Dnipropetrovsk or Dnepropetrovsk, formerly Yekaterinoslav is Ukraine's fourth largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located southeast of Ukraine's capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central part of the country. Dnipropetrovsk is the administrative centre of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.Within the Dnipropetrovsk Metropolitan area the population is about 1,004,000 to 1,360,000 people.A vital industrial centre of Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk was one of the key centres of the nuclear, arms, and space industries of the Soviet Union. In particular, it is home to the Yuzhmash, a major space and ballistic missile design bureau and manufacturer. Because of its military industry, Dnipropetrovsk was a closed city until the 1990s.Dnipropetrovsk is a powerhouse of Ukraine's business and politics as the native city for many country's top-importance figures. Ukraine's politics is still defined by the legacy of Leonid Kuchma, Pavlo Lazarenko and Yuliya Tymoshenko whose intermingled careers started in Dnipropetrovsk.
