A travel guide to Ukrainian Polissia — the Zhytomyr region and its neighbours: places worth visiting, nature, history and local news. These articles are translated from Ukrainian; the full site is in Ukrainian.
All articles in Ukrainian →
In the evening of October 16, Zhytomyr came under a drone attack. Following an explosion, parts of the city lost electricity, and residents also reported water supply disruptions…
Today, Chopovychi is a quiet settlement in the Polissia region, best known for its Orthodox monastery complex. On January 26, 2024, it lost its former status as an urban-type…
Hamarnia is a landscape reserve of local importance located on the outskirts of Malyn in Zhytomyr Region. It is a large natural area that combines forest landscapes with part of…
Mikhailivskyi Quarry is a small flooded water body near the village of Mykhailivka in the Korosten urban community, Zhytomyr Region. It is about 14–15 kilometers from Korosten…
The flooded sand quarry near the village of Rudnya-Ozeryanska is a small body of water surrounded by Polissia forests in the Olevsk area of Zhytomyr Region. The lake covers…
Novo-Ozeryansky Quarry is a flooded granite quarry near the settlement of Novo-Ozeryanka in the Olevsk urban community of Korosten District, Zhytomyr Region, Ukraine. A lake…
Throughout the day, rescuers were repeatedly called to deal with the aftermath of Russian strikes in different parts of the Zhytomyr region. The attacks damaged critical…
During the evening of September 29 and the night of September 30, seven sites in the Zhytomyr, Korosten, and Zviahel communities were damaged as a result of Russian strikes. This…
The Zhytomyr region came under another Russian attack overnight. From the evening of September 28 to the morning of September 29, Russian forces carried out around 10 strikes…
Russian forces have again attacked the Kromberg & Schubert enterprise in the Zhytomyr community. According to Vitalii Bunechko, Head of the Zhytomyr Regional Military…
In Zhytomyr region, rescuers extinguished a fire that broke out at the Kromberg & Schubert enterprise in the Zhytomyr community as a result of Russian shelling. A total of 81…
A strike occurred near a gas station in Zviahel, Zhytomyr region, during a massive Russian attack involving strike drones. According to preliminary information, a Russian UAV…
An air raid alert continues in Zhytomyr region on September 12 amid a massive attack by Russian strike drones. The Ukrainian Air Force reports that several groups of UAVs are…
Russian forces continue their massive attack with strike drones. In Korosten, Zhytomyr region, according to monitoring channels, a Shahed drone reportedly struck a gas station…
During the night of September 11, 2026, Russian forces launched a drone strike on Ovruch. According to Ovruch Mayor Ivan Korud, the attack occurred at around 3:40 a.m. A critical…
During the night of September 12, Russian forces attacked a civilian enterprise in the Zhytomyr region. The strike damaged a private enterprise in the Ovruch community, according…
On September 5, Russian forces once again attacked the Zhytomyr region with strike drones. An air-raid alert was declared in Zhytomyr district, while the Ukrainian Air Force…
Russian forces have once again attacked civilian infrastructure in the Zhytomyr region. The target was a food industry facility which, according to Vitalii Bunechko, Head of the…
On September 4, the Zhytomyr region came under attack by Russian forces once again. The enemy targeted the region, and residents were urged to remain in safe locations during the…
On September 4, 2026, the Zhytomyr region experienced a second consecutive day of heightened air-raid danger. According to the monitoring Telegram channel “Real Zhytomyr,” an air…
Russian forces attacked Zhytomyr region overnight on September 1, 2026. The aftermath of the attack was reported by Vitalii Bunechko, Head of the Zhytomyr Regional Military…
On the afternoon of August 19, Russian forces attacked Zhytomyr with jet-powered drones. A strike hit the building of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Zhytomyr…
On August 19, Zhytomyr came under threat of an attack by Russian “Banderol” loitering munitions. An air raid alert was issued in the region during the afternoon, and residents…
The Zhytomyr region was once again targeted by a Russian attack. The strike caused fires at a critical infrastructure facility and a private enterprise, while dry grass also…
Three people were injured overnight as a result of another Russian attack on Zhytomyr region. One person was hospitalized with burns, while two others were diagnosed with acute…
During the night of August 9, 2026, the Russian army once again attacked the Zhytomyr region with guided jet-powered drones. The strikes damaged civilian infrastructure, a private…
She dreamed of becoming a singer, opening her own vocal school, and starting a family. But Russia's war against Ukraine changed everything. Just four days before her wedding…
He belonged to a generation whose youth was defined by war. At just 16, he helped build defensive fortifications. At 18, he volunteered for military service. At 20, he was killed…
The Zhytomyr region has lived with the railway for more than a century and a half — and in that time it has managed not only to build a dense network of tracks but also to lose…
A little way past Radomyshl's central municipal cemetery, on the corner of Mykulskyi Street and Pivnichnyi Lane, lies a place most townspeople walk past without realising what…
