The Great Meadow or Grand Meadow (Ukrainian: Великий луг, romanized: Velykyi luh) is a lowland area on the Dnieper and the Konka to the south of Khortytsia Island that historically consisted of a system of rivers, reed beds, swamps, flooded forests, and meadows. The Great Meadow ceased to exist in 1950s, when it was flooded by the Kakhovka Reservoir, and re-emerged in 2023 upon the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[1]

The Great Meadow is located on the Black Sea Lowland and surrounded by the Pontic–Caspian steppe. It is around 20 km wide and 100 km long.^[2] The tallest areas in the east — Velyki and Mali Kuchuhury [uk] — formed islands during the reservoir's existence.

The area was covered in numerous trees, including aspen, oak, and willow, and was inhabited by hares, foxes, deer, wild pigs, martens, and wolves.^[2] Upon the creation of the Kakhovka Reservoir, the former landscape was destroyed, and the inundated area became inhabited by fish instead. In turn, when the reservoir was drained, the fish population died out, totaling 11.4 thousand tons of dead fish.^[3] By summer of 2024, the Great Meadow was covered by a continuous young willow forest, and started getting repopulated by land animals. The area will go through ecological succession that, in at least 30 years, will result in the formation of a mature forest. This large-scale phenomenon allows the study of the development of forest ecosystems in river valleys that was not possible before.^[4]

The Great Meadow was inhabited since ancient times, with some findings dating back to the Bronze Age, the Scythian period, and the Kievan Rus'.^[5]

The 14th-century Kuchuhurske settlement, the largest known settlement of the Golden Horde on the Dnieper that is generally identified as the city of Mamai-Sarai [uk], was located in the Great Meadow.^[1][6]

In 16th–18th centuries, the Great Meadow was one of the most important areas of the Zaporozhian Sich.^[2] In contrast to the surrounding dry steppe, the Great Meadow was permanently inhabited by the Cossacks. The area was used for agriculture, raising livestock, and as a source of wood. The dense forest also protected the Cossacks from invasions.^[7] Six of eight Sichs (administrative centres of the Zaporozhian Cossacks) were located in the Great Meadow: Tomakivka [uk], Bazavluk [uk], Mykytyn [uk], Chortomlyk, Kamianka [uk], and Nova Sich.^[1]

During the Holodomor, inhabitants of the Great Meadow were saved from starvation by foraging for roots and water nuts.^[1]

In 1950s, the Kakhovka Dam was built, and the resulting Kakhovka Reservoir flooded the Great Meadow, including over 90 villages in it.^[7] Around 37,000 residents were forced to resettle.^[1] In return, the reservoir provided irrigation to vast areas of southern Ukraine, and the dam generated some electricity.^[7]

In 2006, the Grand Meadow National Nature Park was created from small islands and coastal areas of eastern Kakhovka Reservoir in Zaporizhzhia Oblast,^[8] and similarly the Kamianska Sich National Nature Park [uk] was formed in 2019 in right-bank Kherson Oblast.^[9]

In June of 2023, the Kakhovka Dam was destroyed, and the reservoir was drained. On 12 March 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine banned the transfer of ownership or use of land that emerged from the former reservoir due to plans of restoring the dam.^[10] While hydrologists and power engineers support the reconstruction of the dam, numerous ecologists, historians, and archaeologists resist the idea and propose to make the Great Meadow a protected natural and historic area instead.^[7][11] Archaeological looting became widespread soon after the reservoir was emptied.^[12]

• Dnieper rapids