Ukraine is a sovereign state in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the east and northeast; Belarus to the northwest; Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively. Ukraine is currently in a territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2 (233,062 sq mi) making it the largest country entirely within Europe and the 46th largest country in the world. Excluding Crimea, Ukraine has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world.Transport in Ukraine includes ground transport, water, air transport, and pipelines. The transport sector accounts for roughly 11% of the country’s gross domestic product and 7% of total employment.Today the transportation sector in Ukraine generally meets only the basic needs of the economy and population. The level of safety, quality and efficiency of passenger and freight transportation, as well as the infrastructure’s amount of energy usage, and the technological burden it places on the environment do not meet modern-day requirements.Due to the low level of demand, the country’s existing transit potential and advantageous geographical position is not fully utilised. There is thus a lag in the development of transportation infrastructure, transportation and logistics technologies and multimodal transportation. All this has made Ukraine uncompetitive as the high costs of transportation across the country make the cost of production in the country uncommonly high.