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0:00
okay so I made a video explaining the Ukraine Russia conflict in 10 minutes I made a geography Go video where I actually went to Ukraine now there's only one thing left to do the actual Ukraine episode it's time to learn geography hey everybody I'm your host barbs get your geography now merch like this geography now t-shirt or mug at geography now.com it's like McDonald's you know we only have like 10 things on the website it's not that hard to choose in any case it's
0:25
not selling out if it's your brand gonna put the mug away so as you guys know I actually went to Ukraine thank you to visit Ukraine dot today they wanted to sponsor me to not only go to Ukraine but also to learn more about their country despite it being in the middle of a war and also thank you United 24 media they also helped me get some great footage and interviews with some exclusive people that you'll see in this video and speaking of guests as you know I love
0:46
having guest hosts from the country and with that say hi to Mr Misha our Ukrainian correspondent how you doing Misha good how are you anything you want to just say about Ukraine to the world out there yes I bring you some really cool flag you can read actually in Ukrainian as a freedom V this is L this is O and yeah in Ukrainian Freedom we'll explain more about this in flag fan day so yeah you ready to start the episode yes Zoom let's do it [Music] wow you have really white teeth so
1:19
Ukraine is a complicated country and not just in a contemporary sense but like in a every possible way sense and it's definitely not easy to summarize especially the part we are about to get into little disclaimer we will be portraying what is internationally recognized and constitutionally part of Ukraine as per the below Java Accords and the Budapest memorandum post-ussr breakup uh with that here's the motion graphic first of all Ukraine is the largest country entirely within Europe
1:45
located in the eastern part of the continent bordering seven countries with the Black Sea and the Sea of azove in the South the country's capital and largest city is Kiev located in the north central part of the country just outside the city on the east side of the river lies the largest and busiest International Airport that Services give butter spill International however there is a more localized smaller airport near the city center on the West Bank of the
2:07
river Giuliani International from there the second and third largest cities and Odessa host the second and their largest and busiest airports Odessa and harkiv international keep in mind as of the onset of the ukraine-russia war all air travel has been suspended and grounded until further notice and the only way to enter into the country is either by land transport from all surrounding countries other than Russia and Belarus as well as the Russian military occupied region of
2:30
transnistria in eastern Moldova travel via Black Sea to the port of Odessa is also possible but has come with a degree of precaution during conflict times due to the proximity of Russian involvement on the Crimean Peninsula speaking of which subdivision wise the country is made up of 24 old blasts one autonomous Republic Crimea and two special status cities of Kiev and sevastopol now here's where things get more complicated even before conflict times sevastopol was
2:55
considered a separate administrative entity from the rest of Crimea which was already labeled as autonomous and was even a closed City during the Cold War as of 2014 Russian forces have annexed the Crimean Peninsula and special status city of sevastopol which currently hosts Russia's Naval Black Sea Fleet in 2016 Russia started constructing Europe's longest bridge the Crimea Bridge a 12 Mile 19 kilometer long bridge that spans across the Kirch Strait effectively
3:20
disconnected Russia with the Crimean Peninsula for the first time to this day only eight heads of state of eight countries have announced recognition of the Crimean Peninsula belonging to Russia whereas the rest of the world either does not recognize it or still recognizes it as distinctly part of Ukraine in addition the Donetsk and luhansk oblasts had military armed russian-backed separatists that seized government buildings and claimed their own Republic status later in 2022 Russia
3:44
announced that they would Annex them and in what the United Nations General Assembly labeled as an attempted illegal annexation since 2014's Crimean Peninsula annexation Ukraine has been in an ongoing war with Russia and in 2022 Russian forces have entered and occupied Parts in the east and south of Ukraine there was an attempt in the north but Ukraine was able to regain territory and as of making this video the situation is ongoing and ever-changing yeah Ukraine's
4:09
domain is definitely a topic of long discussion and by the way its cave not Kiev Kiev it's a Russian version of Ukrainian Capital cave also you might hear the term donbass quite a bit referring to the donetskin luhansk oblast furthest on the East bordering Russia the name is a portmanteau of the word Donetsk Basin dunbas it's Frontline of Ukrainian fight historically in the past dunbas was one of the most industrialized area in Ukraine so how did all this crazy stuff happen not easy
4:37
