Geography of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine and the world: similarities and differences

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has its own geography, reflected in the spatio-temporal model of its regional evolution, with uneven and spatially differentiated worldwide spread. The global nature of the coronavirus pandemic makes it impossible to study its evolution in a single country in isolation from global realities. Comparison of the dynamics of growth in the number of detected cases of coronavirus infection in the world and Ukraine shows that the pandemic is wave-like, but the amplitude, period and length of the variations barely match. Each of the waves of the pandemic in the world and Ukraine had its own characteristics in the spatial and temporal differentiation of the disease parameters, which was determined by various and multidirectional factors. Based on the results of the geospatial analysis, a zoogeographical map of Ukraine’s zoning according to the epidemiological course of the COVID-19 pandemic was constructed, which reflects the spatial differentiation of the pandemic parameters, which is associated with various and multidirectional factors that determine the course of the epidemic, the main ones being: population density and spatial mobility, as well as the peculiarities of regional governance.