Dnieper River in the context of Volga

The Isthmus of Perekop, literally Isthmus of the Trench (Ukrainian: Перекопський перешийок; transliteration: Perekops'kyi pereshyiok; Russian: Перекопский перешеек; transliteration: Perekopskiy peresheek, Crimean Tatar: Or boynu, Turkish: Orkapı; Greek: Τάφρος; transliteration: Taphros), is the narrow, 5–7 kilometres (3.1–4.3 mi) wide strip of land that connects the Crimean Peninsula to the mainland of Ukraine. The isthmus projects between the Black Sea to the west and the Syvash to the east. The isthmus takes its name of "Perekop" from the Tatar fortress of Or Qapi.

The border between Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Kherson Oblast runs through the northern part of the isthmus. Since the start of the Russian military occupation and subsequent annexation of Crimea in 2014, this is also the de facto northern border of the Russian Republic of Crimea. The cities of Perekop, Armiansk, Suvorove (Crimea) [uk] and Krasnoperekopsk are situated on the isthmus. The North Crimean Canal ran through the isthmus, supplying Crimea with fresh water from the Dnieper River. Ukraine closed the canal in 2014, and the water supply was only partially replaced by other local and Russian sources.

Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, 391 km (243 mi) southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is the administrative centre of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. It hosts the administration of Dnipro urban hromada. Dnipro has a population of 968,502 (2022 estimate).

Archeological evidence suggests the site of the present city was settled by Cossack communities from at least 1524. Yekaterinoslav ("glory of Catherine") was established by decree of the Russian Empress Catherine the Great in 1787 as the administrative center of Novorossiya. From the end of the 19th century, the town attracted foreign capital and an international, multi-ethnic workforce exploiting Kryvbas iron ore and Donbas coal.

The Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber from coastal areas of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Prehistoric trade routes between Northern and Southern Europe were defined by the amber trade.

As an important commodity, sometimes dubbed "the gold of the north", amber was transported from the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts overland by way of the Vistula and Dnieper rivers to Italy, Greece, the Black Sea, Syria and Egypt over a period of thousands of years.

The Right-bank Ukraine is a historical and territorial name for a part of modern Ukraine on the right (west) bank of the Dnieper River, corresponding to the modern-day oblasts of Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, as well as the western parts of Kyiv and Cherkasy. It was separated from the left bank during the Ruin.

Right-bank Ukraine is bordered by the historical regions of Volhynia and Podolia to the west, Moldavia to the southwest, Yedisan and Zaporizhzhia to the south, left-bank Ukraine to the east, and Polesia to the north.

The Left-bank Ukraine is a historic name of the part of Ukraine on the left (east) bank of the Dnieper River, comprising the modern-day oblasts of Chernihiv, Poltava and Sumy as well as the eastern parts of Kyiv and Cherkasy.

A liman is a wide estuary formed as a lagoon at the mouth of one or more rivers where flow is constrained by a sediment bar created by sea or river current. The hydrological term comes from the Russian language and is used in various national and regional languages for estuary lagoons all around the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts.

A liman is classified as either maritime or fluvial: "maritime" if its sediment bar was formed by sea current; "fluvial" if the bar is created by obstructed flow in a saturated river.

The Yamnaya (/ˈjæmnaɪə/ YAM-ny-ə) or Yamna culture (/ˈjæmnə/ YAM-nə), also known as the Pit Grave culture or Ochre Grave culture, is a late Copper Age to early Bronze Age archaeological culture of the region between the Southern Bug, Dniester, and Ural rivers (the Pontic–Caspian steppe), dating to 3300–2600 BC. It was discovered by Vasily Gorodtsov following his archaeological excavations near the Donets River in 1901–1903. Its name derives from its characteristic burial tradition: yámnaya (я́мная) is a Russian adjective that means 'related to pits' (я́ма, yáma), as these people buried their dead in tumuli (kurgans) containing simple pit chambers. Research in recent years has found that Mykhailivka, on the lower Dnieper River, Ukraine, formed the core Yamnaya culture (c. 3600–3400 BC).

The Yamnaya culture is of particular interest to archaeologists and linguists, as the widely accepted Kurgan hypothesis posits that the people who produced the Yamnaya culture spoke a stage of the Proto-Indo-European language. The speakers of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language embarked on the Indo-European migrations that gave rise to the widely dispersed Indo-European languages of today.

Kyiv, before 1991 commonly known as Kiev, has a history spanning well over a millennium, serving as the capital city of several countries up until present-day Ukraine, but its exact origins are uncertain and debated. In the 1970s, the city was officially designated to have been founded in 482, and thus its 1500th anniversity was celebrated in 1982, but depending on various criteria, the city or settlement may date back at least 2,000 years. Archaeologists have dated the oldest-known settlement in the area to 25,000 BC.

Legend recorded in later writings such as the Primary Chronicle has it that Saint Andrew (d. AD 60/70) visited the hilly shores of the Dnieper River and prophesied that a great city would emerge there. The same Chronicle reports another legend asserting that the three brothers Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv and their sister Lybid founded the city and, after the eldest brother Kyi, named it Kyevû (киевъ, amongst many other attested spelling variations). The earliest more reliable evidence suggests it was initially an early medieval Slavic settlement paying tribute to the Khazars. Reportedly conquered or otherwise acquired by Varangians in c. 880, Kyiv would be the capital of medieval Kievan Rus' until 1240.

