Ukraine's natural resources

Ukraine ranks among Europe’s most resource-rich countries, particularly in agriculture. Its temperate continental climate supports large-scale grain production, while milder, Mediterranean-influenced conditions prevail along parts of the southern coast. Because of its fertile chernozem soils and high cereal output, Ukraine has long been known as “Europe’s breadbasket.” Beyond agriculture, Ukraine holds substantial mineral resources, including iron ore, manganese, coal, titanium, and other deposits. More than eighty types of mineral resources support mining, industrial production, and export-oriented industries.

The Country

Ukraine is the second-largest country in Europe and the largest European country with its borders entirely within Europe. It is located in the southeast of central Europe and covers about 603,500 square kilometers (233,000 square miles). It consists of twenty-four regions and one autonomous republic, Crimea. It borders several other countries, giving it a strategic central position in the European area. By land, it borders Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Slovakia. It also shares a border on the Black Sea with Bulgaria, Georgia, and Turkey. Its entire coastline, including the Black Sea, covers 2,782 kilometers (1,728.65 miles). Ukraine’s landscape is mainly steppe, which is a generally level, treeless plain. Its borders contain the Crimean Mountains on the Crimean Peninsula and the Carpathian Mountains in the western area. These mountains and other areas of Ukraine are covered by forests containing a mixed variety of trees, such as alder, birch, beech, elm, fir, linden, maple, oak, pine, poplar, and willow. However, Ukraine’s thickest forests are not in the mountains but in the Volyn’ Province in the northwest. The country’s main river is the Dnieper, one of the longest rivers in Europe, which gives Ukraine abundant hydroelectric power.

Ukraine possesses fertile soils, extensive arable land, forested regions, and significant mineral deposits, giving it a strong comparative advantage in agriculture and selected extractive industries. Despite this resource base, Ukraine’s population has historically recorded lower per-capita income than many European neighbors, though economic growth prior to 2022 suggested the potential for convergence. Long-standing challenges related to corruption and regulatory inefficiency have constrained development, while Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea further disrupted economic activity.

Ukrainian is the country’s official language, though Russian has historically been widely spoken, particularly in eastern and southern regions; the use of Russian has declined markedly since 2014 and following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Minority languages such as Polish, Romanian, and Hungarian are spoken in border areas. The hryvnia is the official currency. Ukraine is a candidate for membership in the European Union and formally entered accession negotiations in the mid-2020s. The ongoing war significantly disrupted Ukraine’s production of agricultural and industrial resources, with global consequences for food supplies, fuel prices, and steel markets. As of the mid-2020s, the conflict continued to shape Ukraine’s economy and its relations with Europe and the wider international community. By 2026, the war was still being fought.

Arable Land

Ukraine has more natural resources than any other country in Europe, and the most valuable of these is its exceptionally fertile soil, which covers more than one-half of its land. Ukraine’s farmers produce and export a significant percentage of the world’s total exported grains. Agriculture, which employed about 6 percent of the labor force in the country, accounted for about 12 percent of Ukraine’s gross domestic product in 2022, according to the CIA. More than forty types of soil exist in Ukraine, allowing for growth of nearly any type of agricultural product. Much of the soil in Ukraine is chernozem, or black soil, which is considered to be the most fertile soil in the world; Ukraine’s black soil accounts for one-third of the black soil worldwide. Through the areas surrounding the Dnieper and Dniester rivers, this soil reaches widths of 500 kilometers (310.7 miles), the only place in the world where it does so, allowing for huge tracts of farming where nearly any type of crop can be grown. Other types of soils in Ukraine include nutrient-rich riverbed soils and various mountain soils in areas such as the Carpathian Mountains.

However, this rich resource is in danger. Removal of the grass cover has led to soil erosion, and excessive use of herbicides and pesticides in farming areas has led to damage to land and water. The Ukrainian government recognizes this risk to its most important resource and has provided incentives for local farmers and large agricultural businesses to conserve this highly prized soil and allow it to continue to grow an abundance of crops.

