Prypiat River

Pripyat River
Pripyat River
Map displaying the course of the river, flowing eastward through southern Belarus through the cities of Brest, Pinsk and Mazyr
Country	Ukraine, Belarus
Basin features
Main source	Ukraine
River mouth	Dnieper
Basin size	121,000 km2 (47,000 sq mi)
Tributaries	Left: Pina, Yaselda, Tsna, Lan, Sluch, Ptsich, Braginka Right: Horyn, Stokhid, Styr, Turija, Ubort, Zhelon, Slovechna, Uzh
Physical characteristics
Length	761 km (473 mi)
Discharge	Average rate: 377 m3/s (13,300 cu ft/s)

The Pripyat River or Prypiat River (Ukrainian: Прип’ять Prypyat′, pronounced [ˈprɪpjɑtʲ]; Belarusian: Прыпяць Prypiać, [ˈprɨpʲat͡sʲ]; Polish: Prypeć, [ˈprɨpɛtɕ]; Russian: Припять Pripyat′, [ˈprʲipʲɪtʲ]) is a river in Eastern Europe, approximately 761 km (473 mi) long. It flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukraine again, draining into the Dnieper.

The Pripyat passes through the exclusion zone established around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The city of Prypiat, Ukraine (population 45,000) was completely evacuated after the Chernobyl disaster.

Pripyat has catchment area of 121,000 km² (47,000 sq mi), 50,900 km² (19,700 sq mi) of which are in Belarus. 495 km (308 mi) of the whole river length lies within territory of Belarus.

Max Vasmer in his etymological dictionary notes that the historical name of the river mentioned in the earliest East Slavic document, Primary Chronicle is Pripet (Припеть) and cites the opinion of other linguists that the name meant "tributary", comparing with Greek and Latin roots. He also rejects some opinions which were improperly based on the stem -пять, rather than original -петь.