Crimean Greeks
Greeks in Ukraine
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 91,548 (2001) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Donetsk Oblast | 77,516 (2001) |
| Crimea | 2,795 (2001) |
| Zaporizhia Oblast | 2,179 (2001) |
| Odessa Oblast | 2,083 (2001) |
| other regions of Ukraine | 6,975 (2001) |
| Languages | |
| Russian (88.5%), Urum, Rumeíka | |
| Religion | |
|
|
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks | |
Greeks in Ukraine or Crimean Greeks are a Hellenic minority that reside in or used to live on the territory of modern Ukraine. Most of them live in Donetsk Oblast and particularly concentrated around the city of Mariupol.
According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census, there were 91,548 ethnic Greeks in Ukraine, or 0.2% of the population. However, the actual percentage of those with Greek ancestry is likely to be much higher due to widespread intermarriage between ethnic Greeks and those Ukrainian citizens who are Russian Orthodox, particularly in eastern Ukraine, as well as the absence of strong links to Greece or use of the Greek language by many with Greek ancestry in these areas and who therefore are not classified as Greeks in official censuses.
Greeks in Ukraine belong to the larger Greek diaspora known as Pontic Greeks.
A Greek presence throughout the Black Sea area existed long before the beginnings of Kievan Rus. For most of their history in this area, the history of the Greeks in Russia and in Ukraine forms a single narrative, of which a division according to present-day boundaries would be an artificial anachronism. Most present-day Greeks in Ukraine are the descendants of Pontic Greeks from the Pontus region between the fall of the Empire of Trebizond in 1461 and the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829.
Greeks established colonies on what are now the Ukrainian shores of the Black Sea as early as the 6th century BCE. These colonies traded with various ancient nations around the Black Sea, including Scythians, Maeotae, Cimmerians, Goths and predecessors of the Slavs. These earlier Greek communities had, however, assimilated into the wider, indigenous population of the region.
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