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Its name translated literally as "on the border," Ukraine was long considered merely to be the edge of the Russian Empire. It is now the second-largest country in Europe, after Russia. An independent Ukrainian state was established in 1918, but was overrun the following year by Russian forces from the east and Polish forces from the west. In 1991, Ukraine again became independent. The country is divided between the nationally conscious and Ukrainian-speaking west (including areas which were part of Poland until World War II) and the east, which has a large ethnic Russian population.