Dnieper

Where is the Dnieper?

The river starts here: Valdai Hills in Russia.

It ends in the Dnieper-Bug estuary, Black Sea.

Countries on the river: Belarus, Ukraine.

The story behind it

In Belarus the Dnieper is a calm, broad river that slides between sandy banks, pine woods and wide meadows. In spring, when the snow melts, it spreads over the flat land and turns the meadows into shining lakes, where storks step carefully through the water looking for frogs. Beavers build their lodges in quiet side arms and herons wait among the reeds. In winter the surface can freeze so hard that the ice creaks in the cold. People have used this river for more than a thousand years: old trading boats travelled along it between the northern forests and the warm south, and towns such as Mahilyow grew on its banks. Ferries, barges and fishing boats still work here, and in summer families come down to the sandy shore to swim. Further south, in Ukraine, the river is called Dnipro. It cuts right through the country from north to south and divides many towns into a left and a right bank. Kyiv, the capital, sits on its hills, and ships, ferries and long bridges cross the water every day. Further downstream huge dams turn the river into a chain of reservoirs so wide that the opposite shore can disappear in haze. Once there were dangerous rapids here where boats had to be dragged over rocks; today they lie beneath the lakes. Catfish, pike and perch live in the deep water, and cranes and storks rest in the reedy marshes. The river supplies drinking water, electricity and fish to millions of people.