Rivers, big rivers. They can be political borders – think of the Rhine – when it marked the ‘civilised’ Roman Empire to the south, from the dark world of the ‘barbarians’ to the north. Or big rivers can become the arteries of countries. Think of the Mississippi. They can flicker back and forwards between these two states in time and space. They can also act in more mystical ways. In ancient times they were often seen as the embodiment of Gods and Goddesses. Then, in the mid 19th century, when Nationalism took off across Europe and the United States”, the historian Tricia Cusack has written about how ‘riverscapes’ “played an important role on transforming the abstract idea of the nation into a potent visual image”.
So let’s look at the Dnipro, the longest river in Ukraine, and the fourth-largest in Europe – after the Volga, Danube, and Ural (for a very good geography and history of the Dnipro, read Roman Cybriwsky’s ‘Along Ukraine’s River’).
Around 400,000 -129,000 years ago, a corner of the vast northern ice sheet extended into what is now the north of Ukraine. It was probably oozing down the upper drainage of the Dnipro River – hinting that the river had existed even before that. The ancient history of Ukraine’s river is being clarified by researchers like Andrei Matoshko, of the country’s National Academy of Sciences, and his colleagues (e.g. Matoshko, 2004; Matoshko et al., 2002). As the ice sheet melted and retreated at end of the ice-age (around 10,000 years ago), it carried a vast amount of sediment south, to the Black Sea. It reached those waters in an embayment, with the Crimean Peninsula to the east, and the port of Odesa to the west. There it built up the Dnipro Delta – a complex network of islands, waterways, and wetlands.
In Kyivan Rus times, around 980-1054 AD, the entire length of the Dnipro was under its control – and virtually the entire western part of the catchment. It was the artery of the Viking’s kingdom, with the town of Kyiv growing on its banks. Then the Zaporozhian Cossacks used islands in the Dnipro as their strongholds, while the Crimean Tartars controlled the downstream part.
The borders of Ukraine have fluctuated over time, but in each of its various incarnations, such as the 1922-1991 ‘Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic’, the Dnipro has flowed through the centre (the territory of Ukraine includes the catchments of several other rivers). Although it almost divided the nation in half, Ukrainian nationalists promoted the river as a unifier – the Dnipro became Ukraine’s ‘national river’ (as the Volga became Russia’s). Ukraine’s national poet, Taras Shevchenko, wrote extensively about the Dnipro, calling it the “great and mighty” river. That descriptor is less apt now, as Soviet megalomania has turned the river into a series of lakes behind hydro-electric dams.
The catchment of the Dnipro River. Map by the author (Mike Pole)
Culturally, the terms ‘Right Bank’ and ‘Left Bank’ arose to describe regions on either side of Ukraine’s Dnipro (although they apply to the historic core – not to the entire country of today). There are certainly cultural and political differences between eastern and western Ukraine. For example, Russian tends to be the prominent language in the east, and in Odesa, near the mouth of the Dnipro. That’s partly an outcome of a colonial past – Russian being required for social advancement in areas like government and academia. The east and south became more ‘Russified’ than the west.
To further its goals, Russia does its best to manipulate these trends, and thus portray the Dnipro as a divider (spoiler alert – Russia doesn’t want the ‘Russian-speaking territory on the left bank. They simply want the destruction of the Ukrainian state).
Right now (February 2025), as Russia brutally tries to destroy Ukraine, the Dnipro has become a central feature in the war. It’s still a formidable military barrier. To get around the obstacle three years ago – Russia tried to invade from a third country – Belarus. Freedom of access through there meant that one of Russia’s invasion fronts came directly from the north, effectively on the right bank. That attempt didn’t go well, and attacks towards the left bank in the north, also lost momentum in the face of determined Ukrainian resistance.
