The Ubort (Russian and Ukrainian: Уборть; , ''Ubarć'') is a river in the

Zhytomyr Oblast Zhytomyr Oblast ( uk, Жито́мирська о́бласть, translit=Zhytomyrska oblast), also referred to as Zhytomyrshchyna ( uk, Жито́мирщина}) is an oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. The administrative center of the obla ...

(

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

) and the

Homiel Voblast Gomel Region or Gomel Oblast or Homiel Voblasts ( be, Го́мельская во́бласць, Homielskaja vobłasć, russian: Гомельская область, Gomelskaya oblast) is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative center i ...

(

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

), a right tributary to the

Pripyat Pripyat ( ; russian: При́пять), also known as Prypiat ( uk, При́пʼять, , ), is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby river, Pripyat, it was founded on 4 February 19 ...

in the

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...

river basin. It is long, and has a drainage basin of . The Ubort is fed mostly by melting snow (~70%) and peaks during the spring run-off, usually mid-March to early May, and maintains an even, albeit lower, flow during the summer months. It can freeze as early as mid-November or as late as January, and the ice breaks up as early as mid-February or as late as mid-April.

Course

The Ubort originates in the hills above and south of the village of Andreyevichi in Zhytomyr Oblast. It arises at elevation 207 m., from a series of small creeks flowing westward off of the Simony Hills, elevation 222 m, and northeastward off of the Marynivka Hills, elevation 225 m. The river flows north past

Yemilchyne Yemilchyne ( uk, Ємі́льчине, translit. ''Yemil’chyne'', russian: Емильчи́но) is an urban-type settlement in Zviahel Raion, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Eu ...

and

Olevsk Olevsk (, Romanization of Ukrainian, translit. ''Olévs’k'', , yi, אלעווסק) is a city in Korosten Raion, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine. As of January 2022 its population was approximately History Olevsk was first mentioned in 1488. In 1641 ...

, thence across the international border into Belarus near Borovoye (Баравое). It then flows northeast and north past

Lelchytsy Lelchytsy ( be, Лельчыцы, russian: Лельчицы, Lelchitsy, pl, Lelczyce) is a urban-type settlement, town in Gomel Region, Belarus, the capital of Lyelchytsy Raion. Lelchytsy is located by the Ubort River, 251 km southwest of Go ...

, and Moiseyevichi, before entering the Pripyat at Pyetrykaw. The mouth of the river is at an elevation of 120 meters. The principle tributaries of the Ubort are the 67 km Perga (Перга) with its mouth at in the Ukraine, and the 58 km Svidovets (Свидовець) with its mouth at in Belarus. The river has a low incline dropping only 87 meters over its 292 kilometer length. The result is a meandering river with many swamps and oxbox lakes. The area of its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

is . The average annual flow of water at the mouth of the Ubort is 24.4

Cubic metres per second A cubic metre per second (m3s−1, m3/s, cumecs or cubic meter per second in American English) is the unit of volumetric flow rate in the International System of Units (SI) equal to that of a stere or cube with sides of in length exchanged ...

History

The name appears in Latin as ''Hubort'' in a 1412 survey document. Some maps in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mark it as the ''Олевская'' (''Olevskaya'') or in Polish ''Olewsko'', as being of the town of Olevsk. The origin of the name ''Ubort'' is obscure, but seems to be related to the use of boards (''ubort'') in making artificial hollow trees for honey bees. In July 1941, between 30 and 40 Jews from

were taken to the Ubort River, where they were humiliated and tortured; some of them were murdered in the

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...

. It was contaminated during the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

References

Books

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ubort River Rivers of Belarus Rivers of Gomel Region Rivers of Zhytomyr Oblast