Azov Sea in the context of "List of rivers of Ukraine"

The Southern Federal District (Russian: Южный федеральный округ, IPA: [ˈjuʐnɨj fʲɪdʲɪˈralʲnɨj ˈokrʊk]) is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. Its territory lies mostly on the Pontic–Caspian steppe of Southern Russia. The Southern Federal District shares borders with Ukraine, the Azov Sea, and the Black Sea in the west, and Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea in the east.

Catherine II (born Princess Sophia Augusta Frederica, Russian: Екатерина Алексеевна Романова; 2 May 1729 – 17 November [O.S. 6 November] 1796), commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after a coup d'etat against her husband, Peter III. Her long reign helped Russia thrive under a golden age under the Enlightenment. This renaissance led to the founding of many new cities, universities, and theatres, along with large-scale immigration from the rest of Europe and the recognition of Russia as one of the great powers of Europe.

After overthrowing and possibly assassinating her husband and her subsequent rule of the Russian Empire, Catherine often relied on noble favourites such as Count Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin. Assisted by highly successful generals such as Alexander Suvorov and Pyotr Rumyantsev and admirals such as Samuel Greig and Fyodor Ushakov, she governed at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding rapidly by conquest and diplomacy. In the west, she installed her former lover to the throne of Poland, which was eventually partitioned. In the south, the Crimean Khanate was annexed following victories over the Bar Confederation and the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War. With the support of Great Britain, Russia colonised the territories of New Russia along the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas. In the east, Russians became the first Europeans to colonise Alaska, establishing Russian America.

The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic, Eastern Christian people, originating from the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Russia, countering the Crimean-Nogai raids, alongside economically developing steppe regions north of the Black Sea and around the Azov Sea. Historically, they were a semi-nomadic and semi-militarized people, who were allowed a great degree of self-governance in exchange for military service under the nominal suzerainty of various Eastern European states. Although numerous ethnic, linguistic and religious groups came together to form the Cossacks, most of them gradually coalesced and Slavicized, thereby adopting East Slavic culture, East Slavic languages and Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

The rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russian Empire endowed Cossacks with certain special privileges in return for the military duty to serve in the irregular troops: Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly infantry soldiers, using war wagons, while Don Cossacks were mostly cavalry soldiers. The various Cossack groups were organized along military lines, with large autonomous groups called hosts. Each host had a territory consisting of affiliated villages called stanitsas.

The Wild Fields is a historical term used in the Polish–Lithuanian documents of the 16th to 18th centuries to refer to the Pontic steppe in the territory of present-day Eastern and Southern Ukraine and Western Russia, north of the Black Sea and Azov Sea. It was the traditional name for the Black Sea steppes in the 16th and 17th centuries. In a narrow sense, it is the historical name for the demarcated and sparsely populated Black Sea steppes between the middle and lower reaches of the Dniester in the west, the lower reaches of the Don and the Siverskyi Donets in the east, from the left tributary of the Dnipro–Samara, and the upper reaches of the Southern Bug–Syniukha and Ingul in the north, to the Black and Azov Seas and Crimea in the south.

In a broad sense, it is the name of the entire Great Eurasian Steppe, which was also called Great Scythia in ancient times or Great Tartary in the Middle Ages in European sources and Desht-i-Kipchak in Eastern (mainly Persian) sources.

Novorossiya is a historical name, used during the era of the Russian Empire for an administrative area that would later become the southern mainland of Ukraine: the region immediately north of the Black Sea and Crimea. The name Novorossiya, which means "New Russia", entered official usage in 1764, after the Russian Empire conquered the Crimean Khanate, and annexed its territories, when Novorossiya Governorate (or Province) was founded. Official usage of the name ceased after 1917, when the entire area (minus Crimea) was annexed by the Ukrainian People's Republic, precursor of the Ukrainian SSR.

Novorossiya Governorate was formed in 1764 from military frontier regions and parts of the southern Hetmanate, in anticipation of a war with the Ottoman Empire. It was further expanded by the annexation of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775. At various times, Novorossiya encompassed the modern Ukraine's regions of the Black Sea littoral (Prychornomoria), Zaporizhzhia, Tavria, the Azov Sea littoral (Pryazovia), the Tatar region of Crimea, the area around the Kuban River, and the Circassian lands.

Ukraine has around 23,000 rivers, with most of the rivers draining into the Black Sea and Azov Sea and belonging to the larger Mediterranean basin. Those rivers mostly flow in a southerly direction, except for the Pripyat tributaries in Volhynia and Dniester tributaries in Prykarpattia. A few western Ukraine rivers drain to the north west through Poland to the Baltic Sea, as part of the Western Bug drainage basin. The most notable rivers of Ukraine include the Dnieper, Dniester, Southern Bug, and Siverskyi Donets. The longest river is the Dnieper, the longest tributary is the Dnieper's tributary Desna. Two of the Danube's tributaries in Ukraine, the Prut and the Tysa, are longer than the main river within Ukraine.

In 2013, in accordance with the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the territory of Ukraine has been divided into nine hydrographic zones (uk) according to major river basins, including the basins of the Vistula (Western Bug and San), Danube, Dniester, Southern Bug, Dnieper, Don, the rivers of the Black Sea littoral, the Sea of Azov littoral, and separately the rivers of Crimea. The biggest river basin by area is the Dnieper which is subdivided into the Pripyat basin, Desna basin, basin of Middle Dnieper, basin of Lower Dnieper. Beside Dnieper, basin of the Danube zoning is also subdivided into basin of Tysa, basin of Prut and Siret, and basin of the Lower Danube.