Bird's Eye Views of Ukraine

Prepare to be amazed by this very impressive pro drone reel from top contributor smakozawr.  The video features a great mix of urban, landscape, and action shots, mostly from his native Ukraine.  Ride along for some great views from the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev and its Black Sea port city of Odessa, as well as some shots from the country's expansive farmlands.  Action shots include some amazing sequences involving drift cars, a small fleet of personal watercraft racing down the Dneiper River, Ukrainian army vehicles, and more.  

In this DVOW winning video, Tempostudio takes you on an aerial tour of the giant Eastern European country of Ukraine.  The video opens with some beautiful shots of a river coursing over the plains which dominate much of Ukraine, followed by a view of a gold-domed temple in the village Zhornivka in the Kiev Oblast.  Next, you'll head to the capital city of Kiev for some stunning views of the St. Sophia's Cathedral.  You'll see some great bird footage at the :52 mark, the Carpathian Mountains (1:15), rolling farmlands (2:15), and more. 

Take an aerial tour of the Eastern European nation of Ukraine in this phenomenal reel by Tempostudios.  You will be carried along for bird's eye views of some of the most spectacular sights of this fascinating country.  Highlights include some amazing shots of the capital city Kiev and some of its great cultural and historical treasures such as St. Andrews Church and the massive Rodina Mat statue, as well as some aerials of the fabled Ukrainian countryside.  This film was a Drone Video of the Week nominee in March, 2019.

Upon gaining its independence (again) following in the early 1990's, Ukraine became one of the largest countries in Europe, comparable to France in both population and geographic extent.  It's a land of large cities, countless smaller towns, and diverse natural scenery.  Contributor Vasylkevych flew a drone over the length and width of this amazing country to create a remarkable aerial portrait of the Ukraine, which was produced in connection with an article in a major travel magazine and website.

While the Eastern European nation of the Ukraine has many cultural and historical ties to Russia, both the landscape of the country and its people are quite distinct.  It is a country of large cities like Kiev, spectacular peaks of the Carpathian Mountain range in the southwestern part of the countries, and gorgeous Black Sea coastlines in its far south.  Contributor Anthony Esteban Gonsales does an outstanding job of using a drone to create a deeply moving aerial portrait of this amazing country.

Former DVOW Winner smakozawr brings us this fantastic wintertime drone video from the city of Kiev, Ukraine.  Opening with shots of a giant power plant, the video will then take you over the fog-covered Dneiper River, which runs through the heart of Kiev.  Then it's on to the 385 meter (just over 1.25k ft.) Kyiv TV Tower, followed by the giant Ferris wheel on Kontraktova Square and the Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex.  Other highlights include the Statue of St. Vladimir at the 2:10 mark, the Column of Independence (3:20), and more.   

Former Drone Video of the Week Winner Tempostudio brings us this excellent drone video from the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine.  The great range of Central and Eastern/Southeastern Europe faintly resembles top part of a "?" shape, beginning just east of Vienna (Austria), serving as the border between Poland and Slovakia, then "looping around" through the southwestern corner of Ukraine before heading south into Romania.  It covers parts of four Ukrainian oblasts (provinces): Zakarpattia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Chernivtsi.

Get a unique perspective of the giant Eastern European country known as Ukraine in this fantastic first person view (FPV) drone reel by contributor and FPV pilot skyandmethod.  The video opens with some amazing views of the Dneiper River waterfront in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital city.  Other Kiev sites include the St. Andrews Church and the Rodina Mat statue.  Other shots will take you over the Ukrainian countryside, including some amazing hot air balloon shots.  This video was picked for the FPV Pilots to Watch list in November 2020.  

Here's a bird's eye look at what is generally considered to be the Ukraine's most famous castle.  Palanok Castles (also called Mukachevo Castle) is situated in the Zakarpattia oblast, the southwesternmost province of the country.  Sitting atop a volcanic hill near the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, the castle dates to the 14th century.  Fortified in several stages, it was used as a pan-European prison following the fall of the Bastille in Paris during the early days of the French Revolution. 

Vinnitsa (Vinnytsia) is a mid-sized city in the Podillia region of north central Ukraine.  It's part of the Ukraine which has, at various times in its history, been part of neighboring Poland.  In this video, contributor and pilot Alpa Karagulle used a drone to capture the water tower which figures prominently in the cityscape of Vinnitsa.  The highly stylized video provides a great look at not only the tower but also the town itself, a very well preserved example of a medium sized Eastern European city. 

