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Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. Excluding Crimea, Ukraine has a population of about 42.5 million and its capital and largest city is Kiev. Ukrainian is the official language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. Ukraine is currently in a territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 233,062 square miles.

Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers. A Cossack republic emerged during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was finally merged fully into the Russian-dominated Soviet Union in the late 1940s as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1991, after the end of the Cold war, Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union. Following its independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. In 2013, after the government of President Viktor Yanukovych had decided to suspend the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement and seek closer economic ties with Russia, a several-months-long wave of demonstrations and protests known as the Euromaidan began, which later escalated into the 2014 Ukrainian revolution that led to the overthrow of Yanukovych and the establishment of a new government. These events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014.

The Order Hero of Ukraine is the highest national title that can be conferred upon an individual citizen by the President of Ukraine. It was first awarded on November 26, 1998.