Desna (river)

{{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Short description Template:Infobox river

The Desna (Russian and Template:Langx) is a river in Russia and Ukraine, a major left-tributary of the Dnieper. Its name in Template:Langx means Template:Lit. "right hand". It has a length of Template:Convert, and its drainage basin covers Template:Convert.<ref name=bse>Десна, Great Soviet Encyclopedia.</ref>

In Ukraine, the river's width ranges from Template:Convert, with its average depth being Template:Cvt. The mean annual discharge at its mouth is Template:Cvt.<ref name=bse/> The river freezes over from early December to early April, and is navigable from Novhorod-Siverskyi to its mouth, a length of about Template:Convert.<ref name=bse/>

The water level of the river reached its lowest recorded point in 140 years in June 2020. This water level was 5 m (16 ft) below normal for that time of year.<ref> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref>

GeographyEdit

CourseEdit

The Desna originates in the Smolensk Heights of Smolensk Oblast, Russia. The river's source lies in Yelninsky District, east-southeast from the city of Smolensk and not far from Yelnya in a forest near the village of Naleti. The Desna then flows south through a low and swampy valley toward the city of Bryansk, where the river's right bank rises.

After its confluence with the Seym near the Russian-Ukrainian border, the river then widens, splitting into numerous smaller branches. Its right bank declines again near the city of Chernihiv, and again near one of its tributaries, the Oster, where the Desna continues its course through a low, muddy plain until it finally reaches its mouth near Kyiv at the Dnieper River.