The Ukraine is in eastern Europe, and was formerly a part of the Soviet Union.  Its longest land border to the north and east, is with Russia, which once conquered the Ukraine and made it part of the Russian empire.  On the south, the Ukraine faces the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.  To the southeast, it borders Romania, Moldova, Romania again, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Belarus.  The Ukraine is the county wholly in Europe that extends the furthest to the east.  Though the Ukraine has a large fertile plain, much of its agricultural output is affected by contamination from the nuclear accident at Chernobyl.