to to explain the whole conflict wasn't just a 2002 issue you have to go back in time Oh you mean like the 2014 Euro might in protest annexation of Crimea the donbassador well those those sound things led to it or do you mean the 2008 yoshenko political crisis or the 2004 orange Revolution well I mean oh oh no wait let me guess you're bringing this back to the Soviet collapse and all those Accords that were signed in the 90s that played huge role but wait is this about Khrushchev handing over
5:05
Crimea in 1954 I mean if you want to add that in there then fine but that's not exactly pre-soviet really or you have no idea how far back this conflict is going basically I made a video covering this topic so we don't have time to spend 80 years scratching the surface reference videos are a great way to save time high five yeah historically Ukraine was occupied but the different civilization through the history in fact the oldest excavated culture being the mysterious
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Neolithic tripilian culture or Crimean Peninsula was part of so many different empires in the past it was the furthest extent of the golden horde you know back in the 13th century wait a second hold up did you just say that part of Ukraine was Mongol a little more complicated than that more like a kipcho turkishized offshoot version of them but technically kind of yes in any case it wasn't until the 9th century that the Kevin Roos was established and it was essentially the
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home of the Eastern Slavs the vordruce was invented by Viking for the Slavs if you know your Nordic history basically went like this I'm going west well I'm going east uh I guess I'll go north okay that's enough history let's talk about something else famous places famous places yes and uh who better to do it than some actual ukrainians here you go hi guys my name is sunny hi guys my name is Miriam you are just some of famous places eight UNESCO Heritage sites including the first one send Sofia
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Cathedral all this cathedral in eastern Slavic countries a lover is a large and important Monastery Odessa City and Odessa has potomkin stairs we have our own study of Liberty yeah that's right we have the love tunnel um but Turin was once the capital of the Kozak heitzman on the left side of Ukraine Sofia Park yeah safifka Park beautiful in spring and summer we have so many castles and Fortress in Ukraine moneyline monuments the ancient Baba stones and finally Chernobyl for to this day
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2600 square kilometers uh exclusion Zone deemed unsafe for habitation but people are still curious and love to visit and has become a top tourist destination in the recent years and I forget about a prepaid prepaid yeah yes the city inside and hope you can visit Ukraine yes thank you Tony and Maria hey did you know Ukraine might have the geographic center of Europe The Village Delaware oh no I actually been it's a forest and Crossing distance hey I did that okay
7:46
gone so there you go a complicated map with complicated backstory and even more complicated mode of operating itself uh Ukraine is not a simple country no it's not but one thing that does seem to be quite simple is the landscape of Ukraine it's a little bit flat a little bit most of it yeah yeah and with that let's move on physical geography so on the surface Ukraine looks some like mostly flat country with a little bit of fluctuation topography but it goes so much more deeper than just Farms
8:15
Ukraine's land is an absolute resource Powerhouse that feeds not only themselves but much of Europe we'll talk about that soon in the meantime here's the motion graphic for one the majority of Ukraine lies on the East European Plain this is an enormous stretch of generally flat Plains and plateaus that extend all the way to what are considered the geographic borders of what constitute Europe along the Ural and Caucasus Mountains within Ukraine the landscape essentially slopes
8:40
downward west to east starting in the furthest southwestern part of the country where you can find the highest elevation in the Carpathian Mountains here you can also find the tallest peak hoverla in the zakarpatia oblast the Crimean Peninsula is the only other place that has a notable mountain range within the country averaging around 1500 meters high the peninsula is only connected via the pericop Isthmus which at its narrowest is only about three miles or five kilometers wide otherwise
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the rest to the peninsula is separated by shallow lagoons and Bays with the 70-mile 112 kilometer long skinny arabat spit or the autobot Arrow a Barrier island that separates the sibosh Lagoon from the sea of azov from there you have the podolian and yepper Uplands in the north the polician lowland and Nipper lowlands across the longest river of the country the nipro river that essentially bisects the country in half emptying into the Black Sea near the city of
9:30
Herson the nipro river is the lifeline of the country containing several hydroelectric power stations and dams that have effectively created six reservoirs along its banks which is why it looks like such a fat wide river on maps and satellite images in terms of freshwater lakes the country has tons and tons of small ponds and lakes along their forests and plains however the largest inland body of fresh water would be Lake yalpa in the Odessa oblast not far from the Danube river that separates
