NewsTracker Answers for week of Dec. 16, 2013

Q: Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets after Ukraine's government decided not to sign a far-reaching partnership deal with the European Union (EU). Where is the Ukraine?

Circle the area on this map

Q: The government backed away from the deal with the 28-nation European bloc to the west under strong economic pressure from Ukraine's eastern neighbor and former ruler . . .

A. Hungary

B. Poland

C. Romania

D. Russia

D. The Ukraine was ruled by the Russian empire and then the Soviet Union for centuries before it gained independence in 1991. The Ukraine still has significant trade links with Russia and is heavily reliant on Russia for its energy needs.

Q: Most of the protesters demanding stronger ties with the EU are from western Ukraine and the area of nation's capital . . .

A. Bratislava

B. Minsk

C. Kiev

D. Bratislava

C. Kiev is one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe and was the capital of the Kievan Rus' - the first East Slavic state. With a population of 2.8 million it is the eighth largest city in Europe.

Q: About a quarter of Ukraine's population speak Russian and most of them oppose closer links to the EU in favor of ties to Russia. Russian-speakers are concentrated in the industrial eastern Ukraine and the Crimea region, which lies on what large body of water south of Ukraine?

A. Aral Sea

B. Black Sea

C. Caspian Sea

D. Dead Sea

B. The Black Sea is bordered by the Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. It is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Mediterranean Sea. The Russians fought several wars in the 17th and 18th centuries to gain Black Sea ports, and the Russian Navy still uses Ukraine's port of Sevastopol as its main base on the sea.

Q: The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 contaminated a large area of the Ukraine and its northwestern neighbor . . .

A. Belarus

B. Hungary

C. Moldova

D. Romania

A. At the time the nuclear plant exploded, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova were republics in the former Soviet Union. Ukraine is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast; Belarus to the northwest; Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively.