Waterworld: How Ukraine Flooded Three Rivers to Help Save Kyiv
Off the eastern coast of central Greece sit high cliffs that once served as a narrow access point from the sea to its cities. Popular legend has it that in 480 BCE a small band of Spartan warriors, led by King Leonidas, defended the mountain pass against a much larger Persian army. The defense of the pass at Thermopylae has been memorialized in books and movies like Gates of Fire and 300.
In the opening phase of the war in Ukraine, the defenders took a page out of the Spartan playbook. To prevent the advancing Russian army from taking Kyiv, the Ukrainians turned the capital into a series of narrow passes that could be defended with a small mix of regular and irregular forces. But in a modern twist on the Thermopylae legend, they then flooded these passes by opening dams to nearby rivers, rendering them unnavigable and effectively sealing the city off from the enemy. Like Sparta, Ukraine is a land power—which makes such tactics even more innovative.
Kyiv is a modern city with ancient roots, dating back to 482 CE, if not earlier. Spanning 324 square miles, the city sits on a series of hills, with waterways and river bluffs among the dominant terrain features. These features have long made it an ideal defensive site along a key trade route: the Dnipro River. As its population grew—more than doubling in size between 1962 and 2022—so did its suburban sprawl. Kyiv became, in effect, a complex network of connecting towns and villages—areas connected by multiple riverways off the Dnipro that supported local agriculture. After Russia’s invasion, these areas were the buffer that saved Kyiv and won Ukraine its first major battle of the war.