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them from Romania yes that is correct Ukraine is the last country the mighty Danube River gets to encounter before it drains into the Black Sea and speaking which if you're afraid of deep water probably the best place where you can learn how to swim it's as OC because it's so shallow you can walk in hours and hours and hours and it's never get deep oh really yeah in any case although most of the country is flat it is loaded with export material and uh and you guys
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really love your coffee like I went to leviv there I believe leviv has more cafes per capita than anywhere else in the world there's like over about 1 500 cafes yeah and the coffee and leave it's amazing and uh speaking of coffee it's time for my triple shot espresso break and with that here's Noah to explain a little bit more on the trade sector take it away Noah all right jogger peeps time to make sure that you Noah do things as an agricultural Powerhouse Ukraine is often
10:45
touted as the breadbasket of Europe as they have a huge share of Wheat and barley exports they're also often ranked the number one producer of sunflower seeds in the world this is because about two-thirds of their land is arable and much of it blessed with the rich chernosum soil it is characterized by its dark black color containing high percentages of phosphorus and humus perfect for crop cultivation hummus not hummus it's soil made of decomposed organic material rich in nutrients it
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has a high moisture retention organic material with high moisture I mean that's not that far off from hummus sure whatever can you make humus out of hummus you don't get to talk anymore in any case despite having a mixed economy made up of Industry energy Mining and Manufacturing sectors they have remained one of the lowest income nations in all of Europe and is classified as a lower middle income economy this is due to many factors such as hyperinflation in the 90s monetary expansion due to
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government spending the largest hit though would have to be their cutting of ties to their former largest trading partner Russia since then their trade with the EU has increased dramatically mostly going through Poland Ukraine is also a mining Powerhouse hosting about 90 different minerals 20 of which are economically significant today Ukraine operates four nuclear power plants including the largest in Europe and zaporegia there used to be five plants but we all know about the Chernobyl
12:01
disaster in 1986 the largest nuclear accident to date nobody is allowed to move or give birth there however a few elderly inhabitants are allowed to remain in their original homes where they live quietly and receive Aid weirdly enough this actually became one of Ukraine's largest tourist destinations post-soviet breakup it was like it's so sad so devastating hey can I see it this isn't a joke we have to block it off but I'm a disaster Enthusiast I'll pay you a lot of money
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okay give me your money and that's how that industry started they also have their own domestic automobile manufacturing plants and Brands the largest being zaz or zapparesian Autos in addition Ukraine is one of the nine countries with the full cycle of Aerospace Hardware engineering and production they're probably most famous for their production of large-scale antov and Ruslan cargo transport Jets including the an225 Maria the largest transport aircraft ever created
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unfortunately on February 24 2022 was destroyed in a Russian attack while parked in a hangar at the Antonov airport plans have been made to rebuild it though that was a lot of heavy detail however one person that always lightens a heavy mood would be our resident animal correspondent Gary Harlow Let's Roll Gary Harlow here time to fly into this like a you crane first of all Ukraine is a treasure Trove of Flora you can find the national flower marigolds everywhere and thanks to the cooler wet
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climate Ukraine is able to Harbor over 6 600 species of identified fungi and many more probably still undiscovered it really is the Mushroom Kingdom oh no the Nintendo missiles are coming in some of the forest and mountain regions animals like wolves brown bears lynxes Martens and boars can be found birds are a huge part of Ukraine's ecosystem over a hundred species are either native or migrate to Ukraine if a little Egret or white stalk make a nest on a telephone
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pole or on top of your house it is said to be good luck it's like you have been chosen for my blessing the national animal though is the Nightingale known for being able to mimic sounds it hears and repeat them back they would be like you have been chosen for my blessing oddly enough due to the lack of human activity animals are repopulating and thriving in Chernobyl even the famous chevalsky horse one of the most endangered in the world known for their shorter stockier chunkier bodies
