Ukraine

Ukraine (Ukrainian: Україна, romanized: Ukraïna) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second largest country in Europe after Russia, which borders it to the east and north-east. 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 covers about 600,000 km2 (230,000 sq mi), with a population of about 40 million. The nation's capital and largest city is Kyiv. The official and national language is Ukrainian, and most people are also fluent in Russian.
In 2014, Russia occupied the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and supported ethnic Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine seeking a split from the country. 
In February 2022, Russia invaded the north, south and east of Ukraine with support of ethnic Russian separatists leading to Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II, with more than 6.9 million Ukrainians fleeing the country and a third of the population displaced.
== Links to Peel ==
Peel often played Ukrainian folk music in the 80's and early 90's on his shows, especially tracks of albums that were released on the Soviet record labels that were sent to him or discovered. 
One of Peel's favourite bands, the Wedding Present had guitarist Peter Solowka, who had both Yugoslavian and Ukrainian heritage, and he made a decision with the band to do three Ukrainian folk sessions for Peel's programmes, which they did between 1987 and 1989. 
Solowka later formed the Ukrainians, who also did sessions for Peel in 1991 and 1993 playing exclusively Ukrainian folk music. thumb|220x220pxIn 2000, Peel discovered an Ukrainian electro-pop band called Fotomoto via Mike Eardley, brother of Rich Eardley, who later joined the band Melys. Fotomoto were played regularly by Peel and they also did a session for his show in 2004 before he died.
After Peel's death in 2004, it was later found out that he had an album of Ukrainian folk music called 40 Favourite Ukrainian Melodies, which he filed it under the name Ukraine in his Record Collection: U.
== Sessions ==
The following artists from Ukraine recorded sessions for the John Peel Show:
* Fotomoto (1 session, 2004)
== Festive Fifty ==
* None
== Compilations ==
(Tracks played by Peel from various artist (v/a) compilations featuring music from Ukraine. Please add more information if known.)
* None
== See Also ==
*Record Collection: U
* Veryovka Ukrainian Folk Choir
* Countries
== External Links ==
* Wikipedia
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