Sports such as football and wrestling have been popular in Ukraine since the 19th century. Ukraine has benefited from the Soviet Union's emphasis on physical education, and Ukraine was left with hundreds of stadiums, swimming pools, gymnasiums, and other athletic facilities after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Football is the most popular sport in Ukraine. The strongest and highest-level league is the Ukrainian Premier League, which is also known as the Vyscha Liha (Top league). The second-ranking league is the Persha Liha or the Ukrainian First League. The next league down is the Second League or Druha Liha, which is divided into two groups, East(B) and West(A), according to their location. The fourth-level league is Amateur Level.

At the end of each season, the two lowest-ranking teams in the Vyscha Liha are relegated to the Persha Liha, while the two top teams of the Persha Liha are promoted to the Vyscha Liha. The two lowest-ranking Persha Liha teams are relegated to the Druha Liha, while the top two teams in the Druha Liha League are promoted to the Persha Liha. Teams receive three points if they win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss. Each team plays each other twice.

Ukraine (ⁱ/juːˈkreɪn/ yew-KRAYN; Ukrainian: Україна, transliterated: Ukrayina, [ukrɑˈjinɑ]; Russian: Украина; Crimean Tatar: Ukraina) is a country in Central and Eastern Europe. Ukraine borders the Russian Federation to the east and northeast, Belarus to the northwest, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after the Russian Federation.

According to a popular and well established theory, the medieval state of Kievan Rus was established by the Varangians in the 9th century as the first historically recorded East Slavic state which emerged as a powerful nation in the Middle Ages until it disintegrated in the 12th century. By the middle of the 14th century, Ukrainian territories were under the rule of three external powers—the Golden Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Kingdom of Poland. After the Great Northern War (1700–1721) Ukraine was divided between a number of regional powers and, by the 19th century, the largest part of Ukraine was integrated into the Russian Empire with the rest under Austro-Hungarian control. A chaotic period of incessant warfare ensued, with several internationally recognized attempts at independence from 1917 to 1921, following World War I and the Russian Civil War. Ukraine emerged from its own civil war, and on December 30, 1922 Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic became one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian SSR's territory was enlarged westward during the civil war shortly before, and after World War II, and further south in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding members of the United Nations.