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speaking of short and chunky I've got a baby daughter to feed cheers mates thanks Gary speaking of mushrooms a favorite pastime of many ukrainians is mushroom picking in the forest as many of the species are edible and used in their Cuisine the cuisine of Ukraine is definitely worth it to talk more about it we have a very special guest star possibly the most famous chef in Ukraine Mr kopotenko take it away to the food uh introduce yourself so my name is I'm Ukrainian chef and I'm the guy who
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is changing the food culture in Ukraine and I'm trying to put Ukraine on the world's map also stand up show your parents that's my pants yeah so the most famous appetizer is like our pork fat or Salad because we we were not using a lot of butter the most important dish for the Ukrainian Cuisine it's a borscht it's our main dish and now it's uh from the 1st of July of 2022 it's a world heritage dish Mecca's dish it's called Sir Nicki which is frying that and it's
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very nice so at the third dish it's called the dumplings or we call it barenaki but in Ukraine it's very famous to to use the sour cherry and the poppy seeds chicken kids oh I love chicken yeah chicken kieva chicken fill it and inside it has a butter and some dill normally can you cook chicken kiev with salad I would try that that would be super Ukrainian no it will be super fat so I mean I mean I mean it's also key of cake some kind of meringue with the nuts squash it's our it's like fermented
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bread drink and we're putting this on top of the meat it's called verishaka last question favorite dish you can cook me do you have a signature dish borsch if you want to touch boers you have to touch me touch me all right well I think that's it thank you so much thank you yeah thank you yeah thank you chef and with that I will take my leave back to you barbs thank you Noah now also Ukraine have a quiet culture around the bread from my research you guys have over 80 kinds of
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ritual breads oh my mom also she cooked this bread it's called korawai and it's now become untangible Heritage of Ukraine Ukraine well in any case uh just like the food the people of Ukraine have so many unique traits and flavors to them let's discuss that
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so uh Misha your opinion what is a Ukrainian person it's a person who have a Ukrainian heart no matter where you live no matter who you are what color you are I live in U.S I live here but I still have a deep attachment to the culture and people you can take the Ukrainian out of Ukraine but you can't take the Ukraine out of them yeah that's for sure so Ukraine's population has gone through major fluctuations over the past three decades their population actually peaked in 1993 at 52 million
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however factors like Mass immigration and for a while having a higher death rate than a birth rate made Ukraine's population decline sharply and also depending on which census you rely on population statistics of Ukraine might conflict because some include or don't include Crimea and the donbas oblast of Donetsk and luhansk as of 2023 Russia has annexed over 90 percent of luhan's koblers and the half of the dinescobles including the capital of the next with all that taken into account due to
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conflict times displacing people across the country ethnic group numbers have fluctuated and there's no concrete way of getting exact numbers but this is the general demographic makeup I got by averaging out numbers from as many sources as I could find here we go the population of Ukraine as of 2023 is around 42 million which is a rough estimate that includes the returned diaspora but also does not include the Crimean population around 2.5 million and shaving off some of the 2.5 million
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population living in annexed populations of the donbos region but does include the half million of ukrainians in ukraine-controlled areas of the donbass it seems the country is of course predominantly made up of people that identify as ethnically Ukrainian at somewhere around 80 percent they're somewhere around 17 percent of the nation claims to be ethnic Russian keep in mind these lines are kind of blurred because many people are also mixed between both Ukrainian and Russian
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parents and many may claim either side depending on who you talk to but this seems to be the general number from there the remaining population is made up of various other ethnic groups mostly from neighboring Nations like Romanians hungarians polish Ukrainian Jews pontic Greeks and yes even a small population of Koreans in any case quickly the country use rimna it's a national currency we use type C and F black outlet and we drive on the right side of the road in Ukraine the official
