Settlement by 

modern humans in Ukraine

and its vicinity dates back to 32,000 BC,
with evidence of the Gravettian culture in
the Crimean Mountains.[31][32] By 4,500 BC,
the Neolithic Cucuteni–Trypillia
culture was flourishing in wide areas of
modern Ukraine, including Trypillia and
the entire Dnieper-Dniester region.
Ukraine is also considered to be the likely
location of the first domestication of the
horse.[33][34][35][36] During the Iron Age, the
land was inhabited
by Cimmerians, Scythians,
and Sarmatians.[37] Between 700 BC and
200 BC it was part of
the Scythian kingdom.[38]
From the 6th century BC, Greek, Roman,
and Byzantine colonies were established
on the north-eastern shore of the Black
Sea, such as at Tyras, Olbia,
and Chersonesus. These thrived into the
6th century AD. The Goths stayed in the
area, but came under the sway of
the Huns from the 370s. In the
7th century, the territory that is now
eastern Ukraine was the centre of Old
Great Bulgaria. At the end of the century,
the majority of Bulgar tribes migrated in
different directions, and the Khazars took
over much of the land.[39]
In the 5th and 6th centuries, the Early
Slavic, Antes people lived in Ukraine. The
Antes were the ancestors
of Ukrainians: White
Croats, Severians, Eastern
Polans, Drevlyans, Dulebes, Ulichians,
and Tiverians. Migrations from the
territories of present-day Ukraine
throughout the Balkans established
many South Slavic nations. Northern
migrations, reaching almost to Lake Ilmen,
led to the emergence of the Ilmen
Slavs, Krivichs, and Radimichs, the
groups ancestral to the Russians.
Following an Avar raid in 602 and the
collapse of the Antes Union, most of these
peoples survived as separate tribes until
the beginning of the second millennium.[40]
[need quotation to verify]
Golden Age of Kyiv
Main articles: Kievan Rus' and Kingdom
of Ruthenia

The furthest extent of Kievan Rus', 1054–

1132.
The establishment of the Kievan
Rus' remains obscure and uncertain;
there are at least three versions
depending on interpretations of the
chronicles.[41] In general, the state
included much of present-day
Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.[42] According
to the Primary Chronicle the Rus' elite and
rulers initially consisted
of Varangians from Scandinavia.[43] In 882,
the pagan Prince Oleg (Oleh)
conquered Kyiv from Askold and Dir and
proclaimed it as the capital of the Rus'.
[44]
 However, it also believed that the East
Slavic tribes along the southern parts of
the Dnieper River were already in the
process of forming a state independently.
[45]

During the 10th and 11th centuries,

Kievan Rus' became the largest and most
powerful state in Europe.[46] The
Varangians later assimilated into the
Slavic population and became part of the
first Rus' dynasty, the Rurik dynasty.
[42]
 Kievan Rus' was composed of
several principalities ruled by the
interrelated Rurikid kniazes ("princes"),
who often fought each other for
possession of Kyiv.[47]
The Golden Age of Kievan Rus' began
with the reign of Vladimir the Great (980–
1015), who turned Rus' toward Byzantine
Christianity. During the reign of his
son, Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054),
Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its
cultural development and military power.
[42]
 The state soon fragmented as the
relative importance of regional powers
rose again. After a final resurgence under
the rule of Vladimir II Monomakh (1113–
1125) and his son Mstislav (1125–1132),
Kievan Rus' finally disintegrated into
separate principalities following Mstislav's
death.[48]
The 13th-century Mongol
invasion devastated Kievan Rus' and Kyiv
was completely destroyed in 1240.[49] On
today's Ukrainian territory, the
principalities of Halych and Volodymyr-
Volynskyi arose, and were merged into
the state of Galicia–Volhynia.[50] Daniel of
Galicia, son of Roman the Great, re-united
much of south-western Rus', including
Volhynia, Galicia and the ancient capital
of Kyiv. He was subsequently crowned by
the papal archbishop as the first king of
the newly created Kingdom of Ruthenia in
1253.[51]
Foreign domination
See also: Grand Duchy of
Lithuania, Crown of the Kingdom of
Poland, Crimean Khanate, Ottoman
Empire, Polish–Lithuanian
Commonwealth, and Russian Empire

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at
its maximum extent in 1619. Poland and
the Polish Crown exercised power over
much of Ukraine since 1569 and rejected
the Ukrainian call for autonomy.
In 1349, Ruthenia ceased to exist as an
independent entity in the aftermath of
the Galicia–Volhynia Wars, with its lands
partitioned between the Kingdom of
Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
[52]
 From the mid-13th century to the late
1400s the Republic of Genoa founded
numerous colonies in the Black Sea
region of modern Ukraine and
transformed these into large commercial
centers headed by the consul, a
representative of the Republic.[53] In 1430,
the region of Podolia was incorporated
into Poland and Ukraine became
increasingly settled by Polish colonisers.
[54]
 In 1441, Genghisid prince Haci I
Giray founded the Crimean Khanate on
the Crimean Peninsula and the
surrounding steppes;[55] the Khanate
orchestrated Tatar slave raids and took an
estimated two million Ruthenian slaves.[56]
[57]

In 1569 the Union of Lublin established

the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth,
and most of the former Ruthenian lands
were transferred from Lithuania to
the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland,
becoming de jure Polish territory. Under
the pressures of Polonisation, many
landed gentry of Ruthenia converted
to Catholicism and joined the circles of
the Polish nobility.[58]
Deprived of native protectors among Rus
nobility, the peasants and townspeople
began turning for protection to the
emerging Zaporozhian Cossacks. In the
mid-17th century, a Cossack military
quasi-state, the Zaporozhian Host, was
formed by Dnieper Cossacks and
Ruthenian peasants.[59] Poland exercised
little real control over this population, but
found the Cossacks to be useful against
the Turks and Tatars,[60] and at times the
two were allies in military campaigns.
[61]
 However, the continued
harsh enserfment of Ruthenian peasantry
by Polish overlords and the suppression
of the Orthodox Church alienated the
Cossacks.[60] The Cossacks did not shy
from taking up arms against those they
perceived as enemies and occupiers,
including the Polish Catholic state with its
local representatives.[62]