Dnipropetrovsk or Dnepropetrovsk, originally Ekaterinoslav, is Ukraine's third largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is 391 kilometres (243 mi) southeast of the capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central part of Ukraine. Dnipropetrovsk is the administrative centre of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Administratively, it is incorporated as a city of oblast significance, the centre of Dnipropetrovsk municipality and extraterritorial administrative centre of Dnipropetrovsk Raion.
The city is home to the Yuzhmash, a major space and ballistic missile design bureau and manufacturer. Dnipropetrovsk is a powerhouse of Ukraine's business and politics as the native city for many of the country's most important figures. Ukraine's politics are still defined by the legacies of Leonid Kuchma, Pavlo Lazarenko and Yuliya Tymoshenko whose intermingled careers started in Dnipropetrovsk.