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language obviously is Ukrainian and islavic language descended out of the medieval ruthenian language Russian is also common spoken secondary language through the obviously it was introduced during the Russian imperial era and civility Union also uh there's suzuk what is sujik explain surik is my first language actually was which I grew up it's a kind a mix of Ukrainian and Russian but also have a lot of different words which doesn't exist anywhere else since 2014 a lot more people have just
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started speaking Ukrainian right like yes yeah like they kind of yeah I still continue speaking in surgeek with my family like Mom dads and my best friends but Ukrainian it's more common language what you use in a country it's obviously changed the closest languages you guys can understand are probably Belarusian and polish maybe uh yeah I think like if you sp if anyone speak in Belarusian polish Czech language you can understand easily oh you can understand check too
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yeah yeah wow okay speaking of which near about three quarters of all ukrainians claims to be affiliated with the Eastern Orthodox church and then ten percent been Catholic mostly in the western part yeah and the southern part is now there are quite a few Regional Customs between ukrainians like you know you have the hutsul ukrainians and the carpathians you have the bucco Vina ukrainians but nothing exemplifies the Ukrainian identity more than the Kozak Spirit right yes it is yeah what is a
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Kozak is eventually mean Freeman it's actually people who doesn't want to be part of Polish Lithuanian and also Russian Empire they was made from Exiles from both places and want to build free Society from monarchy kind of sounds like a country of just adventurous people yes it is the exact Origins are disputed but in a nutshell they stem from semi-nomadic peoples in the pontic step and Caspian step region somewhere around the 13th century after all that crazy with the Mongols went down oh and
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I think the peak of the Kozak sculpture was when the Bogdan monitsky was in power because he established the border and capital they were right in between two major Empires the Russians and the Polish lithuanians and when said States saw these kazakhs it was like hmm those kazakhs are very rough and militaristic and they're like very hell-bent on maintaining their autonomy why don't we use that to our advantage uh how so they love fighting so why don't we just hire
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them as mercenaries to fight our battles while promising them autonomy I mean I really do want to expand past the euros and you have that whole beef with the ottoman Empires right right wait don't we hate each other too long story short but quadracks have always been the central part of Ukrainian culture and identity wait don't you guys also have like a Kozak cartoon like called kozaki yes it's a three kozaks they always fight with Russians in any case uh you need to be
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strong and fierce when competing in sports so with that let's jump over to the sports part with art Merry Christmas Even though it's not Christmas all right let's get started take him alrighty peeps let's get Ukraine in the membrane you know that song like insane in the membrane never mind Ukrainian sports have always gone hand in hand so much so that in fact they have created their own like combat hopeak a martial art that was invented by zaparisian kozaks that mix
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traditional dance with fighting there's also traditional hope Saber fencing and wrestling we played at Gold stock in the Russia episode remember I do remember that yeah I was really pent up and angry Ukraine has competed in every Olympics as an independent nation since 1994. since then Ukraine has racked up nearly 150 medals at the Olympics as of 2023 with 38 Golds the best events being gymnastics and wrestling Larissa Latina is a total National Treasure competing
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under the Soviet Union out of any male or female she held the record for 48 years with the most gold medals at nine and overall she won 18 medals over the course of three Olympic Games in terms of wrestling Ukraine has many champions but a huge deal in wrestling would be Jean billionuke who got the golden Tokyo Olympics and we got him on the show barbs was actually able to interview him in the Ukraine episode here here's a quick snapshot right here hey everyone
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my name is Jean bilinok I'm uh after Ukrainian I'm Olympic champion in Greco Ramen wrestling and a member of Ukrainian Parliament my first big win is it was first place in the European Championship Mr zelenski we know each other before that and he told me about he wanted to invite me what was your life like growing up in Ukraine I was born in 1991 when Soviet Union just collapsed yes yes yes and new country new roof and that's why and I was only with my mom guys with my type of skin of
23:47
course yeah and different different difficult situations but do you Ukrainian people generally accept you great and people already tolerant you know and I have a lot of friends School of Life you know yeah and that's why maybe I decided to go into Greco Roman wrestling yeah and now you're in the parliament may your famous uh gold medalist are you happy yes I feel honored after after Barack Obama like yes yes thank you so much man and I appreciate that thank you John such a
