Dnieper Basin River Ports

the principal water transportation centers that organize the carriage of cargoes and passengers along the Dnieper and its tributaries, which link the industrial and agricultural areas of the Ukrainian SSR and part of the Byelorussian SSR with the basin’s riverside locations. The river ports also organize the transshipment of cargoes to and from railroads. Since 1967, transportation in the Dnieper basin has been handled by sea and river vessels which can call at ports on the Danube, the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and the Mediterranean Sea.

Port construction in the Dnieper basin was begun in 1899, when a harbor was built at Kiev. Before World War I (1914-18) the construction of ports in Kiev, Ekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk), and Kherson proceeded slowly, supervised by the Kiev Transportation District. With the exception of several floating grain loaders in Kherson, there were no loading mechanisms, and cargo operations were done manually. With the creation of a state shipping line on the Dnieper in 1922, intensive port and pier construction began. In 1940 mechanized cargo operations accounted for two-thirds of all the loading operations in the basin. Stone warehouses, concrete cargo areas, and river stations were built in large centers, and landing platforms were used as berths for passenger vessels.

During the Great Patriotic War (1941-45) the fascist invaders destroyed berths, warehouses, and loading mechanisms. After the war, river ports were completely rebuilt in Cherkassy, Kremenchug, Dneprodzerzhinsk, and Nikopol’, and major reconstruction was done on the ports in Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, and Kherson. Stations were built in Cherkassy, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozh’e, and Kherson and in 1959 in Kiev.

In terms of bulk cargo, the assets of the ports amount to 85.6 percent of the total volume of the cargo turnover, and the cargo owners’ assets total 13.6 percent (1970). By 1970, 97.6 percent of cargo operations had been fully mechanized. The ports of Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, and the V. I. Lenin Port at Zaporozh’e are transshipping points for cargo dispatched from railroads to water (and vice versa) under the same shipping papers. In 1970, 29.8 percent of all cargo processing in the basin was transshipping.

Dnieper basin river ports have a specially registered fleet for local transportation. After construction of the Kanev waterway hub is completed under the ninth five-year plan, the port of Kiev and all ports farther downstream will be able to receive vessels with a draft of up to 3.65 m (including maritime vessels).

Located on the right bank of the Dnieper 872 km from its mouth, the port of Kiev is the basin’s largest port in terms of the volume of cargo operations. It ships quartzites, industrial cargo, and foodstuffs and receives coal, mineral building materials, slag, grain, vegetables and melon crops, and cargoes packaged in units. Many transit passenger lines begin at Kiev, and the registered fleet brings in 4.54 million passengers a year (1970).

The port of Cherkassy is located on the right bank of the Kremenchug Reservoir, 663 km from the mouth of the Dnieper. The port of Kremenchug is located on the left bank in the tailrace of the Kremenchug Hydroelectric Power Plant, 549 km from the mouth of the Dnieper. The port of Dneprodzerzhinsk is on the right bank in the tailrace of the Dneprodzerzhinsk Reservoir, 437 km from the mouth of the river. Mineral building materials, scrap metal, and slag account for most of the cargo turnover at the three ports.

The port of Dnepropetrovsk is located 399 km from the Dnieper’s mouth. It ships coal and mineral building materials and receives quartzites, fruits and vegetables, and other cargo. The two sections of the port located on the right bank handle chiefly unit cargo, and there is one section on the left bank for processing bulk cargo.

The V. I. Lenin Port of Zaporozh’e was opened in 1932, at the same time as the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Plant. It is located on the left bank, 312 km from the river’s mouth. The main cargoes shipped are iron ore, which is transshipped from the railroad and sent by river for export from Brest (Byelorussian SSR), and coal and coal furnace charges, which are sent to Kherson, Nikolaev, and more distant ports for export. The main cargo received is imported bauxites, which are transshipped in Kherson or Nikolaev from maritime to river vessels. In 1970 cargo was sent from Dnepropetrovsk to the seaports of Yalta., Feodosia, Il’ichevsk, Skadovsk (mineral building materials) and Izmail (furnace charges).

The port of Kherson (until 1946, a pier) is located on the right bank of the Dnieper 28 km from its mouth, on the crossroad between the riverways and the seaways. It ships bauxites, vegetables and melon crops, industrial goods, and foodstuffs, and it receives coal, mineral building materials, and grain. The port is first in the basin in the number of passengers transported (6.17 million in 1970).