Industry

The Industrial Revolution came to Ukraine slowly at first, but large scale industrialisation began to take place from the end of the 19th century. Stalin's acceleration of the industrial development of the USSR before the Second World War had a significant impact in Ukraine: between 1928 and 1937 Ukraine's industrial output increased by a factor of about 3.4 (Western estimates) to 5.5 (official Soviet statistics). Soviet Ukraine's industrial capacity was technologically advanced, being heavily geared towards military use. Following independence, however, a drastic reduction in military orders and the general economic situation in the country led to a decline in Ukraine's industrial output. In 1998 the value of industrial production was only half of the 1990 level, but has been recovering since then.

In 2005 Ukraine's largest industrial sectors, in terms of value of gross production sold, were as follows:

Metallurgy and metals processing	22.1%
Food and agricultural goods processing	16.3%
Electricity, gas and water prodn & distn	15.9%
Machine building	12.7%
Coke and refined petroleum products	9.4%
Mining	8.3%
Chemicals	6.4%

The 'machine building' sector includes space, aviation, shipbuilding, electronics and other high technology industries.