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cool guy anyway there's so many other things that we could highlight in Ukrainian Athletics like the boxing brothers the two-time World's Strongest Man winner that dude who broke over 35 pole vaulting records but at the end of the day you must mention FC Domino Ukraine's most popular football club they have won dozens of USSR championships and UEFA cups and number seven the Ukrainian dream Andrea who won awards for the best player and best score he won two bronze and one Golden
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Ball award today he's doing good and he enjoys playing golf in his spare time oh don't we all just want that look back at all the glory and just play golf in our spare time get out of here art it's right giving up on live baby you'll play some golf thank you art it's important to mention the acrobatic School in Ukraine is also really big yeah like Ukraine's Got Talent there's always like 50 different acrobatic Acts or something anyway so many things about the culture you know what's gonna happen
25:20
Hannah is going to take over that random Hannah take it away with the culture segment it's the culture segment it's insane we're in Ukraine so what are some of the things that are distinctly Ukrainian for one you have to kind of look at the root historical Ukraine's had a significantly different climate and different rich soil from the Russian neighbors this influenced so many things in daily life like traditional Ukrainian white clay batch roof houses versus wooden Russian cabins
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many historians also attribute this as being a factor to why ukrainians have a more individualistic based culture due to the fact that single families could be completely self-sufficient on their own land as opposed to the more collectivist Russians that had fewer immediate access to resources and needed to depend on a larger Community to operate it's a theory make of it what you will in any case the National Dress is the vichibanka and the embroidery has very specific motives and patterns and
26:15
are indicative to the specific regions the wearer is from many of these patterns are rooted in ancient Slavic mythology and beliefs which are to some extent still practice and synchronize with their predominant Eastern Orthodox tradition ukrainians have also been huge on inventions and accomplishments they things like CDs bloodless blood tests vaccines against the plague and cholera postcode kerosene lamps and the first kidney transplant was performed in Ukraine as well the list goes on of
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course Ukraine has never shied away from the art you might find the Whimsical opichina Ceramics and gift shops usually depicting lions and Rams if that's not your thing maybe go for some P3 Kiva literature is a huge Pastime too this guy is considered the first modern Ukrainian author taraj shashenko is a national poet and everyone knows less yayukaina was one of the most famous writers that pushed for Ukrainian Independence today numerous monuments and six museums are dedicated to her
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honor and she is even on their money many artists filmmakers and writers were suppressed during the Soviet times nonetheless Ukrainian Cinema has lived on no movie more world-renowned and critically acclaimed than Shadows of Forgotten ancestors yeah if you want to see a real authentic Ukrainian customs and traditions ukrainians will tell you to go to the carpathians that's where all the original stuff goes down and another original thing Ukraine has is music and let's see who's taking over
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the music segment because these days it switches off a lot honestly anyone's better than Keith [Music] what's going on everybody it's Keith here so so I haven't been able to um have enough time to even come up with a script so our good friend Yvonne is gonna take it over also I want to say a big shout out to the metal band Ginger I love you guys and uh here is Yvonne with the music later dogs hey most of ukrainians believe that musicality is one of the main features of ukrainians
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the oldest musical instruments found in Ukrainian territories history and flus from Mammoth dated 20 000 years old the right Ukrainian musical instruments like Lira kobza through with and so on Pagan ritual still took place in Ukraine such as kupala malanka so a lot of Ukrainian songs have Pagan elements also there was Doom historical songs about knives Wars Etc domain had been performed by khobsers they played bandura or krobza while singing but during the Soviet era almost all of the
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copsers were killed cops and bandura were prohibited and confiscated just like literally burned boxing brazilski born 1745 basically the Ukrainian Mozart cement block artemovski author of The one of the first Ukrainian operas approaches of the name Nicola listener born 1842 called the father of Ukrainian music he also a father of USSR and Russian Anthem because his composition epic fragment was stolen and rearranged