In Kyiv today, if you walked across the Parkovy Pedestrian Bridge to Trukhaniv Island (see the featured image), you could hop on a tractor tube or li-lo, and paddle out into the Dnipro (not recommended in winter!). But be you’d need to be careful not to doze off. Eventually, if you drifted long enough – you’d pass the cities of Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. Life would get dangerous, as they are almost on the front-line.
Right now, heavy is fighting going on along that front, between Ukrainian and Russian forces. In this winter cold (February, 2025), Ukrainian soldiers – men and women, are fighting to hold back wave after wave of Russian attacks. Here are a couple of quotes, forwarded to me a few days ago (by a Ukrainian friend, who went to school with these men) from soldiers who are out in the Kharkiv region. They are members of the “BAK Strike Group” – working with kamikaze drones:
“I was born in eastern Ukraine, my city was occupied back in 2014. From my position where I am on combat duty, I can see my house, where I grew up, where my used parents to live, where I went to school. I wonder if I will ever visit it again.”
And:
“When my city was occupied in 2014, I was still a teenager and stayed in the Russian-controlled territory because my parents did not want to move, but wanted to stay on their land. My older brother left immediately, and I followed him four years later. My parents have changed a lot over the years and started supporting Russia. In 2022, I mobilized to the Ukrainian army and am still serving, although at first I was very afraid because I even have a passport of the Russian republic. I am both shocked and surprised by the thought that my former classmates are fighting on the other side.”
These men are standing in trenches, dug-outs, or, for a few of them, recovering in hospital beds in preparation to be sent back to the front again. As you can read, they demonstrate some of the complexities that ‘control of the information space’ has created. Such is reality. These guys are fighting for the survival of their state, their way of life, their identity, against a neigbour state that wants rid of them. Ukrainians, rather than supporting their Army at a national level, tend to support individual military units (perhaps those ones full of old class-mates). It’s a sign of their independent, ‘cossack’ way of thinking. Very different to Russia.
The various units of the Ukrianian military are fighting a tough battle, in brutal conditions, with limited resources. They are now grappling with the additional shock of hearing America tell them that in 2022 they should have rolled over, and submitted themselves to an authoritarian and increasingly totalitarian regime.
Despite those broad ‘east bank and right bank differences across Ukraine, the Dnipro remains as a symbol of national unity. Likewise, America’s shock announcement that it is siding with Russia, may yet have an unforeseen consequence – the rallying of national unity around Zelenskyy as well.
We will see.
Help Ukrainian soldiers!
If you like this post, and would like to directly help that ‘BAK Strike Group’ – here are some links you can use for donations:
They are specifically trying to buy portable ‘power stations’ (the EcoFlow DELTA 2) and goggles to fly FPV drones (Skyzone sky 04). FPV drones are the tools used to defeat enemy targets in combat zone. Often their maximum range in standard assemblies does not allow them to cover long distances. The unit’s constant needs are met by volunteers, those who are not indifferent and those who regularly help and donate.
The money will go towards these devices.
🔗 Link to a monobank.ua account
https://send.monobank.ua/jar/86CJwwg9rs
💳A Bank card number
4441 1111 2056 4640
Donate to the BAK Strike Group via PayPal
References
For a more detailed history and geography of the Dnipro, try:
Cybriwsky, R.A. 2018. Along Ukraine’s River – A Social and Environmental History of the Dnipro. Central European University Press.
For a discussion on how rivers have been used by ‘Nationalism’ (not specifically about Ukraine of the Dnipro, but quite relevant) read:
Cusack, T. 2010. Riverscapes and National Identities. Syracuse University Press.
Matoshko, A.V. 2004. Pleistocene glaciations in the Ukraine. Developments in Quaternary Sciences, 2, 431-439.
Matoshko, A.V., Gozhik, P.F., and Shuying, D. 2002. The fluvial archive of the Middle and Lower Dnieper (a review). Netherlands Journal of Geosciences, Geologie en Mijnbouw, 81, 339 – 355. DOI: https://doi.org/310.1017/S0016774600022642.