Coal

Ukrainian coal is known worldwide for its high quality. Most of these high-quality coal reserves are located in the Donets’k coal basin, which contains an area of more than 50,000 square kilometers (about 31,068 square miles) rich with coal reserves. This region, located in the east-central area of the country, is considered the industrial heartland. It is one of the major mining and metallurgical complexes in all of Europe. Coal reserves throughout Ukraine contain rich reserves of bituminous and anthracite coal, and brown coal reserves are located in the Dnieper River basin. Economic circumstances have forced an evaluation of whether the country's many mines are economically able to continue operations.

Grains

Ukraine’s farmers produce all types of grains, particularly wheat. In 2023, the country produced 22.5 million metric tons (24.8 million tons) of wheat, according to the International Production Assessment Division. Most of the wheat grown in Ukraine is hard red winter wheat or bread wheat. The grains are generally farmed by large agricultural businesses, though winter wheat, planted in the fall and harvested the following summer, accounts for a significant percentage of the wheat grown in Ukraine and is produced on small farms. Ukraine is known for producing high-quality wheat. In most years, a substantial majority of Ukrainian wheat—often more than three-quarters—meets milling-quality standards, making it suitable for flour production rather than animal feed. Wheat is grown throughout the country, but most is grown in the central and south regions. Between July 2018 and January 2019, Ukraine exported 15.6 million metric tons (17.2 million tons) of wheat alone, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service.

Barley is another important grain crop but is not as heavily exported as wheat. Spring barley, planted in early spring and harvested in mid to late summer, has traditionally been Ukraine’s principal barley crop and remains a major cereal for domestic use. Although its share has declined with the expansion of winter barley cultivation, spring barley typically accounts for a majority of Ukraine’s total barley production. It is mostly grown in eastern Ukraine. Winter barley is grown as well, though it is not as tolerant of the cold as winter wheat and thus can be grown only in the southern areas of Ukraine. Corn, or maize, is the third most commonly grown cereal in Ukraine, mostly in the east and south.

Iron Ore

Ukraine produces many types of metals from its abundant resources of iron ore, including cast iron, pipes, and steel. According to the US Geological Survey, it was the eleventh-largest producer of steel in the world in 2017. That same year, according to the International Trade Administration, it was the eleventh-largest exporter of steel, which represented 17 percent of its exported goods that year. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 severely disrupted steel production and exports from both countries, contributing to sharp increases in global steel prices during 2022. Although prices later retreated from those peaks, the war continued to affect supply chains, leaving steel and iron ore markets more volatile than in the prewar period.

The largest iron-ore deposits in the country are located in Kryvyy Rih in the southeast part of Ukraine, but deposits also exist in Kremenchug, Belozerskiy, and Kerch, which host both deep underground and open-pit mines for extraction of iron ore. Ukrainian iron ore is known for its high iron content. About two hundred major companies extract and process metals and produce pipes and other metallic goods. Ukraine hosts some of the world’s largest steel plants, which make cast iron, steel, steel bars, and steel pipes. Prior to Russia's invasion, these plants were located in cities such as Dnipropetrovs’k, Zaporizhzhya, Donets’k, Makeyevka, and Mariupol’. Iron-ore production reached a high of 114 million metric tons (125.7 mikllion tons) in 1978, when Ukraine provided 15 percent of the world’s iron ore. After that time, because of economic conditions, production steadily dropped until 1999, when it stabilized. The US Geological Survey reported that in 2017, Ukraine was the seventh-largest producer of iron ore. Iron ore production declined significantly after 2022 due to the impacts of Russia’s full-scale invasion, though Ukraine continued to possess some of Europe’s largest iron ore reserves.

