Since 1922, Ukraine was part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics under communist control, which restricted most religious institutions. Near the end of the Soviet Union, a new law was passed granting freedom of individual religious practice and allowing independent religious organizations. During this time of change, the first LDS missionaries arrived in Ukraine. The president of the Austria Vienna East Mission, Howard L. Biddulph, visited in June 1991 and Ukraine's first branch was organized in Kyiv with 40 members. In September of that year, Boyd K. Packer and Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visited, so that Packer could dedicate the nation for missionary preaching, and the LDS Church was officially registered with the Ukrainian government. In early 1992, shortly after Ukraine's withdraw from the Soviet Union, the Ukraine Kiev Mission was created with 35 missionaries, and Biddulph serving as its first president. Another mission was created in Donetsk in July 1993. Until September 2001 the LDS Church did not have its own meetinghouses in Ukraine, so church services were held in rented buildings with baptisms being performed in the Dnieper River or in swimming pools. In the early years, the church sought to offer aide to the Ukrainian nation by organizing humanitarian donations of food and clothing from members the United States and Germany in 1992–1993, and a large donation of medical supplies in 1995. The church announced in 1998 that it planned to construct a temple somewhere in Kyiv. This would be the second temple in Eastern Europe, after the Freiberg Germany Temple, which was the closest temple for Ukrainian members. However, construction was postponed due to delays in acquiring the needed land. Ground was finally broken in 2007, and the temple was completed and dedicated in August 2010. The Kyiv Ukraine Temple was to accommodate members from Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. On May 30, 2004, the Kyiv Ukraine Stake, Ukraine's first, was organized. During the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, all missionaries of the Ukraine Donetsk Mission were removed from the country and reassigned elsewhere. The rate of convert baptisms in Ukraine slowed significantly in recent years, leading the Ukraine L'viv Mission to be closed in 2018. In 2020, the LDS Church canceled services and other public gatherings indefinitely in response to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