Brand-new contributor Tymoshenko Pavel brings us this stunning drone video of Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine.  Founded in the 13th century on the banks of the Poltva River, Lviv has been an important cultural center for centuries.  Part of Poland at the outset of World War II (when it was known as Lvow),  the city center itself was left largely intact despite the untold horrors visited upon its population.  After the conflict, Lviv became part of Ukraine (then part of the USSR), as Poland's borders were shifted westwards.     

The Ukrainian capital Kiev is closely tied to the Dneiper River on which it sits.   Kiev sits roughly midway down the 2.2k km (1.36k mi.) river, Europe's fourth longest .  The Dneiper rises near Smolensk in western Russia and empties into the Black Sea to the south.  Along the way, it provides enough hydropower to generate about 10% of the Ukraine's electricity needs.  In this video, you'll get a nice bird's eye view of the mighty river in winter, compliments of contributor Anthony Esteban Gonsales.

Behold this aerial video of one of the most well known castles in the Ukraine.  Contributor Martini flew a drone over Pidhirtsi Castle, which is situated in the oblast (province) of Lviv in the western part of this giant Eastern European country.  The castle was constructed in the 17th century, at a time when the western part of what is now Ukraine was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.  The castle was near the front during much of World War I, and shortly thereafter saw fighting during the Polish Civil War.

The Carpathian Mountains of Central and Eastern Europe form an arc which juts eastward starting around the Austrian capital city of Vienna.  The portion of the arc where the range turns southward (towards Romania) sits in the southwestern portion of the Ukraine.   The mountains make this one of the most visually distinctive region of this Eastern European country.  This is the area which you'll see in this marvelous aerial video by contributor and drone pilot Antonio Esteban Gonzales, specifically the area from Yasinya to Lake Dogyaska.

Berdyansk is a port city in the southeastern Ukraine.  It sits on the Sea of Azov, a shallow body of water which is an extension of the Black Sea.  In this highly cinematic video, content creator and drone pilot Antonio Esteban Gonsales flew a DJI drone over a lighthouse on the sea during the depth of winter.  The highly stylized video does an impressive job of capturing the bleak but beautiful expanse of this semi frozen inland sea, part of what was once the most important waterway in the world.

Berdyansk is a Ukrainian port the Sea of Azov, a large and extremely shallow body of water which is considered to be an extension of the Black Sea.  While not as large as the port of Odessa further to the west, Berdyansk is nevertheless an important shipping center in the southern Ukraine, which otherwise lacks access to the sea.  In this video, contributor and pilot Daniilsamoilenko uses a DJI Phantom 3 drone to do an epic selfie pull out shot revealing the red sand beach and the blue sea water behind it.  

Ivana Kupala is an ancient Eastern European festival held in mid-summer.  The annual celebration is observed in many areas of the region, namely in parts of the Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, and Russia.  Tied to the summer solstice, Ivana Kupala occurs the night of July 6th/7th on the Eastern Orthodox calendar, which corresponds to June 23rd/24th on the Gregorian calendar. Contributor and pilot Valerii Iavtushenko flew a drone over an Ivana Kupula celebration in Ukraine to make this amazing aerial video.  

4K Aerial Photography created this beautiful drone video of Kharkov, the second largest city in the Ukraine.  Lying more or less due east from the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev, Kharkov is the most important industrial city in the country.  Founded as a fortress, the city was the site of multiple bloody battles in World War II (the Great Patriotic War) and it saw thousands of its citizens starve to death.  In this video, you'll get a bird's eye view of the great city in the depths of the Ukrainian winter.  

The most prominent landmark in the Ukrainian capital Kiev is the Rodina Mat, a giant steel monument overlooking the Dneiper River.  The statue commemorates the USSR's victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 against Nazi Germany.  While recent laws have required many Soviet era monuments to be destroyed, World War II monuments are exempted.  Here is Tempostudio's drone video of the immense statue, which is now seen as recognition of Ukraine's immense contribution to the Soviet victory.

While much of the Ukraine is part of the Eurasian Steppe, its southwestern corner is covered by a portion of the Carpathian Mountains range.  These graceful forested mountains provide some of the most spectacular scenery of Eastern Europe.  In this video by Jdjdjdjdjddj, you'll get a bird's eye view of the area around Dzembroyna.  The beautiful town enjoys the distinction of being the highest village in the entire country.  It's in the Ivano-Frankivsk province, not far from the Romanian border.  