Oil and Natural Gas

Ukraine was historically an important regional producer of oil during the Soviet period. Most of Ukraine’s conventional oil fields are considered mature, and domestic production has declined over time, leaving the country with limited proven oil reserves in the twenty-first century. Oil and natural gas deposits remained in the Carpathian, Dnieper–Donets, and Black Sea–Crimea regions, though many fields required significant investment and advanced recovery techniques.

Ukraine was once a net exporter of oil within the Soviet system, but by the late 2000s it had become increasingly dependent on imports to meet domestic demand. Beginning in the early 2010s, Ukraine sought to diversify its natural gas supplies after decades of reliance on imports from Russia. These efforts intensified following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and expanded further after the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, which disrupted energy infrastructure and reinforced Ukraine’s long-term objective of reducing dependence on Russian energy through diversification, domestic production, and integration with European energy markets.

Sugar

Ukraine is a major exporter of sugar. Its sugar comes from sugar beets grown mainly in the central and western regions in the forest-steppe area. However, because of its popularity and suitability for small farmers, sugar-beet production is moving farther into the southern areas of Ukraine, where its yields are lower. Historically, the major agricultural enterprises produced sugar beets, but as the demand for and prices of sunflower seeds (for oil), wheat, and other cereals grows, these large businesses have turned to growing those products rather than sugar beets. At the same time, however, small, local or family-run farms have increased production of sugar beets. This is a crop that requires high amounts of manual labor and thus is a better-paying crop for small farmers with limited access to machinery than it is for larger agricultural businesses that must pay workers despite having machinery in place to farm larger crops that produce higher revenue than sugar beets.

Sunflower Seeds

Sunflowers for seeds and oils are a main production crop in southern and eastern regions of Ukraine. These types of crops are relatively inexpensive to grow, but they bring a high price. The demand worldwide is high, so this has become a very profitable crop for Ukrainian farmers. However, the European Union blocked imports of sunflower oil from Ukraine when tainted oil was found. The Kiev government has worked to enforce higher standards on producers of sunflower seeds and oils. Another problem has been that as the price and demand for sunflower seeds and oils rise, farmers are less likely to allow their sunflower fields to rest, leading to smaller and smaller production per field. Export taxes on sunflower products have traditionally been high, and the Ukrainian government has worked with other governments to alleviate these taxes and allow Ukrainian farmers to export their sunflower crops at a profit. The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service reported that Ukraine exported 191,000 metric tons (210,500 tons) of sunflower seeds in the market year of 2016-2017. In subsequent years, Ukraine sharply reduced sunflower seed exports as government policy and industry investment favored domestic processing. By the 2020s, Ukraine had become the world’s leading exporter of sunflower oil, while exports of raw sunflower seed remained limited and variable, particularly following the disruptions caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Other Resources

Ukraine also has significant resources in aluminum, bauxite, chromium, coke, fertilizers, graphite, kaolin clay, magnesium, manganese (especially in the Nikopol’ area), mercury, nickel, phosphate, peat, precious and semiprecious stones, potash, rock salt, sulfur, timber, titanium, and uranium. Its abundant wealth in natural resources gives it an economic advantage over many of its neighbors.

Because of its extremely fertile soils, Ukraine is a major producer of nearly all types of agricultural products, including wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, millet, buckwheat, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, apples, grapes, and potatoes. In Ukraine, grain production is dominated by large agricultural enterprises, while fruit and vegetable cultivation remains concentrated among small farms and household plots, which together account for a substantial majority of domestic fruit and vegetable output. Its farmers also provide cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, poultry, honey, and silk from silkworms. Ukraine’s long coastline and rivers also provide a fishing industry that helps feed Ukraine and provides exports to other countries. Ukraine is also known worldwide as a source of mineral water and medicinal mud treatments.

Hydroelectric power is another valuable natural resource in Ukraine. The Dnieper River contains several hydroelectric power plants to generate power for the Ukrainian economy. There are also smaller hydroelectric power plants on smaller rivers, and Ukraine is exploring how to increase this valuable and environmentally friendly resource.

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