Kharkov Region

Kharkov Region is located in northeastern Ukraine, on the north and north-western it borders with the Belgorod region of Russia.

The territory of Kharkov region is 31.4 thousand km or 5.2% of the territory of Ukraine. The length from north to south totals 210 km, from east to west - 220 km.

The population of the Kharkov region is about 2.9 million people or 6% of the population of Ukraine, it ranks third in Ukraine according to population. The urban population is 78.9% and rural – 21.1%.

In the national composition dominate the Ukrainians; their share is 62.8%, the Russian have the second place - about 30%, most of them live in urban areas. Other nationalities are Byelorussians, Armenians, Tatars, Jews and others.

According to the administrative-territorial division Kharkov region consists of 27 administrative districts, 7 towns of regional subordination (Kharkov, Izyum, Kupiansk, Lozovaia, Lyubotin, Pervomaisk, Chuhuyiv), 10 towns of district subordination, 60 urban villages and 1654 rural settlements.

Sights of Kharkov region

It is located on the border of the steppe and steppe physiographic zones. The surface of the area is a wavy plain; it has a slight slope in the south-eastern and south-western direction. Much of the area lies within Pridneprovskaya lowlands, in the north and north-east there are the spurs of Srednerusskaia Upland, dissected with ravines and gullies, on the south-east - spurs of Donetsk upland.

Most of the territory of the Kharkov region is covered with steppe zone, which is now almost completely cultivated for growing crops. Soils are mainly powerful and typical black earth, distinguished with a high fertility.

A characteristic feature of Kharkov region is the alternation of the forest areas and open fields. Forests cover about 10% of the area, the most widespread species are oak and pine, there are also spruce, as well as linden, ash, maple, birch, alder.

There are many wild fruit trees in the forests - pear and apple trees, in the undergrowth and forest borders there are hazels, snowball, hawthorn, blackthorn, elder, euonymus.

In the forests of Kharkov region dwell noble deer, elk, wild boars and roe, among the predators are fox, wolf, weasel, weasel, polecat, raccoon dog, marten. Here are many kinds of birds - the nightingales, warblers, storks, woodpeckers, magpies, nightjar, linnet, and many others.

In the steppes dwell hare, hamster, ground squirrel, quail, partridge, steppe harrier, marmot, jerboa; often can be seen steppe vipers and lizards.

The climate is temperate continental with cold winter and predominantly hot, dry summer.

Mineral resources are natural gas, oil, black and brown coal, rock salt, phosphorites, ocher, building materials, mineral waters.

Kharkov Region is situated on the watershed of the Dnieper and Don, on its territory run 156 rivers longer than 10 km, the largest of which are Seversky Donets, a tributary of the Don, as well as Oskol, Uda, Bereka.
There are 36 lakes in the region, most of them are locted in the valley of the Seversky Donets. Lyman Lake, the largest (length – 7.5 km, width – 2.7 km, average depth - 2 m) is the source of water of Zmievskaya Hydro Power Station and serves as a natural base of the fishery plant, created on it.

There are also 1910 ponds, which are used for irrigation and water supply, fisheries and public recreation.

There are created 50 water reservoirs, the largest (Krasnooskol’skoe, Pechenezhskoe and Krasnopavlovskoe) are links of the water supply system of Donetsk and Kharkov region via Dnieper – Donbass channel.