Ukraine

The Republic of Ukraine is situated in Eastern Europe by the Black Sea. Its 46 million inhabitants (2008) are made up of 78 percent Ukrainians and 17 percent Russians. Even though the official language is Ukrainian, the Russian language dominates the eastern and the southern part of the country as well as the capital Kiev with its 3 million inhabitants.

In 1991, the Ukraine became independent of the Soviet Union. In 2004, there was a democratic transformation ? the ?Orange Revolution?. Consequently, the political system was changed to a semi-presidential system, strengthening the parliament and the government. Even today, the political situation is marked by an on-going power struggle between the representatives of a more Western-bound policy and those who favor more proximity to Russia. There are also talks about joining the European Union soon.

After achieving independence in 1991, the Ukraine initiated a process of privatization. However, in the 1990s, the country first saw an economic crisis, as did other transformation countries of Eastern Europe as well. By 2007, the Ukraine had not managed to reach the production level of 1991 again. The most important export goods of Ukraine include metal, chemicals, machines, technical instruments, nutrition and textiles.

(Source: Wikipedia, translated from German)

Drugs and AIDS

The AIDS epidemic in the Ukraine is the worst in all of Europe and it is among the fastest-spreading worldwide. The World Health Organization and the Ukrainian government estimate a number of 440,000 HIV-infected people. The main reason for this wide spread of drug abuse was the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many companies went into bankruptcy, and subsequent mass unemployment led to poverty and despair. The fact that drugs can easily be obtained in Ukraine favored the increasing demand for drugs and a rapidly growing drug market.

Zhitomir

Zhitomir is situated in the north of Ukraine, 120 km (75 miles) west of Kiev and 150 km (95 miles) south of the Belorussian border. The city has 300,000 inhabitants and it is the administrative center of the political department Oblast Zhitomir. It is a traffic junction, an industrial center and a cultural nucleus with universities, theaters and museums.

Zhitomir has a rich Jewish heritage. In 1891, more than one third of the residents were Jewish (i.e. 24,000 Jews at a total population of 70,000 residents). Together with Vilna, this used to be the only place where the Russian government established a faculty for rabbis in order to educate Jewish clerics for state service. After the Germans attacked the Soviet Union, Zhitomir was occupied by German troops on July 9, 1941. In the following holocaust, most of the Jews from Zhitomir and the whole region were murdered.