's mandate", and dismiss all elected regional councillors and members of parliament. As these demands were not met, the following day the activists held a meeting in the building and proclaimed the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) as an independent state. Unrest also began in Luhansk on 6 April, when hundreds of protesters attacked and laid siege to the SBU headquarters for six hours, demanding
10710-409: The regional state television network on 27 April. After capturing the broadcasting centre, the militants began to broadcast Russian television channels. The Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) was declared on 27 April. Representatives of the Republic demanded that the Ukrainian government provide amnesty for all protesters, enshrine Russian as an official language, and hold a referendum on the status of
10829-481: The release of anti-government militants held there. They eventually stormed the building, releasing prisoners and seizing weapons. In response to the widening unrest, Acting Ukrainian President, Oleksandr Turchynov announced on 7 April that Ukraine would launch an "anti-terrorist operation". On 8 April, he signed a decree to take the Donetsk regional government buildings "under state protection". The Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov , said on 9 April that
10948-577: The rural regions of the Ukrainian provinces, 80% of the inhabitants said that Ukrainian was their native language in the Census of 1897 (for which the results are given above), in the urban regions only 32.5% of the population claimed Ukrainian as their native language. For example, in Odesa (then part of the Russian Empire), at the time the largest city in the territory of current Ukraine, only 5.6% of
11067-685: The separatist movement in Donetsk from April until August 2014, and were supported by volunteers and materiel from Russia. As the conflict escalated in May 2014, Russia employed a " hybrid approach", deploying a combination of disinformation, irregular fighters, regular Russian troops, and conventional military support to destabilize the Donbas. Between 12 April and 14 April, Russian-allied militants took control of government buildings in several towns and cities in Donetsk oblast, including Sloviansk , Mariupol , Horlivka , Kramatorsk , Yenakiieve , Makiivka , Druzhkivka , and Zhdanivka . On 12 April,
11186-687: The sixteenth and first half of the 17th century, when Ukraine was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, albeit in spite of being part of the PLC, not as a result. Among many schools established in that time, the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium (the predecessor of the modern Kyiv-Mohyla Academy ), founded by the Orthodox Metropolitan Peter Mogila , was the most important. At that time languages were associated more with religions: Catholics spoke Polish, and members of
11305-411: The sixth was added in 1995. In 2020, the plant generated nearly half of the country's electricity derived from nuclear power, and more than a fifth of total electricity generated in Ukraine . The Zaporizhzhia thermal power station is nearby. On 4 March 2022, days into the Russian invasion of Ukraine , Russian forces seized both the nuclear and thermal power stations . As of 12 March 2022,
11424-503: The strategic town of Sloviansk was captured by a fifty-strong unit of heavily-armed pro-Russian militants. They attacked and occupied the town's administration building, police station, and SBU building, and set up roadblocks with the help of local armed activists. The unit were Russian Armed Forces 'volunteers' under the command of Russian GRU colonel Igor Girkin ('Strelkov'). They had been sent from Russian-occupied Crimea and wore no insignia . Girkin said that this action sparked
11543-462: The term native language may not necessarily associate with the language they use more frequently. The overwhelming majority of ethnic Ukrainians consider the Ukrainian language native , including those who often speak Russian. According to the official 2001 census data, 92.3% of Kyiv region population responded "Ukrainian" to the native language ( ridna mova ) census question, compared with 88.4% in 1989, and 7.2% responded "Russian". In 2019,
11662-558: The territories controlled by these respective countries, which was followed by a new wave of Polonization and Russification of the native nobility. Gradually the official language of Ukrainian provinces under Poland was changed to Polish, while the upper classes in the Russian part of Ukraine used Russian. During the 19th century, a revival of Ukrainian self-identification manifested in the literary classes of both Russian-Empire Dnieper Ukraine and Austrian Galicia . The Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius in Kyiv applied an old word for
