The Evacuation Train. Rescue and a Humanitarian Mission

The evacuation train carries you ever further from your home. Alongside the carriages, villages, fields and forests rush past and fly away. The views beyond the window bring no joy at all, as they would in peacetime on a journey. In the half-darkness of the compartment mothers lull their children to sleep; ahead lies the unknown, but with it a deep faith in Victory and a hope of a swift return.

 

The Dobropillia Area. From Sviatohorivka to Dobropillia

The history of our people and our state has been denied and silenced since time immemorial, and to this day the enemy destroys our cultural heritage. Even the smallest village, the humblest of houses, has its own master and its own story, one that bears witness to the past and to memory, to the dignity and the morality of a person. We do not always treat our history with awe and respect; through rebuildings and innovations we destroy our moral bearings and our national traditions, and from generation to generation we pass on a deformed and distorted understanding and perception of our roots. 

Through the example of the villages of the Dobropillia area, let us look at how the historical and cultural monuments are being preserved, and at what the community has managed to keep alongside powerful agricultural and industrial enterprises.

 

The village of Dobropillia. Donetsk region

Bakhmut. A Tour of an Old Donetsk Town Before the War

Bakhmut, which in 2021 marked the 450th anniversary of its founding, is listed among the historic settlements of Ukraine. In a city with such epoch-spanning roots, tourists are frequent guests. At the sparkling wine factory off-site excursions are arranged regularly, with visits to the alabaster mines and a tasting of the sparkling drink, while spelunkers choose routes through the abandoned Ivanhrad gypsum adits. Connoisseurs of antiquity and of historic buildings will be surprised by the fact that Bakhmut boasts a far greater number of examples of civic architecture from the late 19th and early 20th centuries than other cities of the region.

 

Bakhmut. Nezalezhnosti Street, 60. The former Azov-Don Bank. 1902.

A Winter Hike. Climbing a Snow-Covered Terrikon

Few people go on winter hikes or walks along snow-covered roads. The short daylight hours and the whims of the weather make their own corrections to travellers' routes. But for those who have resolved on a brief bit of exercise and set off to stretch their bones on the city outskirts, nature will grant fantastic vistas, and a charge of vigour that will last through the whole of the coming working week. The fairy-tale white scenes and the winter freshness enchant and foster a good mood, and the second wind that opens up during the journey urges one to conquer white summits. If there are no mountain ranges nearby, hills and rocks will do. To climb a spoil heap, not sparing one's belly, is an ordinary matter for those who love to storm the cloud-high heights in the coal regions.

 

Malynivka. Folk Architecture and Green Corners

In Ukraine there are dozens of settlements named Malynivka. In almost every region there is a toponym formed from the name of the bright and fragrant berry. In the Donetsk region, judging by the articles on Wikipedia, there are no fewer than four Malynivkas, and one of them is located in the east of the Pokrovsk district.

Malynivka, Pokrovsk district, Donetsk region

Bakhmut I. A Station of Industrial Architecture

Bakhmut I station is a freight station of the Lyman division of the Donetsk Railway.

 

The Bakhmut I railway station. Donetsk Railway

Donetsk Region. Cultural Heritage in Ruins. An SOS

In the Donetsk region, as throughout Ukraine, historic buildings that are famous landmarks of towns and villages are collapsing, falling into decay, and burning down. The destruction of the historical and cultural layer of this industrial region has been going on for decades, and since the early 1990s the number of neglected sites among the pre-revolutionary buildings has increased considerably. Some of the houses have owners, but they are not concerned about the state of their priceless property. Not all the historic buildings that make up the architectural face of this industrial land, or are simply important for preserving memory, are under municipal protection. But even those that have been granted the status of monuments enjoy no special privileges, and protected status has added nothing for these former masterpieces. Genuine pearls, whose history spans more than a hundred years, have potential and could be the adornment of towns and objects on tourist routes. If these works of architecture, these industrial monuments, were saved and, with the help of investors, turned into museums, offices, shops, and art galleries, they would bring both aesthetic pleasure and practical benefit.

Prelesne, Donetsk region. The abandoned Bantysh estate

Avdiivka. The Terminal Station and Trackside Settlement

The freight-and-passenger railway station of Avdiivka is located in the town of the same name in the Donetsk region and belongs to the Krasnyi Lyman division of the Donetsk Railway.

 

Avdiivka railway station. Donetsk region.

Sloviansk. The 'Pryozernyi' Ornithological Reserve

The "Pryozernyi" ornithological reserve is located in the north-eastern part of Sloviansk , near residential estates and busy motorways. The location of a natural ecosystem within the city limits entails problems such as spontaneous rubbish dumps on the territory, noise from enterprises, disturbance of living organisms, and pollution of the soil and water by domestic sewage.

Sloviansk. The "Pryozernyi" ornithological reserve

The Ivanivka Village Council: Ivanivka, Vesele, Prohres

There are quite a few villages in Ukraine named in honour of the bearers of one of the most widespread names. Thanks to the enterprising and hard-working pioneers with the name Ivan, settlements and farmsteads named in memory of their founders appeared on the uninhabited lands in all the regions of our state. The village of Ivanivka in the Pokrovsk district of the Donetsk region is the centre of a village council to which small settlements are subordinated: Vesele, Vovche, Yevhenivka, Lysyche, Lozuvatske, Novotoretske, Prohres, Svyrydonivka, and Serhiivka.

