Kharkiv (Kharkov) is the second largest city in Ukraine after Kiev. It is an industrial educational and cultural megalopolis with population of around 1.7 million people.
The city is located in the north-eastern part of Ukraine, on the border of forest-steppe and steppe zones. It has temperate continantal climate with long but not severe winter and warm summer. The coldest month are January and February (-7C), the hottest month are July and August (20C).
The territory of the city is up to 300 sq km but well developed transportation system (buses, trolley buses, trams, underground) makes any part of the city easily accessible. Kharkiv is one of the greenest cities of Ukraine. It has more then 12000 hectares of parks, alleys and gardens.
Kharkiv is a city with a remarkable history - in the period between 1917 – 1934 Karkiv was the capital of Ukraine.
The Kharkiv region is situated in the North-East of Ukraine. It borders Belgorod region of Russia in the North and North-East, Lugansk region in the East, Donetsk region in the South-East, Dnipropetrovsk region in the South-West, Poltava and Sumy regions in the West and North-West. The territory of Kharkiv region is 31,400 square kilometers. The extension from North to South is 210 km, from East to West - 220 km.
The relief of the region can be referred to as a slightly rolling plain with a small incline to the South-west (towards the Dnipro watercourse) and the Southeast (towards the Don watercourse). In the Northeast the Mid Russian Eminence forms part of the region, in the South there are spurs of the Donets mountain-ridge.
The Don river basin accounts for 75% of the region's water resources. The main water-way - the Seversky Donets river- is the right hand tributary of the Don river. The total length of 867 rivers is 6,400 km and there are 156 rivers that exceed 10 km in length. There are also some lakes in the region, the biggest one called Liman. About 50 artificial bodies of water were created in the Kharkiv region in the XX century, the biggest ones are Krasnooskolskoye (Chervonooskolske), Pechenezhskoye (Pechenizke), Krasnopavlovskoye (Chervonopavlivske). The Northern part of Dnipro-Donbass water canal runs through the territory of the region.
The Kharkiv region is divided into 26 districts while there are 16 towns, 62 urban-type settlements , 1861 villages and farm-steads (khutors) on its territory. The biggest towns are Kharkiv with the population of 1,600,000 people, Izyum, and Lozova. Other important towns are Kupyansk, Chuhuyiv, Balakliya, Bohodukhiv, Zmiyiv.
The population of Kharkiv region is about 3,170,000 people. 78.8% of the population lives in towns. The average density of population is 100 people per square kilometer.
The region has relatively high level of economic development. One of the major reasons for this is its favorable geographical location. Proximity to coal and metal resources of Donbas and Trans-Dnipro region contributed to the development of mechanical engineering and metal working industries. The vicinity of Russia, its Black Earth belt region, its South-West and Southern regions predetermined the development of agriculture in the Kharkiv region. An important factor was also the presence of its own raw materials resources. This contributed to the development of fuel industry and power engineering, chemical and petrochemical industry, glass and porcelain, faience production, and the industry of construction materials.
The region can be divided into three industrial zones: Central, Eastern and Southern. The Central zone (Kharkivsky district and the neighboring districts) is characterized by the high level of specialization and industry concentration, this zone is Ukraine's leading center of energy industries, electromechanical, transport and agriculture mechanical engineering. The Eastern zone spreads around Kupyansk. The leading industry here is mechanical engineering, the Kupyansk foundry supplies parts for transport and agriculture machinery. Food processing including sugar production and light industry are developed here too, as well as the industry of construction materials. The Southern zone is rich in natural gas deposits - Shebelynske, Yefremovske, Krestishchenske and others. The towns in this zone are mostly specialized in mechanical engineering, chemical industry and construction materials production. Cement and roofing slates manufacturing plant in Balakliya is one of the largest in Europe, and Izyum is known as the centre of eyeglass lenses and optic instrument production. Light industry and food production is present here too.
The Kharkiv region agriculture is specialized in grain, sugar beet, sunflower, meat, milk, vegetables, and fruit production. A large selection centre "Ukrainka" is known as the R&D centre of agricultural science.
Kharkov region has a good transport network, 60% of which is railway. The total railway length comes up to 1442 km! Kharkiv railway junctions serve 10,000,000 passengers a year. The automobile transport though outstrips the railway in the amount of passenger traffic: buses serve almost 12,000,000 people a year. The major highways and freeways going through the region are Kharkiv - Moscow, Kharkiv - Simferopol, Kharkiv - Rostov-on-Don, and Kharkiv - Poltava. There are 16 intra-regional, 68 inner regional and 342 district roads. The total length of motorways is 15,000 kilometers. The Kharkiv airport used to have 200 flights a day, almost all of them were passenger flights.
