To the south-east of Svyatogorsk Lavra located in Donetsk oblast, there is amazing in its beauty wooden monastery of All Saints, which attracts the attention of pilgrims and tourists.

Perhaps it is the most unusual building in Svyatogorye. The monastery is very beautiful and even unexpected for these places. Its churches were built by local carpenters from massive pine logs and decorated with carvings in the ancient traditions of Russian wooden architecture of the 16th-17th centuries.

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Tags: Donetsk oblast · monastery

Kiev city is located in the northern part of Ukraine, not far from its center. The climate is temperate continental with mild winters and warm summers. Usually the coldest days in Kiev are in January 18-25. The average temperature in January is minus 3,5° C.

Over the past 120 years, the average annual temperature in Kiev increased by about 1,5° C. The greatest increase in temperature is observed in December – March. In December 2012, the city experienced heavy snowfalls. Photos by Oleg Stelmakh

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Tags: Kiev city

Bila Tserkva is a city located in Kiev oblast of Ukraine, about 80 km from the capital of the country. Bila Tserkva was founded in 1032 by Yaroslav the Wise. The name of the city means “White Church” which may refer to the (no longer extant) white-painted cathedral of medieval town.

The photos were processed in “tilt-shift” style, which blurs the line between reality and the toy world. Photos by Roman Naumov

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Tags: Bila Tserkva city

Lviv was founded in the mid 13th century. In the Middle Ages, Lviv was an important trading center. During Austrian rule the town became a center of Ukrainian and Polish national liberation movements.

Before the Second World War the city belonged to Poland. In 1939, Lviv became the part of the Ukrainian SSR as a result of agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany (the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact).

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Tags: Lviv city

Park “Sofiyivka” was founded in 1796 by the owner of the town of Uman, Polish magnate Stanislav Potocki. The park was named in honor of his wife Sophia Witt-Potocki and presented to her in May 1802.

Today it is a popular holiday destination. Every year the park is visited by about 500,000 people. The total area of the park is about 180 hectares. “Sofiyivka” is a monument of world landscape gardening art of the late 18th – early 19th century. Photos by Vitaliy Milevich

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Tags: Cherkassy oblast · Uman city

Yalta is definitely the most famous resort city in the former Soviet Union countries. The city is located on approximately the same geographical latitude with renowned Italian ports and resorts of Ravenna and Genoa.

The sun is shining here about 2250 hours a year – about the same as in Nice, Cannes, San Remo and other Mediterranean resorts.

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Tags: Crimea Republic · Yalta city

Ai-Petri is an extinct volcano in the Crimean Mountains near Yalta. The height of the mountain is 1234 meters. The name of the peak “Ai-Petri” is of Greek origin and means the mountain of St. Peter.

Ai-Petri is the place with a maximum number of foggy days not only in Crimea, but in all of Ukraine. The record number of foggy days (215) was registered in 1970.

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Tags: Crimea Republic · Yalta city

State Dendrology Park of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine “Alexandria” is located in Bila Tserkva. The park is a monument of landscape architecture. It was founded in 1793 by hetman Francis-Xavier Branitsky and named in honor of his wife Alexandra.

Bila Tserkva park is considered to be one of the best and largest in Europe. The plan was created by the French park designer Myuffo. It occupies the territory of over 200 hectares, has 25 water reservoirs and about 2,500 species of plants, including rare plants from South America, China and Japan. Photos by Roman Naumov

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Tags: Bila Tserkva city

Zakarpattia region is an unforgettable land with spectacular sceneries that attracts tourists and vacationers not only from all parts of Ukraine, but also from all over the world.

This is the land of mineral springs, orchards, and vineyards. The region is one of the few unique places that are of interest to tourists in all seasons.

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Tags: landscapes · Zakarpattia oblast

Object 825 GTS (or K-825) is an underground submarine base in Balaklava (near Sevastopol, Crimea), a secret military installation built in 1953-1961 during the Cold War, located in Balaklava bay. Currently, the base is a museum.

The object is a construction that has anti-nuclear defense of the first category (protection against direct hit of 100 kt nuclear bomb), which includes combined underground water channel with a dry dock, repair shops, fuel storages, torpedo arsenal. The base is located in the mountain Tavros on both sides of which there are two exits. Photos by danlux

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Tags: abandoned · Crimea Republic · Sevastopol city