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 The traditional view (mostly influenced by Russian and Polish
historiography)[17] on the etymology of Ukraine is that it came from the
old Slavic term ukraina which meant "border region" or "frontier"[18]
and thus corresponded to the Western term march. The term can be
often found in Eastern Slavic chronicles from 1187 on, but for a long
time it referred not solely to the border lands in present-day
Ukraine.[19] The plural term ukrainy was used as well in the Grand
Duchy of Moscow as in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the 16th and
17th centuries, this term was applied to the lands across the border to
the nomad world (Crimean Khanate). Frequent raids from the steppe
made life in such regions a special and dangerous challenge. With the
migration of the Great Abatis Belt southwards, the application of the
term switched to Sloboda Ukraine and then to Central Ukraine. Over
time it gained an ethnic meaning, as applied to the local South Rus'
(Little Russia in the ecclesiastic[20] and the imperial Russian
terminology)
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At 603,700 square kilometers (233,100 sq mi) and with a coastline of 2,782 kilometers (1,729 mi),
Ukraine is the world's 44th-largest country (after the Central African Republic, before Madagascar). It
is the largest wholly European country and the second largest country in Europe (after the European
part of Russia, before metropolitan France).[i][30] It lies between latitudes 44° and 53° N, and
longitudes 22° and 41° E.
The Ukrainian landscape consists mostly of fertile plains (or steppes) and plateaus, crossed by rivers
such as the Dnieper (Dnipro), Seversky Donets, Dniester and the Southern Buh as they flow south
into the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. To the southwest, the delta of the Danube forms the
border with Romania. Its various regions have diverse geographic features ranging from the highlands
to the lowlands. The country's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which
the highest is the Hora Hoverla at 2,061 meters (6,762 ft), and the Crimean Mountains on the
Crimean peninsula, in the extreme south along the coast.[110] However Ukraine also has a number of
highland regions such as the Volyn-Podillia Upland (in the west) and the Near-Dnipro Upland (on the
right bank of Dnieper); to the east there are the south-western spurs of the Central Russian Uplands
over which runs the border with Russia. Near the Sea of Azov can be found the Donets Ridge and the
Near Azov Upland. The snow melt from the mountains feeds the rivers, and natural changes in
altitude form a sudden drop in elevation and create many opportunities to form waterfalls.
Significant natural resources in Ukraine include iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas, oil, salt,
sulfur, graphite, titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel, mercury, timber and an abundance of arable
land. Despite this, the country faces a number of major environmental issues such as inadequate
supplies of potable water; air and water pollution and deforestation, as well as radiation
contamination in the north-east from the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Recycling toxic household waste is still in its infancy in Ukraine.
 Ukraine has a mostly temperate continental climate,
although the southern Crimean coast has a humid
subtropical climate.[116] Precipitation is
disproportionately distributed; it is highest in the west
and north and lowest in the east and southeast.
Western Ukraine receives around 1,200 millimetres
(47.2 in) of precipitation annually, while Crimea
receives around 400 millimetres (15.7 in). Winters vary
from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland.
Average annual temperatures range from 5.5 °C
(41.9 °F)–7 °C (44.6 °F) in the north, to 11 °C (51.8 °F)–
13 °C (55.4 °F) in the south.[