[[File:Yedisan.jpg|thumb|right|The river is named as Bog Fl[uss] on this 1791 Austrian map (in German).]]

thumb|right|The river is named as Bog on this 1788 French map showing the [[Dnieper–Bug estuary (Liman).]]

The Southern Bug, also called Southern Buh (; ; ; or just ), is a navigable river located in Ukraine. It is the second-longest river flowing exclusively in Ukraine.

While located in relatively close proximity, the river should not be confused with the Western Bug or Bug, which flows in the opposite direction towards the Baltics. The source of the Southern Bug is in the west of Ukraine, in the Volhynian-Podolian Upland, about from the Polish border, from where it flows southeasterly into the Bug Estuary (Black Sea basin) through the southern steppes (see Granite-steppe lands of Buh park). It is long and drains .

Several regionally important cities and towns in Ukraine are located on the Southern Bug. Beginning in Western Ukraine and moving downstream, in a southeasterly direction, they are: Khmelnytskyi, Khmilnyk, Vinnytsia, Haivoron, Pervomaisk, Voznesensk and Mykolaiv. During the Migration Period of the 5th to the 8th centuries CE the Southern Bug represented a major obstacle to all the migrating peoples in the area. In his work Getica, Jordanes calls the river Bogossola. Mentioning of Bogossola could also be found in works of Guido of Pisa. The Polish linguist Jan Michał Rozwadowski was explaining that the name derived from the Indo-European root "water", "source", "swamp".

History

From the 16th to the 18th centuries most of the south of Ukraine was under Turkish imperial domination and the colonists renamed the river using their language to the Aq-su, meaning the "White river". Indigenous Slavic toponyms were re-established after the conquest of the Pontic region from Turkish domination in the 17th and 18th centuries.

On March 6, 1918, the Central Council of the Ukrainian People's Republic adopted a law on the "administrative-territorial division of Ukraine", dividing it into regional districts. One of these, Pobozhia (meaning lands of the Boh, ), was in the upstream lands of the Southern Bug, near the source of the river.

Tributaries

The main tributaries of the Southern Bug are, from source to mouth (length in parentheses):

  • Left: Buzhok (75), Ikva (57), Snyvoda (58), Desna (80), Sob (115), Udych (56), Synytsia (78), Syniukha (111), Velyka Korabelna (45), Mertvovid (114), Hnylyi Yelanets (103), Inhul (354)
  • Right: Vovk (71), Zghar (95), , (104), Silnytsia (67), Dokhna (68), Savran (97), Kodyma (149), Bakshala (57), Chychyklia (156)

Ecology

In October 2020, the Southern Bug was stocked with of Hungarian carp and of silver carp at Khmelnytskyi.

Bridges and ferries

thumb|Varvarivskyi Bridge in [[Mykolaiv]]

The Varvarivskyi Bridge over Southern Bug in Mykolaiv is a swing bridge (facilitating ship building) with Europe's largest span (). It is also the southernmost bridge over the river.

The river is technically navigable for dozens of kilometers up from its mouth; several river ports (such as Mykolaiv) exist.

In 2011, plans were announced to revive commercial freight navigation on the Southern Bug upstream of Mykolaiv, to facilitate the increasing grain export from Ukraine. As of April 2018, freight navigation was renewed between the estuary and a newly built grain terminal in the village of Prybuzhany, Voznesensk Raion, in the center of the Mykolaiv Oblast.

<gallery class="center">

File:Southern Bug under ice.JPG|Winter-frozen Southern Bug in Mykolaiv

File:Rika Ploska vpadaye v Pivdenny Bug, Khmelnitsky, 2005 07 28.jpg|The emptying into the Southern Bug

File:South Bug Vinnitsa 2006 G1.JPG|Southern Bug in Vinnytsia

File:Ship M I Pirogov Vinnitsa 2006 G2.jpg|A riverboat on the river in Vinnytsia (2006)

File:South bug08.jpg|Riverside skyline of Khmelnytskyi

File:Yujni bug 2.jpg|Southern Bug in vicinity of the Granite-steppe lands of Bug landscape park

File:Меджибізький замок (травень 2011).jpg|Southern Bug in Medzhybizh

File:Confluence of the rivers Southern Bug and Dnieper.jpg|Historical map of the confluence of the rivers Southern Bug and Dnieper

</gallery>

References

  • Southern Buh rafting
  • Boh in the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland (1880)
  • Photos of the Southern Buh coasts
  • Southern Buh rafting, photo