Eastern Ukraine

Several Oblasts can be referred to as "Eastern Ukraine":
  Red - always included
  Orange - sometimes included

Eastern Ukraine or East Ukraine (Ukrainian: Східна Україна, Skhidna Ukrayina) generally refers to territories of Ukraine east of the Dnieper river, particularly Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia oblasts sometimes are also regarded as Eastern Ukraine. Almost a third of the country's population lives within the region, which includes three cities with populations over a million. The major river of eastern Ukraine is Seversky Donets.

Territory

The territory is heavily urbanized and commonly associated with the Donbas. The three largest metropolitan cities form an industrial triangle within the region. Among the major cities are:

Historical political formations: Crimean Khanate, Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, Slavo-Serbia, Sloboda Ukraine, General-Government of New Russia and Bessarabia.

Russian is the dominant language in the region (in the schools of the Ukrainian SSR learning Ukrainian was mandatory).[1] Effective in August 2012, a new law on regional languages entitles any local language spoken by at least a 10% of the population be declared official within that area.[2] Within weeks, Russian was declared as a regional language in several southern and eastern oblasts and cities.[3] From that point Russian could be used in those cities'/oblasts' administrative office work and documents.[4] However, on 23 February 2014, the law on regional languages was abolished, making Ukrainian the sole state language at all levels even in Eastern Ukraine.[5] Nevertheless, this vote was vetoed by acting President Turchynov on March 2.[6][7]

Pro-Russian protesters in Donetsk, 6 April 2014

Noticeable cultural differences in the region (compared with the rest of Ukraine except Southern Ukraine) are more "positive views" on the Russian language[8][9] and on Soviet era[10][11] and more "negative views" on Ukrainian nationalism.[10] Calculating the "yes"-votes as a percentage of the total electorate reveals a lower percentage of all (possible) voters in Eastern and Southern Ukraine supported Ukrainian independence in the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum than in the rest of the country.[12][13] In a poll conducted by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in the first half of February 2014, 25.8% of those polled in East Ukraine believed "Ukraine and Russia must unite into a single state", nationwide this percentage was 12.5.[14]

During elections voters of the Eastern (and Southern) oblasts (provinces) of Ukraine vote for parties (CPU, Party of Regions) and presidential candidates (Viktor Yanukovych) with a pro-Russian and status quo platform.[15][16][17] The electorate of CPU and Party of Regions is very loyal to them.[17]

Provinces (Oblasts)

Oblast (Province) Ukrainian name Area in km2 Population at
2001 Census 		Population at
2012 Estimate 		Notes [18]
Donetsk Донецька область 26,517 4,825,563 4,403,178
Kharkiv Харківська область 31,418 2,914,212 2,742,180
Luhansk Луганська область 26,683 2,546,178 2,272,676
Total for 3 Oblasts 84,618 10,285,953 9,418,034
Zaporizhia Запорізька область 27,183 1,929,171 1,791,668
Dnipropetrovsk Дніпропетровська область 31,923 3,561,224 3,320,299
Total for 5 Oblasts 143,724 15,776,348 14,530,001

The Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk Oblasts are more frequently associated with the Southern Ukraine, although the western portion (the Kryvyi Rih basin) of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is often included with the Central Ukraine.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Serhy Yekelchyk Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation, Oxford University Press (2007), ISBN 978-0-19-530546-3, page 187
  2. ↑ Yanukovych signs language bill into law. Retrieved 2012-09-07.
  3. ↑ Russian spreads like wildfires in dry Ukrainian forest. Retrieved 2012-09-07.
  4. ↑ Romanian becomes regional language in Bila Tserkva in Zakarpattia region, Kyiv Post (24 September 2012)
  5. ↑ Ukraine: Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov named interim president, BBC News (23 February 2014)
  6. ↑ Traynor, Ian (24 February 2014). "Western nations scramble to contain fallout from Ukraine crisis". The Guardian.
  7. ↑ Kramer, Andrew (2 March 2014). "Ukraine Turns to Its Oligarchs for Political Help". New York Times. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  8. ↑ The language question, the results of recent research in 2012, RATING (25 May 2012)
  9. ↑ http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/poll-over-half-of-ukrainians-against-granting-official-status-to-russian-language-318212.html
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Who’s Afraid of Ukrainian History? by Timothy D. Snyder, The New York Review of Books (21 September 2010)
  11. ↑ (Ukrainian) Ставлення населення України до постаті Йосипа Сталіна Attitude population Ukraine to the figure of Joseph Stalin, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (1 March 2013)
  12. ↑ Ukrainian Nationalism in the 1990s: A Minority Faith by Andrew Wilson, Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0521574579 (page 128)
  13. ↑ Ivan Katchanovski. (2009). Terrorists or National Heroes? Politics of the OUN and the UPA in Ukraine Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Political Science Association, Montreal, June 1–3, 2010
  14. ↑ How relations between Ukraine and Russia should look like? Public opinion polls’ results, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (4 March 2014)
  15. ↑ Communist and Post-Communist Parties in Europe by Uwe Backes and Patrick Moreau, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-36912-8 (page 396)
  16. ↑ Ukraine right-wing politics: is the genie out of the bottle?, openDemocracy.net (3 January 2011)
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Eight Reasons Why Ukraine’s Party of Regions Will Win the 2012 Elections by Taras Kuzio, The Jamestown Foundation (17 October 2012)
    UKRAINE: Yushchenko needs Tymoshenko as ally again by Taras Kuzio, Oxford Analytica (5 October 2007)
  18. ↑ All statistics sourced from: State Statistics Committee of Ukraine.