Ukraine (officially Україна, Ukraina) is a large country on the north side of the Black Sea, bordering Russia to the east. Except for a brief period of independence during the Russian Revolution (1917-20) Ukraine was part of Russian or Soviet empires from the mid seventeenth century until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Meanwhile the coastline of the Black Sea was mostly under the control of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire until it was taken by Russia during a series of wars in the second half of the 1700s. The Black Sea's northern coast is in several sections. In the west is the Bight of Odessa, named for Ukraine's largest port. In the center is the diamond-shaped peninsula of Crimea. To the east is the Sea of Azov, connected to the rest of the Black Sea by the narrow Kerch Strait at the eastern end of Crimea. In March 2014 Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, separating the Ukrainian coast into two sections: one on the Bight of Odessa in the west and one on the the northwestern side of the Sea of Azov in the east. In February 2022 Russian troops invaded eastern Ukraine, beginning a war that continues to the present. Since the end of 2022 Russia has occupied about 20% of Ukraine but a much larger percentage, more thn 80%, of Ukraine's coastline. Russia controls all of Crimea and the Azov Sea coast as well as the western Kherson region south of the Dnipro (Dnieper) River. Ukraine is divided into provinces called oblasts (область), and the oblasts are divided into county-level districts called raions (райони). This page describes Ukraine's lighthouses along the Dnipro (Dnieper) River, which joins the Bight of Odessa to the northwest of Crimea. The Dnieper (known in Ukrainian as the Dnipro) rises in easternmost Russia and flows across Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is Europe's fourth longest river. In Ukraine it is a major source of hydroelectric power and also an artery of transportation. When Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union (1917-1991) a series of six major dams was built on the river. Each dam has a navigation lock, thus making the river navigable over the full width of the country. Each lock has an associated lighthouse. However one of the dams was breached by Russian attacks during the ongoing war and no navigation is possible today. The lower course of the river, from its westward bend south of Zaporizhzhia to its mouth, has been the front line separating Ukrainian and Russian forces. The Ukrainians occupy the right (north) band and the Russians the left (south) bank. There has been frequent fighting to control islands in the river. From Zaporizhzhia northward to Kyiv and beyond the river is in Ukrainian control. The Ukrainian word for a lighthouse is mayak (маяк); ostriv (острів) is an island, mys (мис) is a cape, richka (річка) is a river, and havan' (гавань) is a harbor. Lighthouses in Ukraine are maintained by Derzhhidrohrafiyu, the hydrography and navigation service of the Ministry of Transport and Communications. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. UA numbers are the Ukrainian light list numbers as reported by Ukrainian Lighthouses on the Air. Admiralty numbers are from volume N of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 113. The Ukrainian light list, Вогні і знаки Чорного та Азовського морів (Lights and Signs of the Black and Azov Seas), is not available online.
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Dnipro (Dnieper) River Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses: Notable faux lighthouses: |
Adjoining pages: South: Occupied Ukraine: Western Crimea | West: Mykolaiv Oblast
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Posted February 19, 2007. Checked and revised October 9, 2025. Lighthouses: 17. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.