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probably had a relationship with a concussionelle has his own star in Hollywood because composer of probably one of the most known Ukrainian song Shattered or you may know it as Carol of the belt but Nikola hasn't seen his success because he uses SARS Bolsheviks killed him in 1921. 1949 writer of the best Ukrainian hit songs of that time Sharon aruta of the LA quivore was killed by KGB okay Ukraine has taken part in the Eurovision contest since 2003 and even three times
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we took the first place Cruise Line in 2004 jamala in 2016 and Carlos in 2022 so that's kind of all I gotta say barbs thank you Yvonne I remember one time though I tried to whistle in a car and they the guy yelled at me he's like don't whistle in a car yeah that's really bad yeah we said let's say in Ukrainian culture it's kind of like for bed luck we've covered so much about the culture and the people and demographics of Ukraine guess what there's other people in this world and uh Ukrainian
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seems to interact with them which brings us to the last segment foreign
30:04
and uh friends around the world it's uh it's just like their history it's ever complicated and shifting always shifting yes but uh here's the animation let's get into it first of all to this day it seems their number one foreign policy objective has been integration with the Euro Atlantic Zone in 2018 they officially ended their participation with the CIS further cutting ties to Russia and other members but mostly Russia outside of Europe Canada was not only the second country in the world to
30:30
recognize their independence but actually has the largest Ukrainian diaspora at somewhere around 1.5 million mostly concentrated in Manitoba and Saskatchewan today they have a free trade agreement and many cities are sister cities including Kiev with Toronto the USA has the second largest Ukrainian diaspora in the Americas and has also been a key Ally in more recent times as they along with other countries have pledged billions of dollars in Aid during war times high level visits have
30:55
been conducted by both heads of state and overall relations have grown since the 2010s in Asia it seems turkey and China an interesting role Both have expressed interest in helping mediate somewhat in Conflict however for the most part they've been low-key and just business oriented since 2008 China surpassed Russia as becoming Ukraine's largest trade partner and in 2022 Chinese ambassador to Ukraine van Chang is quoted for saying that China will support Ukraine both economically and
31:22
politically despite conflict times turkey is an interesting one not only have they both had historically strange relations with Russians for Turks dating back to ottoman times but erdogan is also explicitly quoted for telling former president poroshenko that turkey would not recognize the annexation of Crimea in addition they are a major partner in Ukrainian exports across the Black Sea and do lots of business with them back in Europe though we get a more clear image of where the closest ties
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lie today and since 2022 the EU has granted them candidate status for Ascension to the EU and zelenski signed an EU membership application since then they have also joined NATO's enhanced opportunity partner in Terra parability program and have submitted an application for membership as well every Baltic country and Finland have expressed huge support for Ukraine since the onset of the war each side has a period of time understanding conflict with Russia their EU neighbors Slovakia
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Hungary Romania Bulgaria Germany czechia and non-eu Moldova have all taken in many refugees during the war and have pledged support for Ukraine the UK is a huge supporter immediately when you enter any British airport you will see signs set up in the Ukrainian language offering assistance for refugees in addition they have pledged Aid to Ukraine and are even in a trilateral security pact with Ukraine when it comes to their best friend almost every Ukrainian I have talked to has said
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Poland which is the third member of the trilateral security pact Poland has taken in the most refugees since the war they share a bond based on history of understanding what life was like either under the Soviets or the Warsaw Pact their languages are pretty intelligible and integration of ukrainians into polish Society is incredibly easy for them all of the drama of the former polish Lithuanian Commonwealth years centuries ago was pretty much over and they've moved on ukrainians and poles
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will always be there for each other in conclusion I'm gonna give this to you and I'm gonna head out see you Ukraine it's not just border Ukraine it's people Seoul culture as long as Ukrainian people exist and culture there will be always Ukraine and we will always fight for our freedom and Independence thank you for being in this episode really appreciate it uh stay tuned United Arab Emirates is coming up next [Music]
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thank you
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