Western Ukraine in the context of "Halych"

Lviv (/ləˈviːv/ lə-VEEV or /ləˈviːf/ lə-VEEF; Ukrainian: Львів [ˈlʲviu̯] ; Polish: Lwów [ˈlvuf] ; see below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the fifth-largest city in Ukraine, officially with a population of 723,403 (2025 estimate). It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. Lviv also hosts the administration of Lviv urban hromada. It was named after Leo I of Galicia, the eldest son of Daniel, King of Ruthenia.

Lviv (then Lwów) emerged as the centre of the historical regions of Red Ruthenia and Galicia in the 14th century, superseding Halych, Chełm, Belz, and Przemyśl. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia from 1272 to 1340, when it went to King Casimir III the Great of Poland in a war of succession. In 1356, Casimir the Great granted it town rights. From 1434, it was the regional capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship in the Kingdom of Poland. In 1772, after the First Partition of Poland, the city became the capital of the Habsburg semi-autonomous Polish-dominated Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. From 1918, between the wars, the city was the centre of the Lwów Voivodeship in the Second Polish Republic. There it flourished in culture, industry and academia such as the Lwów School of Mathematics, the Lwów Historical School (Polish: lwowska szkoła historyczna) and the Lwów School of Economics. After the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, the massacre of Lwów professors took place, and Lwów was eventually annexed by the Soviet Union.

The White Croats (Croatian: Bijeli Hrvati; Polish: Biali Chorwaci; Slovak: Bieli Chorváti; Ukrainian: Білі хорвати, romanized: Bili khorvaty), also known simply as Croats, were a group of Early Slavic tribes that lived between East Slavic and West Slavic tribes in the historical region of Galicia north of the Carpathian Mountains (in modern Western Ukraine and Southeastern-Southern Poland), and in Northeastern Bohemia.

Debates continue over the origin of the Croats and related topics. Their ethnonym is usually considered to be of Iranian origin, and historians regard them one of the oldest Slavic tribes or tribal alliances that formed prior to the 6th century CE. They were an East Slavic tribe, but bordered both East Slavic groups (Dulebes and their related Buzhans and Volhynians, Tivertsi, and Ulichs) in Western Ukraine; and West Slavic tribes (Lendians and Vistulans) in southeastern Poland, controlling an important trade route from East to Central Europe. Archaeologically the Croats were mostly related to the Korchak and Luka-Raikovetska cultures identified with the Sclaveni (while their connection to the Antes and to the Penkovka culture remains a matter of dispute). Their area is characterized by use of stone defenses, tiled tombs (and kurgan-like tombs), stone ovens, and many large, fortified settlements and cult buildings. They practiced Slavic paganism. Foreign medieval authors documented the Croats in historical sources and legends, and had their own origo gentis.

Pivdenne (Ukrainian: Південне, IPA: [piu̯ˈdɛnːe]), formerly known as Yuzhne (Южне; from Russian for 'Southern'), is a port city in Odesa Raion, Odesa Oblast (province) of south-western Ukraine. Pivdenne hosts the administration of Yuzhne urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. It is situated on the country's Black Sea coast. Population: 32,677 (2022 estimate).

Initially created as a settlement of the Odesa Portside Plant in the Small Adzhalyk Estuary, since 1981 it was transformed into a suburb of Odesa within the Suvorovsky District of the city. From the Southern Marine Terminal of the city port, the Odesa–Brody pipeline takes its beginning towards the Western Ukraine.

Eastern Borderlands (Polish: Kresy Wschodnie), often simply Borderlands (Polish: Kresy, Polish pronunciation: [ˈkrɛsɨ]) was a historical region of the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic. The term was coined during the interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural and extensively multi-ethnic with a Polish minority, it amounted to nearly half of the territory of interwar Poland. Historically situated in the eastern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, following the 18th-century foreign partitions it was divided between the Empires of Russia and Austria-Hungary, and ceded to Poland in 1921 after the Treaty of Riga. As a result of the post-World War II border changes, all of the territory was ceded to the Soviet Union, and today the area of Kresy is divided between Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, and south-eastern Lithuania.

The region gave rise to the Kresy myth, a collection of nostalgic views about the area. After the fall of Communism in Europe and dissolution of the Soviet Union a major economic conflict emerged about the real estate lost by Poland with the loss of Kresy.

Hasidism (Hebrew: חסידות, romanized: Ḥăsīdūt) or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those affiliated with the movement, known as hassidim, reside in Israel and in the United States.

Israel Ben Eliezer, the "Baal Shem Tov", is regarded as its founding father, and his disciples developed and disseminated it. Present-day Hasidism is a sub-group within Haredi Judaism and is noted for its religious conservatism and social seclusion. Its members aim to adhere closely both to Orthodox Jewish practice – with the movement's own unique emphases – and the prewar lifestyle of Eastern European Jews. Many elements of the latter, including various special styles of dress and the use of the Yiddish language, are nowadays associated almost exclusively with Hasidism.

Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (Ukrainian: Івано-Франківська область, romanized: Ivano-Frankivska oblast), also referred to as Ivano-Frankivshchyna (Івано-Франківщина) or simply Frankivshchyna, is an oblast (region) in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. It has a population of 1,351,822 (2022 estimate).

The area, also known as Prykarpattia, was part of the historical region of Galicia, where the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia flourished. After World War I, the area became part of the Second Polish Republic and was administered as part of Stanisławów Voivodeship until the invasion of Poland. The area was annexed by the Soviet Union and was known as Stanislav Oblast until 1962, when its administrative center was renamed after the Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko. Kolomyia was a historical center of the oblast and remains a major cultural center of Pokuttia, the traditional name for the southern part of the oblast.

Russian irredentism (Russian: русский ирредентизм) refers to territorial claims made by the Russian Federation to regions that were historically part of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, which Russian nationalists regard as part of the "Russian world". It seeks to create a Greater Russia by politically incorporating ethnic Russians and Russian speakers living in territories bordering Russia. This ideology has been significantly defined by the regime of Vladimir Putin, who has governed the country since 1999. It is linked to Russian neo-imperialism.

Russian troops currently occupy parts of three neighbouring countries: southern and eastern Ukraine, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, and the Transnistria region of Moldova. Since it began in 2014, the Russo-Ukrainian War has been described by much of the international community as being a culmination of Russia's irredentist policies towards Ukraine. Examples of these irredentist policies being implemented in this conflict include the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, which saw the Russian annexation of southeastern Ukraine in 2022.

The prime minister of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Прем'єр-міністр України, Premier-ministr Ukrainy, pronounced [preˌmjɛrmiˈn⁽ʲ⁾istr ʊkrɐˈjinɪ]) is the head of government of Ukraine. The prime minister presides over the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of the Ukrainian government. Following the 1991 Declaration of Independence of Ukraine the position replaced the Soviet post of chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, which was established on March 25, 1946.

Yulia Tymoshenko was the first woman appointed as the prime minister in the history of Ukraine. Arseniy Yatsenyuk was the first prime minister who came from Western Ukraine. Two prime ministers were born in the Russian SFSR.