Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Dnieper begins its journey in the sedge bogs known as Akseninsky Mokh within the Valdai Hills of central Russia near Smolensk. Approximately 2,285 kilometers separate the source from the river's mouth making it the fourth-longest river across all of Europe.
The Dnieper flows past three nations before reaching its final destination at the Black Sea. About 30 percent of the total length runs through Russian territory while another portion serves as the border between Belarus and Ukraine for much of its middle section.
The Dnieper Hydroelectric Station near Zaporizhzhia was constructed between 1927 and 1932. This facility produced an output of 558 megawatts when it first opened before World War II destroyed the original structure.
The Kakhovka dam was destroyed on the sixth day of June 2023 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine causing explosions that blew through the structure. The destruction ended over seventy years of hydroelectric generation at this specific site and caused the subsequent drying up of the Kakhovka Reservoir.
Ancient trade routes utilized the middle flow of the Dnieper to connect northern lands with Byzantium by navigating around seven specific rapids where Varangian merchants had to portage their ships. Nine major rapids blocked passage along with about thirty smaller ones creating natural choke points where travelers could be ambushed or forced to unload cargo.