The Mokri Yaly (; ) is a river in western

Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its capital city, administrative centre is Donetsk, though d ...

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 ...

. From its headwaters in Volnovakha, it flows roughly west and northwest to its confluence with the Vovcha river, which forms part of the

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in simultaneously southern, eastern and central Ukraine, the most important industrial region of the country. It was created on February 27, 1932. Dnipropetro ...

boundary.

Etymology

The name of the river roughly translates to 'wet shores', combining Ukrainian ''mokri'' 'wet' (plural) and Urum 'shore'. Compare the names of the small tributary Sukha Yala 'dry shore' (feminine singular) and the sister tributary of the Vovcha Sukhi Yaly 'dry shores'. The river was known as Elkuvaty in older chronicles.

Geography

The river is 147 km long. Beginning near Volnovakha in Donetsk Oblast, it flows northwards, through the town of Velyka Novosilka, where the Shaitanka and rivers join it, while smaller rivers like the Sukhа Yalа (or Balka Sukhi Yaly) and Kobylna join it elsewhere. The Mokri Yaly enters the Vovcha river near the border with

. A dam near the village of

Staromlynivka Staromlynivka (; ) is a village in Volnovakha Raion (Raions of Ukraine, district) in Donetsk Oblast of eastern Ukraine, located south of the town of Velyka Novosilka. Before 1946, it was known as Staryi Kermenchyk (; ). It is located in the flo ...

creates a reservoir used for irrigation and water supply.

History

The river served as an important defensive line for German forces during World War II, where fortifications along the river formed part of the wider Mius-Front in which the Germans conducted a fighting withdrawal from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

after the failure of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

. After three days of heavy fighting, the Soviets crossed the river on 12 September 1943. The river saw battle again during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. During the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive, the Ukrainian military pushed Russian forces away from Velyka Novosilka and captured various villages along the river's banks. The Ukrainian military accused Russian forces of destroying the dam next to the village of Kliuchove near

to slow the Ukrainian forces' advance. A few weeks later, Ukrainian forces were reported to have attempted to advance across the river with

T-80 The T-80 is a main battle tank (MBT) that was designed and manufactured in the former Soviet Union and manufactured in Russia. The T-80 is based on the T-64, while incorporating features from the later T-72 and changing the engine to a gas turbi ...

tanks.

References

{{reflist Rivers of Donetsk Oblast