Sept 14/15th,2002
UKRAINE-Vinnista

Eastern Europe Flag Football Challenge

INTERNATIONAL FLAG FOOTBALL EVENT

SPONSORED BY

FLAG FOOTBALL MAGAZINE
&
INTERNATIONAL FLAG FOOTBALL FEDERATION

Population: 49,811,174

Ethnic groups: Ukrainian 73%, Russian 22%, Jewish 1%, other 4%.

Independence: December 1, 1991 (from Soviet Union).

National holiday: Independence Day - August 24, 1991.

Constitution: adopted on June 28, 1996.

Head of State: President Mr. Leonid Kuchma, since July 1994.

Head of Government: Prime Minister.

Legislative branch: unicameral Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) with 450 seats (Last elections held in March 1998).

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal.

Legal system: based on civil law system; no judicial review of legislative acts.
Area of country in Km2
603,700
Capital
Kyiv

Population of the capital
2,630,000
As of January 1, 1998, the population of Ukraine is approximately 50 million. 68% of the population is urban; 32% is rural.
The major cities: Kyiv - 2.6 million, Kharkiv - 1.6 million, Dnipropetrovsk - 1.2 million, Donetsk - 1.1 million, Odesa - 1.1 million, Lviv - 1 million. Population density is 85.7 persons per sq.km.
Ukraine is inhabited by representatives of more than 110 nationalities. According to the 1989 Census, Ukrainians comprise 72.7% of the population, Russians - 22.1%, Jews, Belorussians, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Greeks, Tatars, Armenians, Gypsies, and Germans - 5.2%.
The official language in Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. The Constitution of Ukraine guarantees and defends the rights of ethnic minorities.
6.8 million Ukrainians live in countries of the former Soviet Union including some 4.4 million in Russia, 0.9 million in Kazakhstan, 0.6 million in Uzbekistan and 0.1 million in Kirghizstan. Approximately 5 million Ukrainians live in Europe, North and South America and Australia. The majority of these live in Canada, the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Great Britain and Austria.
The aircraft "Mriia" as well as electronic microscopes, vessels of various types and classes, the world's most powerful presses, turbines, diesel engines, high-class diesel locomotives, and various purpose automobiles are manufactured in Ukraine.
What are the elements of the Ukrainian character? There are kindness, hospitality, friendliness. Then it is respectable attitude to elder, to the dead, tenderness, love to children, to animals, to Nature and to all surrounding world. The Ukrainians are famous both for their humor, melodiousness and their talents to artistic handicraft. They are famous for weaving, painting skills, carving on wood, ceramics. But the most talented the Ukrainians are in work, in particular in work on the earth, in farming. All national custom assist people in this work, revive and vary it since the Trypillia culture.

Background: Richly endowed in natural resources, Ukraine has been fought over and subjugated for centuries; its 20th-century struggle for liberty is not yet complete. A short-lived independence from Russia (1917-1920) was followed by brutal Soviet rule that engineered two artificial famines (1921-22 and 1932-33) in which over 8 million died, and World War II, in which German and Soviet armies were responsible for some 7 million more deaths. Although independence was attained in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR, true freedom remains elusive as many of the former Soviet elite remain entrenched, stalling efforts at economic reform, privatization, and civic liberties.
Location: Eastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Poland and Russia
Geographic coordinates: 49 00 N, 32 00 E
Map references: Commonwealth of Independent States
Area: total: 603,700 sq km
land: 603,700 sq km
water: 0 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than Texas
Land boundaries: total: 4,558 km