11781-472: The territory of present-day Ukraine. Russification saw the Ukrainian language banned as a subject from schools and as a language of instruction in the Russian Empire , and continued in various ways in the Soviet Union . Even so, the language continued to see use throughout the country, and remained particularly strong in Western Ukraine . Specific developments that led to a gradual change of
11900-560: The time, such as the merger of the Old East Slavic vowel phonemes и /i/ and ы /ɨ/ into the specifically Ukrainian phoneme /ɪ ~ e/, spelled with и (in the 13th/14th centuries), and the fricativisation of the Old East Slavic consonant г /g/, probably first to /ɣ/ (in the 13th century), with /ɦ/ as a reflex in Modern Ukrainian, did not happen in Russian. Only the fricativisation of Old East Slavic г /g/ occurred in Belarusian, where
12019-479: The unrest would be resolved within 48 hours, either through negotiations or the use of force. On 10 April, President Turchynov offered amnesty to the militants, if they laid down their arms, and also offered to hold referendums on autonomy. While the initial protests were largely native expressions of discontent with the new Ukrainian government, Russia took advantage of them to launch a coordinated political and military campaign against Ukraine. Russian citizens led
12138-419: The use of "law enforcement" at the time, but that "there was a limit" to how much the Ukrainian government would tolerate. In response to the spread of separatist control throughout Donetsk Oblast and the separatists' refusal to lay down their arms, Turchynov vowed to launch a military counter-offensive operation, called the "Anti-Terrorist Operation", against insurgents in the region by 15 April. On 13 April,
12257-516: The use of Ukrainian. The educational system in Ukraine has been transformed over the first decade of independence from a system that is partly Ukrainian to one that is overwhelmingly so. The government has also mandated a progressively increased role for Ukrainian in the media and commerce. In the 2001 census , 67.5% of the country's population named Ukrainian as their native language (a 2.8% increase from 1989), while 29.6% named Russian (a 3.2% decrease). For many Ukrainians (of various ethnic origins),
12376-500: The war being called a " frozen conflict ", but Donbas remained a war zone, with dozens killed monthly. In 2017, on average a Ukrainian soldier died every three days, with an estimated 40,000 separatist and 6,000 Russian troops in the region. By the end of 2017, OSCE observers had counted around 30,000 people in military gear crossing from Russia at the two border checkpoints it was allowed to monitor , and documented military convoys crossing from Russia covertly. All sides agreed to
12495-468: The war: 6,500 Russian and Russian proxy forces, 4,400 Ukrainian forces, and 3,400 civilians on both sides. Most civilian casualties were in the first year. Despite being recognized as an independent country since 1991 , as a former USSR constituent republic, Ukraine was perceived by the leadership of Russia as part of its sphere of influence . In a 2002 paper Taras Kuzio stated "While accepting Ukrainian independence, Putin has sought to draw Ukraine into
12614-642: The whole Donetsk Oblast hostage have now gone too far". The Internal Affairs Ministry reported that the city of Sviatohirsk , near Sloviansk, was retaken by Ukrainian troops on 23 April. In addition, the Defence Ministry said it had taken control over all points of strategic importance in the area around Kramatorsk . On 24 April, 70 to 100 insurgents armed with assault rifles and rocket launchers attacked an armoury in Artemivsk. The depot housed around 30 tanks . Ukrainian troops attempted to fight off
12733-587: Was a need for translators during negotiations for the Treaty of Pereyaslav , between Bohdan Khmelnytsky , head of the Zaporozhian Host , and the Russian state. By the 18th century, Ruthenian had diverged into regional variants, developing into the modern Belarusian , Rusyn , and Ukrainian languages. The accepted chronology of Ukrainian divides the language into Old Ukrainian, Middle Ukrainian, and Modern Ukrainian. Shevelov explains that much of this
12852-556: Was exiled for seven years to Arkhangelsk . The Ukrainian magazine Osnova was discontinued. In 1863, the tsarist interior minister Pyotr Valuyev proclaimed in his decree that "there never has been, is not, and never can be a separate Little Russian language". Although the name of Ukraine is known since 1187, it was not applied to the language until the mid-19th century. The linguonym Ukrainian language appears in Yakub Holovatsky 's book from 1849, listed there as
