The first human settlements emerged on the territory of Ukraine in the early Paleolithic era. The pebble industries of the sites of the Southern coast of the Crimea such as Echki-Dag, Gaspra and others belong to the Olduvai culture. In the period of the so-called Mousterian culture, the territory of Ukraine was occupied by Neanderthals. Researchers have found more than 300 sites and burials of Neanderthals, mainly in the mountainous regions of Transcarpathia, Carpathians, Nadporozhya, Crimea.
More than 10 thousand years ago there was a transition from the Paleolithic to the Mesolithic, which coincided with the melting of the Pleistocene glacier and the beginning of a new geological epoch – the Holocene. There was general warming, and an increase in population. However, the crisis of the appropriating Mesolithic economy gradually forced people to embark on reproducing forms: agriculture and cattle breeding. This contributed to the invention of ceramics. A new Neolithic era began, which lasted for 6-4 millennia BC. The landscape division of Ukraine into the forest, forest-steppe and steppe zones was stabilized, and the humus cover of the land was formed. The Neolithic cultures of Ukraine were influenced by the achievements of the cells of the Middle East, which were imported mainly through the Balkan Peninsula and the Danube region.
In the subneolithic part of the modern territory occupied by the Dnieper-Donetsk culture and the Neolithic period is represented by the agricultural and herding Tripoli culture. On the territory of Ukraine, monuments of the pit culture of the 3rd — 2nd millennium BC are found, which is later replaced by the Catacomb and Middle Dnieper cultures.
About 1500 BC nomadic tribes appeared on the territory of Ukraine. One of them was the Cimmerians ( IX – VII century BC ), which are mentioned in written sources. Scythians, Iranian-speaking people from Central Asia, in the VII century BC pushed the Cimmerians from the Ukrainian steppes. Around the same period, the Greeks began to establish the first colonies in the Northern Black Sea region. Scythians created the first centralized state in Ukraine. About 200 BC Scythians displace Sarmatians. Other notable mentions are the Bosporan Kingdom, Greeks in pre-Roman Crimea, and Roman Crimea. We have a whole article based on them.
For the period of the Bronze Age, the Belogrudov culture is characteristic of the territories of the suthwestern part. Zarubintsy culture is characteristic of the north-west of the Kiev region of the second half of I millennium BC.
The Iron Age on the territory of modern Kiev and the Kiev region is represented by the Chernyakhov archeological culture, which is also called the “Kiev culture” which existed at the turn of the II – III – the turn of the IV – V centuries.
More In the III century AD on the territory of Ukraine, the Goths moved here, which created their own kingdom – the second state entity on the territory of Ukraine. In 375, the Goths were defeated by the Huns, who according to a number of sources entered into an alliance with the Slavic Antes and Sklavins, and moved to the West. The Hun power, having suffered several defeats from the Romans and allies, loses its strength and later disintegrates.
After the invasion of the Huns, control over the territory of Ukraine passes to the Slavic tribes of the Antes and Sklavins, represented respectively by the Penkovo and Prague-Korchak archaeological cultures. At the end of the 7th century, the Prague-Korchak culture in the eastern part of its range is replaced by the Raykovetsky culture, which existed until the end of the 9th century. In the second half of the 1st millennium, part of the territory of Ukraine was part of the Avar Kaganate, and later most of the territory became dependent on the Khazar Kaganate.
Sources:
Efimenko A. Ya. The history of Ukraine and its people
Subtelny O. Ukraine: history
Yaroslav Gritsak . Formulary Modern Ukraine Nation
Mikhailo Grushevsky. History of Ukraine-Rus.