The short-lived state was forcibly reconstituted into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a founding member of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1922. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, a Ukrainian national movement re-surfaced and the Ukrainian People's Republic was formed in 1917. The Cossack Hetmanate emerged in Central Ukraine in the 17th century but was partitioned between Russia and Poland, and ultimately absorbed by the Russian Empire entirely. Over the next 600 years, the area was contested, divided, and ruled by external powers, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia. During the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture under the Kyivan Rus', which was destroyed by the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BCE. The nation's capital and largest city is Kyiv. With a population of 43 million, Ukraine is the eighth-most populous country in Europe.
Ukraine also shares borders with Belarus to the north Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west Romania and Moldova to the south and has a coastline along the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. It is the second-largest country by area in Europe after Russia, which it borders to the east and north-east. Ukraine ( Ukrainian: Україна, romanized: Ukraïna, pronounced ( listen)) is a country in Eastern Europe.