12971-448: Was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to an intensive migration of the population within the territory of today's Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was also supported by George Shevelov 's phonological studies, which argue that specific features were already recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic (seen as ancestors to Ukrainian) as far back as these varieties can be documented. As
13090-407: Was gradually Polonized. In Ruthenia, the language of administrative documents gradually shifted towards Polish. Polish has had heavy influences on Ukrainian (particularly in Western Ukraine ). The southwestern Ukrainian dialects are transitional to Polish. As the Ukrainian language developed further, some borrowings from Tatar and Turkish occurred. Ukrainian culture and language flourished in
13209-411: Was in the reactor. An electrical relay caused PVC insulation to catch fire, molten PVC causing more fires below in a vertical shaft. More than 4,000 control units, 41 motors, and 700 km of cables were damaged. The Zaporizhzhia power plant is located around 200 km from the war in Donbas combat zone, where fighting started in 2014. On 3 December 2014, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk announced
13328-562: Was inevitable that successful careers required a good command of Russian, while knowledge of Ukrainian was not vital, so it was common for Ukrainian parents to send their children to Russian-language schools, even though Ukrainian-language schools were usually available. The number of students in Russian-language in Ukraine schools was constantly increasing, from 14 percent in 1939 to more than 30 percent in 1962. The Communist Party leader from 1963 to 1972, Petro Shelest , pursued
13447-406: Was later found in a river in occupied Sloviansk on 22 April. The city administration building was seized on 30 April, solidifying separatist control over Horlivka. Other smaller towns, as well as government buildings, were seized by Russian-backed militants in the Donbas. In Artemivsk on 12 April, separatists failed to capture the local Ministry of Internal Affairs office, but instead captured
13566-490: Was lessened only slightly after 1985. The management of dissent by the local Ukrainian Communist Party was more fierce and thorough than in other parts of the Soviet Union. As a result, at the start of the Mikhail Gorbachev reforms perebudova and hlasnist’ (Ukrainian for perestroika and glasnost ), Ukraine under Shcherbytsky was slower to liberalize than Russia itself. Although Ukrainian still remained
13685-434: Was no radiation spike or immediate nuclear danger. The incident occurred amid Ukraine's significant military advances into Russian territory, marking a deepening of the conflict. IAEA Director General Grossi said "The evidence gathered reinforces our conclusion that the main fire seems unlikely to be at the base of the cooling tower.” Days later, the IAEA team at the plant reported that the damage seemed to have been caused by
13804-549: Was proclaimed in 1990 that Russian language was the all-Union state language and that the constituent republics had rights to declare additional state languages within their jurisdictions. Still it was implicitly understood in the hopes of minority nations that Ukrainian would be used in the Ukrainian SSR, Uzbek would be used in the Uzbek SSR , and so on. However, Russian was used as the lingua franca in all parts of
13923-537: Was similarly captured on 18 April. Following the takeover, local police announced that they would co-operate with the activists. Arsen Avakov , the Minister of Internal Affairs, said on 9 April that the separatist problem would be resolved within 48 hours through either negotiations or the use of force. According to the Ukrinform state news agency, he said: "There are two opposite ways for resolving this conflict –
14042-400: Was substantially less the case for western Ukraine, which escaped the artificial famine , Great Purge , and most of Stalinism . And this region became the center of a hearty, if only partial, renaissance of the Ukrainian language during independence. Since 1991, Ukrainian has been the official state language in Ukraine, and the state administration implemented government policies to broaden
14161-547: Was widely used in education and official documents. The suppression by Russia hampered the literary development of the Ukrainian language in Dnipro Ukraine, but there was a constant exchange with Halychyna, and many works were published under Austria and smuggled to the east. By the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the collapse of Austro-Hungary in 1918, Ukrainians were ready to openly develop
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