Liubizhnia. A Mountain River and the Liubizhnianskyi Huk

Look, the little mountain stream runs down,

It flows, it leaps down from the heights.

To her, proud to the very edge,

A peaceful life is beyond price.

But once she bursts out onto the valley,

She grows gentle forevermore.

You can't tell her apart from the flow

Of ordinary, untroubled rivers.

She drifts past, unhurried, by

Houses, forests, fields and ponds,

Dreamily leafing through

Her girlhood years.

19.06.2023  Alex Vinokur

Do you know what the foothill village of Deliatyn looks like from a bird's-eye view – emerald peaks cut through by valleys, in whose lowlands the Prut and its tributaries swirl in winding ribbons. The mountain stream Liubizhnia, a left tributary of the Prut, rises and is fed on the slope of the Carpathian ridge, where the mountains Studena Klyva and Vavtorova stand side by side; it flows eastward toward the central part of Deliatyn and forms the valley in which the settlement of the same name arose. With its stony bed and swift current, this blue ribbon of the Carpathians lays out its 16-kilometre course in the north-eastern Gorgany and hurries to meet its rebellious elder brother in the eastern part of Deliatyn.

 

Deliatyn. The Liubizhnia River

Protect the Beauty! Don't Pick the Spring Flowers!

The sun warms the earth, nature awakens from its winter sleep, and the world around comes to life and turns vivid. Sunbeams rouse the adornments of the forests – the first heralds of spring. We receive this priceless gift of nature every spring.

 

Crocus glades

Carpathian Forest. A Winter Walk to Recharge

A forest is always balm for the soul, a source of inspiration and reflection, and winter forest scenes amaze with their charm and stir the imagination.

Uhersko. The Lake of Geologists, a Natural Monument

Beside the M-06 highway, on the Stryi-Lviv stretch near the village of Uhersko, there is an artificially formed body of water in the shape of a circle.

 

Prutets Chemyhivskyi. A Carpathian River, a Blue Ribbon

Great rivers absorb numerous streams along their course and are fed by the resources of small rivers. The Prutets Chemyhivskyi river is a right tributary and one of the main tributaries of the Prut, in the Danube basin. 

 

Prutets Chemyhivskyi, Nadvirna district, Ivano-Frankivsk region

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.

 

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

The Oak. Patriarch of the Forest and Natural Monument

A mighty oak, an age-old oak  

Stands there beside the ravine. 

It has flung out its leafy forelock, 

Its brow touches the cloud.

Its boughs have been bent since time began, 

Its bark is as if of steel. 

In the forest, from afar, to the grandfather 

The trees are bowing down. 

(Mariia Pryhara) 

In the forest, among birches and poplars, it stands out with its mighty trunk, its curly crown and its carved leaves.

Lviv. Enerhetychna Street. A monument oak. Trunk girth 5 m

Where the Kazennyi Torets river begins

"A river begins from a small stream" - everyone knows the lines from the children's song. So where does the Kazennyi Torets river, an important blue highway of the Donetsk land, take its beginning?

 

The Kazennyi Torets gully. A pond in the bed of the Kazennyi Torets river. Pokrovsk district, Donetsk region

Avdiivka. The Worked-Out Sand Quarry, a Recreation Zone

In the industrial Donbas, not rich in water resources, a worked-out sand quarry on the eastern side of Avdiivka has become a popular place of rest.

Avdiivka. The sand quarry

Lozova. The Druzhba Arboretum, a Green Friend

In modern towns, wholesale construction leaves less and less space for the green islands that produce oxygen and create saving shade. Ukraine has 57 arboretums, most of them created 20-40 years ago on the site of old forest parks. The Druzhba arboretum in the town of Lozova, Kharkiv region, was founded in the 1930s, and over its almost 100-year history it has changed its structure, its name, its status and its popularity.

 

Lozova, Kharkiv region.  The Druzhba arboretum

Climbing a Terrikon. The Summit of a Miners' Barrow

Terrikons in a mining region have always been symbols of the miners' settlements; without them the industrial landscape of the Donbas is impossible to imagine. These "dark barrows" lure conquerors of summits and lovers of contemplating town panoramas from a bird's-eye view. Climbing the newer waste heaps carries a danger - the rock mass goes on burning out, giving off gas and forming voids. The little old extinct volcanoes of long-closed mines are conquered constantly; the ascent has become an ordinary walk to a rock peak, and enthusiasts have created their own kind of health trails.

 

The terrikon of mine No. 5-6. Myrnohrad, Donetsk region

Sviatohorivka. The Holy Springs of Donbas

Since ancient times springs have been considered the beginning of life; from them flow rivers both small and great. In the Donbas, not rich in water resources, springs are a gift of nature and a kind of indicator of the ecological state of the area. Springs need revival and protection from man-made impact. Sadly, in recent years we have seen healing springs grow shallow and disappear, and so examples of careful treatment of these protected corners deserve attention.

 

Sviatohorivka, Donetsk region. The Life-Giving Spring

The Prosiana Kaolin Quarry. Winter Scenery

There are places on earth that draw you with a magic force and enchant at any time of year. Hikes to the abandoned Prosiana kaolin quarry in the summer and autumn period left unforgettable impressions. But the artist-winter transforms nature with special magic, and one wants to see its tricks after the noticeable frosts and the snowfalls that have been rare in recent years.

The Siverskyi Donets River

Rivers, like people, are born, grow and gather strength, find their path in life and their protecting banks, have their own character and interests, work and rest, feel care and suffer from pain. Their tributaries, like a person's friends, strive to meet, so as to overcome obstacles together. Sometimes abysses seize them, but after the whirlpools follow little islands of well-being and prosperity. The Siverskyi Donets is the largest river in the east of Ukraine and the seventh largest on the country's territory.

 

The Siverskyi Donets river. Sviatohirsk, Donetsk region.

Prosiana. The Kaolin Quarry 2020 and Other Sights

The rapid development of the mining industry brought with it the working of quarries, which after exploitation now stand abandoned, harming the surrounding environment, polluting water and air, and destroying the soil-and-vegetation layer.

The 'Sukhareva Balka' Reserve. A Natural Monument

In 2013, with the aim of preserving the landscape and biological diversity in the Mezhova district of the Dnipropetrovsk region, the "Sukhareva Balka" landscape reserve was created.