There is a route two hours from Kyiv that packs in almost everything people travel far and wide for: the ruins of a lavish palace steeped in ghosts and legends, 25-metre granite…
Picture granite cliffs dropping sheer into a clear emerald lake, and above them a wall of pines and birches. This is not Scandinavia or Karelia, though the resemblance is…
Near the Kroshnia railway station in Zhytomyr (42 Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Street) lies one of the city's most unusual attractions. The Crafts Courtyard (Remisnychyi Dvir) is a…
Mykhailivska Street is one of the most atmospheric places in Zhytomyr. As the city's historic pedestrian center, it has remarkably preserved much of its early architecture…
On July 26, the city of Zhytomyr bid a final farewell to Colonel Valentyna Savitska, Head of the Center for International Cooperation and Strategic Communications of the State…
Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) has warned passengers of a series of changes to suburban train services in the near future. The announcement was made on the company's official…
The Zhytomyr region is, above all, stone. Granite, labradorite, gabbro, quartzite: for centuries, blocks were carved from the ground here and later laid into city cobblestones…
Driving out of Kyiv along the Zhytomyr highway toward Polissia, somewhere around the 32-kilometre mark you catch sight of something that has no business in the Polissian landscape…
He carried the wounded out under fire near Bakhmut, came close to dying himself, lost a leg — but never lost himself. Today Yevhenii Korinets is a Master of Sport, a Paralympian…
Residents of the Zhytomyr region are being urged to exercise the utmost caution following attacks by Russian Shahed strike drones. Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, an adviser to…
Russian forces have struck one of Ukraine's military training grounds while an exhibition of the latest weapons and defence technologies was under way there. The attack was…
Cities across Ukraine's Zhytomyr region have found themselves in a zone of potential danger following Russia's use of new jet-powered "Shahed"-type drones capable of real-time…
Polissia is a land that still holds truly wild waters, barely touched by civilisation. Peat bogs and oxbow lakes hidden among the forests — half of them missing even from the maps…
There is a river in Polissia that paddlers remember with a mix of love and a faint shiver of fear. The Uzh — a right-bank tributary of the Prypiat, 256 kilometres long and up to…
The Zhytomyr region came under another Russian drone attack on 23 July.The alert began with reports of enemy UAVs moving across the north of the region, and explosions soon…
A fresh Russian attack has damaged farmland in Ukraine's Zhytomyr region. According to Vitalii Bunechko, head of the Zhytomyr Regional Military Administration, the strike started…
Danylo Melnyk, a 20-year-old serviceman from Ukraine's Zhytomyr region, has become a symbol of extraordinary resilience. Despite severe wounds, Russian captivity and torture, he…
In the ancient Polissian town of Ovruch, which was called Vruchiy in the times of Kievan Rus, stands a church whose history spans nearly nine centuries. This is St. Basil's Church…
In the village of Verkhivnia in the Berdychiv district of the Zhytomyr region stands one of the most interesting estates in the region — the Hanska Palace, known today as the…
Zhytomyr region is not always associated with popular tourist routes, but it is here that places capable of surprising even experienced travelers are hidden. One of them is the…
Sokolovskyi Quarry is one of the most striking locations in Zhytomyr. It is not a natural lake, but a former granite quarry on the northern outskirts of the city, near Kroshnia…
The "Chatsky Head" rock is one of Zhytomyr's most recognizable natural locations. It towers over the Teteriv River and resembles a human profile from afar, with a clearly visible…
Krashevsky Rock is a geological natural landmark in Zhytomyr Raion of Zhytomyr Oblast. It is located southeast of the village of Perliavka and north of the village of Holovenka…
The village of Kryve lies within the Popilnia hromada of Zhytomyr Raion (until 2020 — Popilnia Raion), 18 km from Popilnia. According to the 2001 census, 630 residents lived here…
12 kilometres north of Berdychiv, in the village of Halchyn, an unusual historical estate has survived — the manor where the Polish-Ukrainian writer, military figure, and Ottoman…
After the release of the music video for the song "12 obezian" by Serhiy Mikhatok and the Brutto band, filmed in a fisherman's cottage on an island in Staryi Solotvyn, this place…
The village of Stavky in the Radomyshl hromada of Zhytomyr district bore the name Lenine from 1928 to 2016, but it has a much deeper and more interesting history than might seem…
The village of Khodorkiv, located in Zhytomyr Oblast on the banks of the Irpin River, has a much deeper and richer history than it might seem at first glance. In the past, it was…
Ruzhyn is an urban-type settlement in the Berdychiv district of Zhytomyr Oblast, and the center of the Ruzhyn settlement hromada. It lies on the Rostavytsia River between…
A trip from Kyiv to the west along the M-06 highway passes for a long time through areas where historical buildings have hardly survived. Numerous architectural monuments of the…