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History of Ukraine
From antiquity to the modern era — the historical eras, key events, and narrative that shaped Ukraine.
Overview
The first identifiable groups to populate what is now Ukraine were Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, and Goths, among other nomadic peoples who arrived throughout the first millennium B.C. These peoples were well known to colonists and traders in the ancient world, including Greeks and Romans, who established trading outposts that eventually became city-states. Slavic tribes occupied central and eastern Ukraine in the sixth century A.D. and played an important role in the establishment of Kiev.
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Historical Eras
The major periods of {country}’s history at a glance.
Ancient & Nomadic Period
1000 BCE – 882
The steppe lands of modern Ukraine were successively inhabited by Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, and Goths, whose cultures were documented by Greek and Roman traders who established coastal city-states along the Black Sea. Slavic tribes migrated into central and eastern Ukraine by the sixth century A.D., laying the demographic foundation for later state formation. These peoples existed in complex interchange with nomadic empires and Mediterranean civilizations.
Kievan Rus
882 – 1362
Founded under the Varangian prince Oleg, Kievan Rus grew into the largest state in Europe by the 11th century, with Kyiv as its prosperous capital on major trade routes between Scandinavia and Byzantium. Prince Volodymyr's conversion to Byzantine Orthodox Christianity in 988 profoundly shaped the region's cultural and spiritual identity, and the Cyrillic alphabet spread through missionary influence. Internecine feudal conflict and the catastrophic Mongol sack of Kyiv in 1240 shattered the state, leaving its territories vulnerable to absorption by neighboring powers.
Lithuanian & Polish Rule
1362 – 1648
Most of Ukraine was absorbed into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th century and subsequently came under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth following the Union of Lublin in 1569. Under Polish rule, Ukrainian Orthodox culture faced increasing pressure from Catholic and Uniate religious policies, and the enserfment of the peasantry generated deep resentment. During this period Ukrainians consolidated a distinct national identity, and the Cossack warrior class emerged as its most potent symbol of resistance and freedom.
Cossack Hetmanate
1648 – 1781
Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky's 1648 uprising against Polish rule established the Cossack Hetmanate, an autonomous Ukrainian polity that represented the first modern expression of Ukrainian statehood. The 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav aligned the Hetmanate with Muscovy, a fateful agreement whose terms were long disputed, and the 1667 Truce of Andrusovo formally partitioned Ukraine between Poland and Russia. Despite sustained Muscovite encroachment — including Peter I's destruction of the Cossack capital Baturyn and Ivan Mazepa's failed bid for independence after Poltava in 1709 — the Hetmanate maintained a degree of autonomy for over a century before Catherine II abolished it entirely.
Imperial Rule & National Awakening
1781 – 1917
Following the partitions of Poland and Catherine the Great's annexation of Crimea in 1783, virtually all Ukrainian ethnographic territory fell under either the Russian or Austro-Hungarian empires. Imperial Russia systematically suppressed Ukrainian language and culture, most notably through the 1863 Ems Decree banning Ukrainian-language publications, yet a powerful nationalist awakening emerged, championed by poet and artist Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861). The Holodomor, mass displacement, and centuries of colonial extraction fueled the drive for self-determination that exploded with the collapse of both empires in World War I.
Soviet Ukraine & Independence
1917 – present
Ukraine declared independence in 1918 under the Central Rada and President Mykhaylo Hrushevsky, but after three years of civil war was absorbed into the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian SSR in 1922. Stalin's forced collectivization produced the Holodomor famine of 1932–33, killing an estimated 3–7 million Ukrainians, and Nazi occupation from 1941 to 1944 brought further devastation including the massacre of over one million Jews at sites such as Babyn Yar. Ukraine declared independence on August 24, 1991 following the Soviet collapse; subsequent decades were marked by the Orange Revolution of 2004, the Euromaidan Revolution of 2014, Russia's annexation of Crimea, and Russia's full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
Timeline Preview
The first 7 key events. View the full chronology on the timeline page.
911
Viking monarch Oleg of Kiev, Russia, signed a treaty with the Byzantines.
Viking monarch Oleg of Kiev, Russia, signed a treaty with the Byzantines.
988
Prince Vladimir of Kiev accepted Byzantine Orthodoxy.
Prince Vladimir of Kiev accepted Byzantine Orthodoxy. This is the traditional date for the beginning of Russian Christianity.
1068
Polovtsi army attack Kyiv state for the first time.
Polovtsi army attack Kyiv state for the first time.
1187
The word Ukraine (Ukrayina) first used to describe Kyiv and Halychyna lands.
The word Ukraine (Ukrayina) first used to describe Kyiv and Halychyna lands.
1475 – 1774
Crimea (Krym) under Turkish (Osman) Empire’s rule.
Crimea (Krym) under Turkish (Osman) Empire’s rule.
1490
First mentioning of cossacks (kozaks).
First mentioning of cossacks (kozaks).
1569
Crimea (Krym) under Turkish (Osman) Empire’s rule.
The Lublin Union was signed and direct rule over Lithuania was passed to Poland. Lithuania maintained certain ministers, laws, money and an army. The territories of Volinija, Kiev and Podolija were transferred to Polish rule.