PRIPET RIVER

also spelled Pripyat, Pripiat, or Pripets, Ukrainian Pryp'yat, Belarusian Prypyats', also called Strumen river in Ukraine and Belarus, a tributary of the Dnieper River. It is 480 miles (775 km) long and drains an area of 44,150 square miles (114,300 square km). It rises in northwestern Ukraine near the Polish border and flows eastward in Ukraine and then Belarus through a flat, forested, and swampy basin known as the Pripet Marshes to Mazyr; there it turns southeastward, reenters Ukraine, and joins the Dnieper in the Kiev Reservoir. Navigation on the Pripet is possible to Pinsk, Belarus, where the Dnieper-Bug Canal leads to the Bug River. Much swamp in the Pripet River basin has been reclaimed for agriculture.