Taurida Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Russian Empire. It included the territory of the Crimean Peninsula and the mainland between the lower Dnieper River with the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. It formed after the Taurida Oblast was abolished in 1802 during Paul I's administrative reform of the territories of the former Crimean Khanate, which were annexed by Russia from the Ottoman Empire in 1783. The governorate's centre was the city of Simferopol. The name of the province was derived from Taurida (Greek: Ταυρική), a historical name for Crimea.

Today the territory of the governorate is part of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts of Ukraine, which were annexed by Russia after their 2022 invasion, but remain internationally recognized as part of Ukraine.

Registered Cossacks (Ukrainian: Реєстрові козаки, romanized: Reiestrovi kozaky; Polish: Kozacy rejestrowi) comprised special Cossack units of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth army in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Registered Cossacks became a military formation of the Commonwealth army beginning in 1572 soon after the Union of Lublin (1569), when most of the territory of modern Ukraine passed to the Crown of Poland. Registered Cossack formations were based on the Zaporozhian Cossacks who already lived on the lower reaches of the Dnieper River amidst the Pontic steppes as well as on self-defense formations within settlements in the region of modern Central and Southern Ukraine.

The term Dnieper Ukraine(Ukrainian: Наддніпрянщина, romanized: Naddniprianshchyna, lit. 'over Dnieper land'), usually refers to territory on either side of the middle course of the Dnieper River. The Ukrainian name derives from nad‑ (prefix: "above, over") + Dnipró ("Dnieper") + ‑shchyna (suffix denoting a geographic region). Historically, this region is tightly entwined with the history of Ukraine and is considered as the heart of the country. Due to its size, the region is conditionally subdivided into Upper Dnieper Ukraine, Central Dnieper Ukraine, and Lower Dnieper Ukraine in reference to Dnieper's stream flow. Upper and Central separate at mouth of Desna River which is roughly the city of Kyiv, while Lower and Central around Khortytsia which is roughly the city of Zaporizhia.

The term Dnieper Ukraine appeared soon after the partitions of Poland when Ukraine as former territory of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth became divided between the Russian Empire and Austrian Empire and was referred to the Russian controlled Ukraine. The term was phased away soon after 1939.

The Mykhailivka Culture, Mikhaylovka culture, Lower Mykhaylivka culture (Ukrainian: Нижньомихайлівська культура, romanized: Nyzhnjomykhajlivsjka kuljtura, 3600—3000 BCE) is a Copper Age archaeological culture which flourished on the Pontic steppe from 3600 BC to 3000 BC.

Lower Mikhaylivka culture is named after an early Yamna site of the late copper age of the lower Dnieper River, noted for its fortifications, after lower archaeological layer of the site near the village of Mykhaylivka in Kherson Oblast of Ukraine.

The Volodymyrska Hill or Saint Volodymyr Hill (Ukrainian: «Володимирська гірка», romanized: "Volodymyrska hirka") is a large 10.6 hectares (0.106 km) park located on the steep right-bank of the Dnipro River in central Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Its most famous and prominent landmark is the Monument to Prince Volodymyr. The monument, with its prominent location and overlooking the scenic panorama of the left-bank of Kyiv, has since become one of the symbols of Kyiv, often depicted in paintings and photographic works of the city. The Hill provides an excellent panorama of the Dinpro River, the Left Bank, and Podil.

Arsenalna (Ukrainian: Арсенальна, IPA: [ɐrseˈnɑlʲnɐ] ) is a station on the Kyiv Metro's Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line. The station was opened along with the first stage and is currently the second-deepest station in the world at 105.5 metres (346 ft), after Hongyancun station of the Chongqing Metro. The depth is attributed to the geography of Kyiv, whose high bank of the Dnipro River rises above the rest of the city. Also unusual is the station's design, which lacks a central concourse and thus is similar in layout to stations of the London Underground.

Since 1986, the station has the status of "Architectural Monument of Local Significance", Protection Number 187.

The Belgorod–Kharkov strategic offensive operation, or simply Belgorod–Kharkov offensive operation, was a Soviet strategic summer offensive that aimed to liberate Belgorod and Kharkov, and destroy Nazi German forces of the 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment Kempf. The operation was codenamed Operation General Rumyantsev (Russian: Полководец Румянцев), after the 18th-century Field Marshal Peter Rumyantsev and was conducted by the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts (army groups) in the southern sector of the Kursk Bulge. The battle was referred to as the Fourth Battle of Kharkov (German: Vierte Schlacht bei Charkow) by the Germans.

The operation began in the early hours of 3 August 1943, with the objective of following up the successful Soviet defensive effort in the Battle of Kursk. The offensive was directed against the German Army Group South's northern flank. By 23 August, the troops of the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts had finally liberated Kharkov from German occupation and the last time that Kharkov changed hands in the Eastern Front. The operation led to the retreat of the German forces in Ukraine behind the Dnieper River and set the stage for the Second Battle of Kiev in autumn 1943.

Rylsk (Russian: Рыльск) is a town and the administrative center of Rylsky District in Kursk Oblast, western Russia, located on the right bank of the Seym River (Dnieper's basin) 124 kilometres (77 mi) west of Kursk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 15,069 (2021 census); 15,671 (2010 census); 17,603 (2002 census); 19,472 (1989 Soviet census); 19,000 (1974).