Belarus–Ukraine relations
Belarus–Ukraine relations (, "Byelaruska-ŭkrainskiya adnosiny", , "Ukrains'ko-Bilorus'ki vidnosyny", , "Belorussko-ukrainskiye otnosheniya") are foreign relations between Belarus and Ukraine. Both countries were successively ruled by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Second Polish Republic, and ultimately, the Russian Empire. Prior to the 1991 breakup, both countries were part of the Soviet Union as the Belarusian SSR and Ukrainian SSR when they were the founding members of the United Nations in 1945. Being Slavic nations, both Belarus and Ukraine share closely related cultures and are predominantly inhabited by the East Slavic ethnic groups of Belarusians and Ukrainians respectively, along with a few Russians. Today, the two countries share an 891–km border.
Ukraine
The second largest Christian group in Ukraine, Catholicism, is predominantly represented by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in communion with the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church. It recognizes the primacy of the Pope as head of the Church while still maintaining a similar liturgical and spiritual tradition as Eastern Orthodoxy. Additionally, there are a small number of Latin Rite Catholic communities (1.0%). The church consists mainly of ethnic Poles and Hungarians, who live predominantly in the western regions of the country. Protestants in Ukraine make up 1.9% of the population as of 2016. A further 7.1% of the population declares to be simply Christian.