Putin's War of Aggression: A Journey Along the Dnipro in Wartime Ukraine

The mighty Dnipro slices right through Ukraine and - in the south - through the battlefield. A trip from north to south offers a unique perspective on how Ukrainians are surviving this war.

By Christian Esch und Emile Ducke (Photos) • 23.09.2026, 17.28 Uhr

What the Rhine River is to Germans, the Dnipro is to Ukrainians. It is not just the largest river in the country, it is also the most sung about. In songs and poems it embodies Ukraine. It is an old Cossack who dreams of past greatness and sharpens his saber at night for new deeds. "Grandfather Dnipro will rejoice," the original text of the national anthem says, when fortune once again smiles on Ukraine.

At the same time, the Dnipro is the greatest natural obstacle to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. From north to south, from the forests on the Belarusian border to the steppe on the Black Sea, it flows right through the middle of the country. Only briefly did the troops of Russian leader Vladimir Putin manage to cross the river, until they were forced to abandon the west bank again in the first year of the war. Since then, the Dnipro's lower reaches have marked the front line between Russian-occupied and free Ukraine. The river that forms Ukraine's backbone threatens to become a permanent border.

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A trip along the Dnipro is thus a journey through both the history and present of Ukraine. Together with photographer Emile Ducke and longtime DER SPIEGEL producer Fedir Petrov, I set out to search the riverbanks for Ukraine's identity – and for the scars of the war.

It is a journey that leads from light into darkness. It begins in Demydiv in the north, where Ukraine repelled Russia's advance on the capital in 2022. It leads through villages and towns where people wrest a peaceful everyday life from the war, with growing difficulty the closer the front gets. And it ends in the heart of darkness: in the port city of Kherson, where drones hunt pensioners and remote-controlled ground robots roll through empty streets.

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