Ivanivka and the Ivanivka village council. Pokrovsk district, Donetsk region.

The Samara River. Who Is Harming a Tributary of the Dnipro?

The Samara River, one of the largest tributaries of the mighty Dnipro, begins near the village of Mariivka in the Kramatorsk district of the Donetsk region. It covers a distance of 311 kilometres across three regions. From the Donetsk Ridge, this water artery of eastern Ukraine heads north-west to the Blyzniuky district of the Kharkiv region. Then it runs south-west and flows through the Dnipropetrovsk region, forming in its winding bed a multitude of lakes and oxbows.

 

The Samara River near the village of Dmytrivka, Dnipropetrovsk region

Ivanhrad. The Labyrinths of the Gypsum Adits

Ivanhrad is not a town but a small village with a single unnamed street, two kilometres from Bakhmut. The toponym comes from the name of the miller Ivan, to whose mill people came from all around on carts laden with grain. The huge hill on the south-eastern side of Ivanhrad is one of the worked-out gypsum mines of Bakhmut. The other lies within the city limits; a former alabaster mine houses the Artemivsk Sparkling Wine Factory.

 

Ivanhrad, Donetsk region. The abandoned gypsum adits

Ivanivske. The Manor Bathhouse. Cultural Heritage in Ruins

In a dense forest — neither beyond thrice-nine lands, nor in a thrice-tenth kingdom, but on the outskirts of the village of Ivanivske in the Bakhmut district — a wondrous wonder has been discovered.

Slavkurort. Awaiting the Revival of an Old Resort

Sloviansk resort is one of the oldest mud-cure resorts in Ukraine. Sloviansk has been known for its mineral waters and therapeutic muds since 1827. At the beginning of the 20th century, Sloviansk mud was recognised as the best in Europe and won the Grand Prix at an international exhibition. In Soviet times this resort of national importance was the most financially prosperous trade-union health resort.

 

Sloviansk resort. Donetsk region. The closed "Yuvileinyi" sanatorium

The Avdiivka Quarry. No Sea Needed. The Season Still Open

You have seas and lakes, and we have — a quarry. With emerald water and a velvet beach, with little islands and spits, a friendly public and welcoming locals. The worked-out sand quarry in Avdiivka is a popular spot of recreation for townsfolk and for the residents of the nearest towns.

 

Avdiivka. The sand quarry

Bilokuzmynivka. The Cliffs of Two Landscape Parks

I never compare our stunning landscapes and astonishing, spectacular panoramas with foreign natural monuments. The fawning turns of phrase heard in every region of Ukraine towards foreign curiosities, with invented names like "Rivne Iceland", "Donetsk Maldives", "Ukrainian Venice", "Zhytomyr Switzerland", and the like, are surprising. Perhaps our picturesque mountains and cliffs, lakes and rivers have not won worldwide fame, but they arouse no less admiration and are quite well known to the Ukrainian traveller. So let us cherish and popularise the tourist gems of our own country — the unrepeatable landscapes with their own peculiarities, history, and national colour. Ukraine will always remain Ukraine, without obsequiousness or servility, and in every region there are exotic places, wondrous locations that one wants to tell about and to show to guests and travellers.

In Donetsk region, one of the most inspiring landscapes, where you can draw a reserve of energy, opens out across the steppe expanses 10 kilometres south-east of Kramatorsk and 13 kilometres east of Druzhkivka.

 

The "Kramatorskyi" Regional Landscape Park. The Bilokuzmynivka section

Sloviansk. The Salt Lakes. Rest and Restore Your Strength

One of the most popular medicinal places in Ukraine, where people rest, restore their strength, and take the cure, can be considered the group of lakes in Sloviansk, Donetsk region. A priceless gift of nature — the only salt lakes of natural origin in Ukraine, located far from the sea's expanses, in the basin of the river Siverskyi Donets.

Glasswort. It Is Not as Simple as It Seems

It is not very well known, hardly ever used, grows underfoot, and has a simple name that defines its habitat — the glasswort. It has found its place in the sun where other plant species could not take hold, because of the high concentration of salt. It grows on salt marshes and sea shores, where the layer of humus is entirely absent.

 

The Avdiivka-Chaplyne Suburban Train

The suburban train is not a luxury but a means of transport. The electric train does not always keep to the schedule; one has to wait for it. Sometimes the train is uncomfortable, cold, or crowded, but for many of us the suburban train is vitally necessary, and there is no doing without it.

The Pokrovsk-Pavlohrad-Lozova Suburban Train

Suburban trains are not only a transport link between towns, but also a fascinating chance to travel to interesting places on a day off, to feel the union of nature and the steel highway. Trips by electric train have their own features: no crowds, no traffic jams, and the fare is cheaper. The Pokrovsk-Pavlohrad-Lozova suburban train links three regions - Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv.

 

Pokrovsk railway station. The Pokrovsk-Lozova suburban train