Blog Post 2 Patrick Parker

The official language of Ukraine is Ukrainian. Over time the official languages of Ukraine have changed, reflecting the countries history and the push for separation from Russia. In the early 1900’s when Ukraine was under the rule of Imperial Russia, Russian was the official language. Ukrainian would resurface to equal level with Russian in the 1920’s, it wasn’t until 1989 that Ukrainian became the official language of Ukraine. There are other smaller regional languages in Ukraine as well. In the eastern area of Ukraine in Crimea there are some areas where Russian is still the predominant language spoken. This can present some problems as Crimea has been under dispute between Russia and Ukraine since 2014. Many of the people of Crimea that do speak Russian have expressed sentiment towards becoming a part of Russia so this has led to some conflict. Ukrainian is spoken by 67% of the population and Russian is spoken by 24% so there is a sizable amount of speakers of Russian.

Ukraine is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and was a founding member of the United Nations (UN). As a founding member of UN, Ukraine, then known as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, has been apart of the organization since 1945. Ukraine is a full member and is a non-permanent member currently serving on the UN Security Council. Ukraine has recently joined both the WTO and IMF. The GINI coefficient is used to measure the distribution of a countries wealth on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 representing perfect wealth equality and 100 representing perfect wealth inequality. According to a World Bank estimate in 2015, Ukraine had a GINI coefficient of 25.50. This was the lowest measured GINI coefficient that year. This means that Ukraine is one of the most equal countries income-wise worldwide. However, when viewing this information when looking at Ukraine’s Gross Domestic Product- Purchasing Power Parity (GDP-PPP) this information becomes somewhat concerning. Ukraine is ranked 148th with a GDP-PPP per capita of only $8,700. This means that although everyone in Ukraine has relatively similar income, the income many people are getting is not very high. This is why it’s important to look at multiple factors when looking at income and the countries economy.

A big event that is happening in Ukraine at the moment is the upcoming elections on March 31st. Recently a record number of candidates have appeared running for president. Although many of them were gag names there were a few surprising additions. One of the additions was comedian Vladimir Zelensky, who is well known across the country for his work. However, he has been able to receive much attention, securing a reported 14-16% of the electorate saying they will vote for him. His campaign and strategies are very similar to the campaign of current U.S. President Donald Trump. Zelensky is aiming to gain the support of those whole feel their voices have not been heard recently. The current Ukraine election feels very similar to the 2016 U.S. Election as a political outsider, in the case of Ukraine Zelensky, is against a career politician, in Ukraine the current President Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Similar to Trump’s “Drain the Swamp” promises, Zelensky has made promises of anti-corruption in comparison to the oft-accused President. In Ukraine candidates must receive 50% of the vote to win and avoid a run-off with fewer candidates. As no candidate has even passed the 20% mark yet, a run-off with the three aforementioned candidates is likely. These elections will be interesting to follow and can influence the countries international relations.