Vilcha (; ) is an abandoned settlement and former

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, part of Vyshhorod Raion,

Kyiv Oblast Kyiv Oblast (, ), also called Kyivshchyna (, ), is an Administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in central and northern Ukraine. It surrounds, but does not include, the city of Kyiv, which is administered as a city with special sta ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

History

The settlement was founded in 1926 on the site of a settlement named Oleksiivka (). After the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, 45 km far from Vilcha, the settlement was not included into the " Exclusion Zone" before 1993. During 1993 to 1996, most of the 2,000 residents moved to Kharkiv Oblast, where they founded a new Vilcha (709 km away), a few kilometres south of the town of Vovchansk. The ghost town, today one of the checkpoints to the Exclusion Zone, was resettled by a few '' samosely'' some years later. On February 24, 2022, the State Border Service of Ukraine claimed to be battling a column of Russian military vehicles at the border crossing with

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, near Vilcha. From February to April 2022, Vilcha was occupied by Russia as a result of the 2022 invasion.

Geography

Located near the borders with Zhytomyr Oblast and the

ian Oblast of Gomel, Vilcha is located in the middle of the natural region of Polesia, close to its radioecological reserve. It is 17 km from Poliske, 40 km from Krasiatychi (the raion's administrative seat), 43 km from

Pripyat Pripyat, also known as Prypiat, is an abandoned industrial city in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby river, Pripyat (river), Pripyat, it was founded on 4 February 1970 as the ninth ''atomgrad'' ...

, 44 km from Ovruch and 95 km from Slavutych.

Transport

The settlement is crossed in the middle by the regional highway P02 Ovruch-

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

(150 km south), and is the southern end of the T1035 road from Oleksandrivka, Naroulia District, in

, that continues as P37 highway to Naroulia and Mazyr (95 km north). It also has a railway station, officially in service but without passenger traffic, on the Chernihiv–Ovruch line.

Gallery

References

External links