Dnieper

Dnieper is one of the longest rivers in Europe, flowing through the territory of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The total length of the river after straightening the channel is 2200 kilometers.

The origins of the river are on the Valdai Upland in the Okovsky Forest. Mighty rivers such as Volga and Dvina also originate in this forest. The Dnieper is low-water to the city of Dorogobuzh and its width is only 30 meters, downstream to Orsha it expands to 120 meters, then it flows along limestone rocks, forming Kobelyatsky rapids. From Kiev to Dnepropetrovsk, the banks of the river are completely opposite - the right bank is high ( up to 150 meters ) and steep, and the left is low and gentle, covered with coniferous forests. The width of the river in these places is 200-1200 meters. The Dnieper has long been very important for trade, through it passed the waterway "from Varangians to Greeks", connecting the Baltic and Black Seas. The riverbed has changed significantly after the construction of reservoirs, among which the largest Kakhov and Dniprovsky reservoir. Kakhovskoye is also called the sea. Before the construction of reservoirs and locks, it was impossible to swim along the thresholds of the river.

With the construction of dams, the water level in the river level level level level leveled, turning it into a network of ponds and locks. Thanks to locks, ships up to 270 meters long can sail to the Kiev port, creating an additional source of income for the country. The Dnieper freezes evenly from north to south, and ice is opened, on the contrary, because of which in spring there are practically no floods from ice congestion.

Almost all fish found in Ukraine live in the Dnieper - over 70 species, but due to water regime disruption, most species live in the lower reaches of the river. Carps, ram, bream, pike, sazan, soms, golavl, sterlass, sturgeon, salmon, beluga are found in them. Over the period of existence of dams, the number of industrial fish has significantly decreased. The rest of the species are called garbage due to their small size. In the 1950s, up to 80% of all fish caught in the USSR ( 7-11 thousand tons ) were caught in the Dnieper. Today, the volume of caught fish does not exceed 7,000 tons per year.