UPSC Prelims 2023 Q61: Countries Bordering Ukraine — Explained

Consider the following countries:

1. Bulgaria

2. Czech Republic

3. Hungary

4. Latvia

5. Lithuania

6. Romania

How many of the above-mentioned countries share a land border with Ukraine?

  1. Only two
  2. Only three
  3. Only four
  4. Only five

Answer: (a) Only two

Statement-wise explanation

  • 1: incorrect — Bulgaria does not share a land border with Ukraine. Romania lies between them. Bulgaria's land neighbours are Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece and Turkey. Bulgaria and Ukraine both have a Black Sea coast, but a shared sea is not a land border.
  • 2: incorrect — The Czech Republic does not touch Ukraine. Slovakia lies between them; the two countries were one state, Czechoslovakia, until 1993. The Czech Republic's neighbours are Germany, Poland, Austria and Slovakia.
  • 3: correct — Hungary borders Ukraine to Ukraine's west, along the Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia) region beyond the Carpathians. With Poland and Slovakia, it is one of Ukraine's three western neighbours.
  • 4: incorrect — Latvia has no border with Ukraine. Latvia is a Baltic state. Its land neighbours are Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus and Russia. Belarus separates the Baltic states from Ukraine.
  • 5: incorrect — Lithuania does not border Ukraine. Lithuania's land neighbours are Latvia, Belarus, Poland and Russia's Kaliningrad exclave. Belarus lies between Lithuania and Ukraine.
  • 6: correct — Romania borders Ukraine to the southwest. The border has two separate parts, one on either side of Moldova: the Bukovina–Maramureș stretch in the north and the Danube delta stretch in the south.

How to eliminate

You can only answer this by knowing the map. Remember Ukraine's 7 land neighbours, going clockwise from the north: Belarus, Russia, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland. Some reasoning still narrows it down. Latvia and Lithuania are Baltic states, and Belarus lies between them and Ukraine. If you know that, you can drop both. Bulgaria is a trap: it shares the Black Sea with Ukraine but sits south of Romania. The Czech Republic is a second trap: it is often confused with Slovakia, which does border Ukraine. After removing these four, only Hungary and Romania are left. Watch for 'look-alike' distractors, where UPSC swaps a real neighbour for the country next to it (Czech Republic for Slovakia, Bulgaria for Romania, Lithuania for Belarus).

Know more

Ukraine and its neighbours

Ukraine is the largest country lying wholly in Europe. It has land borders with 7 countries. The Black Sea and the Sea of Azov lie to its south.

Direction Neighbour Notes
North Belarus Belarus separates Ukraine from Lithuania and Latvia
North-east, east Russia Longest land border; Crimea and the Sea of Azov coast lie in the south-east
South-west Moldova Includes the Transnistria strip
South-west Romania Two separate sections, either side of Moldova; includes the Danube delta
West Hungary Borders Zakarpattia, beyond the Carpathians
West Slovakia Shortest border; often confused with the Czech Republic
West Poland Main route for aid and refugees since 2022

Common traps

  • Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia: share the Black Sea with Ukraine but have no land border with it.
  • Czech Republic: separated from Ukraine by Slovakia.
  • Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia: separated from Ukraine by Belarus.

Ukraine's neighbours by group membership

  • Members of both NATO and the EU: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania.
  • EU candidate: Moldova.
  • Russia-aligned: Belarus.

This is why the 2022 evacuations and the movement of refugees ran mainly through Ukraine's four western neighbours.

Physical features to place on the map

  • The Carpathian Mountains in the west.
  • The Dnieper river runs through Kyiv to the Black Sea.
  • The Danube delta lies on the border with Romania.
  • The Crimean peninsula lies between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

How to revise: for each conflict zone in the news, learn its neighbours clockwise. Then note which neighbours are 'near-misses': countries that are close but do not touch it.

In the news

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. In February–March 2022, India ran Operation Ganga to evacuate its citizens. They were taken out overland through Ukraine's neighbours Romania, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, so these border countries were in the news ahead of the 2023 Prelims.