The Inhulets (Ukrainian: Інгулець) or Ingulets (Russian: Ингуле́ц) is a river, a right tributary of the Dnieper, that flows through Ukraine. It has a length of 557 kilometres (346 mi) and a drainage basin of 14,460 square kilometres (5,580 sq mi).[2]
The Inhulets has its source in the Dnieper Upland in a ravine (balka) to the west of Topylo village,[2] in the Kropyvnytskyi Raion of Kirovohrad Oblast, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the Dnieper river, to which it initially flows parallel. The Inhulets turns south, where it flows through Kryvbas Iron Ore Basin, and the Kherson and Mykolaiv Oblasts, before finally flowing into the Dnieper about 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of the city of Kherson. The river flows through southern spurs of the Dnieper Uplands and then across the Black Sea Lowland.[2] The upper portion of the Inhulets basin is in the forest steppe zone, the lower part within the Pontic steppe.[2]
The river is dammed at the village of Iskrivka in Kirovohrad Oblast and about 30 kilometres (19 mi) further downstream at the city of Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to form reservoirs. The lower one, the Karachunivske Reservoir [uk], provides the water supply for Kryvyi Rih and for irrigation. On 14 September 2022 the Ukrainian government said a Russian missile attack had broken the dam, causing flooding.[3]
The course of the river near Kryvyi Rih has created many small islands, which have a rich vegetation. However, by 2017 the vegetation was impaired by the high level of contamination of the river, due to the nearby iron ore mining industry.[4]
^Alokhina, Tetiana (2020). "Rivers revitalisation: approaches to decision". p. 4. Retrieved 2022-10-04 – via www.researchgate.net. The main goal of the second stage of works the riverbed purification in the Inhulets River (in 2017) was the removal of a large amount of contaminated sediment. Contaminated sediment was formed as a result of activity the ore-dressing factories and the metallurgical plant, which are located higher on the river flow