border countries: Belarus 891 km, Hungary 103 km, Moldova 939 km, Poland 428 km, Romania (south) 169 km, Romania (west) 362 km, Russia 1,576 km, Slovakia 90 km
Coastline: 2,782 km
Maritime claims: continental shelf: 200-m or to the depth of exploitation
exclusive economic zone: 200 NM
territorial sea: 12 NM
Climate: temperate continental; Mediterranean only on the southern Crimean coast; precipitation disproportionately distributed, highest in west and north, lesser in east and southeast; winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland; summers are warm across the greater part of the country, hot in the south
Terrain: most of Ukraine consists of fertile plains (steppes) and plateaus, mountains being found only in the west (the Carpathians), and in the Crimean Peninsula in the extreme south
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Black Sea 0 m
highest point: Hora Hoverla 2,061 m
Natural resources: iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas, oil, salt, sulfur, graphite, titanium, magnesium, kaolin, nickel, mercury, timber, arable land
Land use: arable land: 58%
permanent crops: 2%
permanent pastures: 13%
forests and woodland: 18%
other: 9% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 26,050 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: NA
Environment - current issues: inadequate supplies of potable water; air and water pollution; deforestation; radiation contamination in the northeast from 1986 accident at Chornobyl' Nuclear Power Plant
Environment - international agreements: party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geography - note: strategic position at the crossroads between Europe and Asia; second-largest country in Europe
Population: 48,760,474 (July 2001 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 17.3% (male 4,310,158; female 4,127,677)
15-64 years: 68.57% (male 15,965,079; female 17,468,035)
65 years and over: 14.13% (male 2,275,004; female 4,614,521) (2001 est.)
Population growth rate: -0.78% (2001 est.)
Birth rate: 9.31 births/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Death rate: 16.43 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Net migration rate: -0.63 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.91 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.49 male(s)/female
total population: 0.86 male(s)/female (2001 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 21.4 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.)
Life expectancy at birth: total population: 66.15 years
male: 60.62 years
female: 71.96 years (2001 est.)
Total fertility rate: 1.29 children born/woman (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.96% (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 240,000 (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 4,000 (1999 est.)
Ethnic groups: Ukrainian 73%, Russian 22%, Jewish 1%, other 4%
Religions: Ukrainian Orthodox - Moscow Patriarchate, Ukrainian Orthodox - Kiev Patriarchate, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox, Ukrainian Catholic (Uniate), Protestant, Jewish
Languages: Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian
Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 98%
male: 100%
female: 97% (1989 est.)

Sept 20th,2002

VIINYSTA, Ukraine – Team USA found out the benefits of home-living when they visited the Ukraine for their final stop on its 4th annual World Cup promotional tour in Ukraine on Sept. 14 and 15.
Team USA easily won the 4-team tournament with a 12-0 victory over the Ukrainians in the championship game, but the most intriguing aspect of the tournament came off the field.
The American team was surprised by the cost of living in the Ukraine, which is one of the lowest in the world since its separation from the former USSR.
Irene Oliynyk, who was a FlagMag.com girl at the tournament, said her teacher’s salary is only $480 per year. The 24-year-old teaches English full-time for kids ages 6-12.
Oliynyk’s average pay per is about $40 per month, which only covers the cost of one month’s rent.
“I live in a one bedroom apartment, my rent is $40 a month, I have a roommate to share expenses,” she said. “My dream is to someday live in the USA.”
Despite the economic hardships, Oliynyk said she has just recently taken up flag football after watching the Ukrainian men’s team play and American football.
“I want to play and not embarrass myself,” she said. “The game is new to (my team).”
Poleena Maltseeva, who is a music major in college in the Ukraine, said she didn’t work and went to college full-time. And after eight years of studying she speaks English fluently, as well as having a good singing voice.
Maltseeva would like to become a singer in the United States eventually, but said she still needs to find her way here first.
Ukraine is nearly 5-to-1 women to men and she said it would be nice to meet a few Americans at the World Cup in the Bahamas.
“I will do everything possible to get there, I want to meet an American,” she said. “
The trip to the Bahamas would be a shock to Maltseeva, who said the current hot spot for youth in Vinnitsya is McDonalds.
“McDonalds, its the cultural hot spot in Vinnitsya,” she said. “We go there and hang out for two hours.”
The Ukrainian FlagMag.com girls’ interest in the United States is the prosperity it offers, and the vast increase in income. Most of them would like to go to school outside the country, but aren’t capable of covering the cost of living outside the Ukraine.
“I’m taking English classes at a local college, but I want to go to school outside of Ukraine,” FlagMag.com girl Jiliya Yeuchuk said. “I've applied in the Netherlands.
“I would love to go, but it’s impossible to get a visa. I need to show that I own property or that I have $10,000 in the bank. My only chance is to marry an American.”
Yeuchuk said she is going to make the trip to the Bahamas for the World Cup and is confident it will give here a chance to find a way to the United States.
“The USA is the land of opportunity,” Yeuchuk said. “There is no future in the Ukraine. It’s every Ukrainians dream to live in the USA.
“I want to be Miss FlagMag.com 2003, so I can tour the USA and play.”
Yeuchuk is 18 and an International Business major in Ukraine.

Carlos Munoz, Jr.

Team USA Roster
Billy Madden-Manchester,NH
Jim Zimolka-Londonderry,NH
Martin Haines-Montreal,PQ
Jean Duraocher-Montreal,OQ

Team Ukraine with Team USA



Team USA with 1st Place Trophys and Medals


MVP-Billy Madden


JIm ZImolka with Fans

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