Ukrainians love McDonald’s. The McDonald’s next to the main train station in Kyiv is claimed to be the third busiest in the world. https://twitter.com/parker__farquer/status/1248710144927518720

Ukrainians are pretty big on easter eggs. Less so, stuffing their faces with low-quality chocolate: they favour more intricate designs using wax on ornaments known as pysankas. Different regions of the country have different styles and methods of decoration.

Ukraine was home to one of the world’s first ever constitutions, in the form of the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk, written by a Ukrainian Cossack (represent!) in 1710.

It established a democratic standard for the separation of powers in government between the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches; an idea perhaps made more famous by Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws, which was published in 1748.

Lviv is home to 1,500 cafes, the most per capita of any city in the world. Chew on that Vienna. @gremisch

Native Ukrainians rarely smile in public. Or on twitter as you may have noticed.

Taras Kulakov, the YouTube sensation known as “Crazy Russian Hacker,” was actually born in Ukraine. While living there, he was a member of the Ukrainian Olympic swimming team.

There are only 86.3 men for every 100 women in Ukraine. This is the sixth-lowest men-to-women ratio in the world, with the average ratio being 101.8 men for every 100 women.

In 1933, the Soviet government refused to respond to a grain famine that occurred across Ukraine, which resulted in the death of 15% of Ukraine’s population, approximately 4.8M people.

During the grain famine of the 1930s, some 2,000 Ukrainians were arrested for cannibalism.

Crimea became an official part of modern Ukraine in 1954, when Soviet leader Kruschev transferred the area from Russia to the Ukrainian Republic as a symbol of their “eternal friendship.”

“Eternal” right.

22% of Ukrainian workers’ pay is deducted in the form of a “salary fee” that goes toward the pensions of retired Ukrainians.

Ukraine has declared actor Steven Seagal a national security risk and banned him from the country.

Proof that we’re one step ahead of the rest of the world. And @tomsegura deserves Ukrainian citizenship for trying to warn everyone.

Thousands of Jews were offered protection by Ukrainian religious leaders during the World War II. One of the leaders, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky was honored in 2013 by the Anti-Defamation League for his humanitarian role. Jews found refuge in monasteries and Ukrainian homes.

Catherine the Great and some of her successors advocated increasing German immigration into Ukraine following the Russo-Turkish War in the late 1700s. The primary objective was to dilute the country’s demographic, which was characterized by a dominant Turk population.

Ukrainian folk music is famous for its distinctive use of minor keys. It is influenced by Cossack traditions which were incorporated during earlier phases of the country's history.

A scheme to improve border security between Ukraine and neighbours Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia was abandoned when Ukraine was unable to make changes required by the European Union, a problem that continues to limit accession prospects.

Borscht is the national dish, and has become known worldwide. Fun fact: I hate beets.

In Ukrainian, vodka is known as horilka. Fun fact: I love it.

Bread and mayonnaise are often consumed at every meal. Don’t judge.

Ukrainian Dmitriy Khalazhi has held an amazing 63 Guinness World Records for stunts such as laying on a bed of nails with 700kg plates on top of him which were then smashed with hammers, and being run over by tractors and lorries. Each to their own…

Perceptions of Ukraine as an exotic, Eastern country has roots in old stereotypes about the USSR that persist to this day. The centre of Europe lies within Ukraine’s borders, and there is much about Ukrainian culture and traditions that immediately strike Westerners as familiar.

In western Ukraine, in particular, there are areas that have been incorporated in other European states, such as the Austro-Hungarian empire, and which bear the hallmark of this Central European influence to this day.

It is true that the majority of Ukrainians like salo and eat it quite often (guilty). However, the average Ukrainian eats no more than 18 kilograms of pork a year, which is a third of the amount eaten by the average German.

Still, Ukrainians’ fondness for pork fat is evident in its trade statistics: Ukraine annually imports up to 70,000 tons of lard from Germany, Hungary, and Poland. So this myth is pretty close to reality.

Christmas celebrations in Ukraine are events full of unique customs. The day is marked by a 12-course meal. Each family’s youngest child watches through the window for the first evening star to appear, a signal that the feast can begin.

It is also tradition to adorn the Christmas trees with spiders and spider webs. It is believed that the webs will bring good fortune and luck for the upcoming year.

In March 1939, the autonomous region of Carpatho-Ukraine experienced three regimes in 36 hours: a Czechoslovak region until breakfast time, an independent republic proclaimed later that morning, and invasion and occupation by Hungary the following afternoon.

Spelling Ukraine’s capital as Kiev, rather than Kyiv, is discouraged. This is because Kiev is the Russian transliteration of the word, while Kyiv is the Ukrainian one.

The 2003 Law on Protection of Public Morals, which was ratified by the President in 2009, prohibits the production, distribution, broadcasting, transportation, import and advertising of any pornographic material.

The Ministry of Justice has conceded that porn may be retained “for medical purposes”.

I’ve got my doctor’s note just to be safe.

Ukraine is the fourth most educated nation in the world. 99,4% of Ukrainian over 16 years old know how to write and 70% of population have higher education.

In 1934 in Paris, at the competition for the beauty of languages, the Ukrainian language took the third place after French and Persian according to such criteria as phonetics, vocabulary, phraseology, sentence structure.

The oldest known map, as well as the most ancient settlement of Homo Sapiens were found in Ukraine: in the village of Mezhyrichya of the Rivne region. They are about 14.5–15 thousand years old. The map was indented on the bone of the mammoth.

During the Anglo-Boer War (South Africa) in 1899–1902, the commander of one of the detachments of the Boers, Ukrainian Yuriy Budyak, rescued one young English journalist. Subsequently, the latter helped Budyak to join Oxford University.

In 1917, Yuri worked in the government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. In 1943, Yuriy Budyak died in Soviet concentration camp. The English journalist? Winston Churchill.

Almost 35 years after the Chernobyl meltdown, radiation makes farming and forestry too dangerous in the area, Ukraine is working on plans to turn the Chernobyl zone into a massive solar farm.

A sign language interpreter in Ukraine courageously defied state censors in 2004 by signing to her deaf viewers the true winner of the presidential election.

During a campaign to remove statues of Vladimir Lenin, Ukraine changed “Lenin Street” to “John Lennon Street”.

Inside one of State symbols of the President of Ukraine, there is a hidden blade, with the engraved motto on it “Omnia revertutur” (everything returns).

Better than some golden mace.

The worlds longest police chase lasted over two days and was 620 miles long. It started in Germany and ended in Ukraine.

And I thought 5-star chases in Grand Theft Auto were bad.

In Ukraine, pumpkins are a symbol of rejection.

Trick or treat?

A journalist named Walter Duranty wrote a series of reports denying that mass starvation in Ukraine (the Holodomor) was taking place. For that, he won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize in correspondence. To this day, the New York Times still refuses to relinquish the award.

Fred Durst, the lead singer of Limp Bizkit, is banned from Ukraine due to his political views.

Keep Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ on by dude.

Samaritans (a religious group numbering ~800 people) imported mail order brides from Ukraine to diversify their gene pool and prevent inbreeding.