9781422269794

Northern Ukraine CHAPTER

The main geographical feature of Northern Ukraine is the Dnieper River. The third longest river in Europe, the Dnieper starts in Belarus and flows down the center of Ukraine all the way to the Black Sea, a dividing mark between the eastern and western regions. Most of Ukraine is located on the East European Plain, the second-largest plain on the planet, behind only the Amazonian plain in South America. The steppes (dry, grassy plains) in Ukraine are not uniformly flat and include lowlands and highlands, especially around the numerous rivers of the north, which are part of the Dnieper basin. While the weather in the northern region is influenced by both the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean, the main climate driver is the network of rivers, which is the backbone of the area’s temperate climate. Summers are long and warm, winters are cold, and spring and autumn are mild. Kyiv Throughout Ukraine, most oblasts share the same name as their primary city, and that is true with Kyiv. Kyiv (kee EV) city is in the Kyiv oblast, one of the first five formed when Ukraine became a Russian state in the early twentieth century. The city, however, has

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