Content creator and pilot IvanUA made the most of an unplanned detour to create this beautiful drone video of the Zhytomyr Oblast in the Ukraine.  This province sits in the north central part of the Eastern European country, along the border with Belarus to the north.  The oblast (province) was the subject of ongoing (and frequently bloody) struggles between the Russian and Polish/Lithuanian Empires before Poland was eventually partitioned out of existence at the end of the 18th century.  

While most of Ukraine is flat, its southwestern corner of this large Eastern European country is covered in medium-sized mountains.   Here can be found the country's tallest mountain: Mt. Hoverla, which stands 2,060 meters (almost 6.8k ft.) above sea level.  Hoverla is part of the Beskids Mountains, a subrange of the great Carpathian chain which extends across portions of central, eastern, and southeastern Europe.  In this video, you'll get a bird's eye view of Mt. Hoverla, compliments of contributor Nebomriy.

Multiple Drone Video of the Week Winner oculusfilms brings us this haunting drone video from the scene of one of history's greatest industrial accidents: the explosion of the No. 4 Reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine in April, 1986.  The disaster forced the evacuation of the nearby city of Pripyat, none of whose 50k+ population ever returned.  One of only two accidents with the highest severity rating under the International Nuclear Event Scale, the disaster caused thousands of cancer deaths.  

Simplistically, the economic georgraphy of Ukraine is an agricultural western half and an industrial eastern half.  The Donbas region of eastern Ukraine is home to vast coal reserves, and while coal production has declined steeply since the demise of the USSR the region still has maintained a strong industrial base which in large measure evolved from its coal production.  Arsen Poshotian created this beautiful drone video from the heart of the Donbas, which is named for the Donets River which flows through it.  

Take in these aerial views of some important historical landmarks in western Ukraine in this fascinating piece by AirVuz contributor PL-UA History by Drone.  The video was created as part of a project documenting the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which controlled the region during the late Middle Ages and Early Modern period.  Featured locations include the Church of St. Joseph in Pidhirtsi, Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle, the Capuchin Monastery in Olesko, Pidhirtsi Castle, and Khotyn Fortress.  

The Cossacks are a semi-nomadic people from southern Russia and the southeastern portion of the Ukraine, in the valleys of the great rivers of the region.  There is a fair amount of disagreement as to their origins in about the 13th-14th centuries; the areas from which they emerged were invasion zones from the Eurasian steppe for centuries and there had been much ethnic intermixing as a result.  In this video, contributor Bezha27 uses a drone to tell a story about the origins of these proud people.  

Odessa is the main seaport of Ukraine, and one of the largest on the Black Sea.  It's spread out over a length of coastline of the country's third-largest city, on the west side of Odessa Bay.  Together with its satellite ports, it's the largest Black Sea port for handing liquid and dry bulk cargo; it's also home to one of the seas's largest passenger terminals.  In this drone video by smakozawr, you'll get an aerial tour of the port, with a focus on its most modern facility: its containerized cargo terminal.  

The southwestern corner of the Ukraine presents a radically different landscape from most of the rest of the country.  Here the Carpathian Mountains swing from an east-west axis to a north-south orientation, in the process covering three of the country's oblasts (provinces) with its gentle peaks.  The heart of this area is Bukovel, which features some of the country's most spectacular scenery as well as its busiest ski resort.  Check it out from this beautiful drone video, taken during the golden Autumn.  

Contributor Valerii Iavtushenko created this beautiful drone video of the important Ukrainian city of Poltava.  The capital of the eponymously named province, it's situated in the east-central part of the country.  The city is situated on the Vorskla River, a major tributary of the mighty Dneiper River.  Poltava dates to the 12th century.  The city was the site of a decisive victory in 1709 by Tsar Peter the Great's forces over Sweden during the Great Northern War, clearing the way for Russian domination of Eastern Europe.   

Contributor Drozd used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to create this stunning early-morning aerial video of a Ukrainian Castle.  Svirzh Castle is a structure which originally dates to the 15th century.  It is situated in the Lviv Oblast (province), which is in the far western part of the country.  This is the part of Ukraine which historically was part of Poland and was ceded to the Ukraine (then part of the USSR) after World War II.  The castle spent several centuries in a ruined state before being restored in the 20th century.  

Kharkiv (Kharkov) is the second-largest Ukrainian city after Kiev, and the largest in its eastern half.  A relatively young city by European standards, Kharkiv is the country's largest industrial center.  You can take an aerial tour of the great city of the Donets River Basin in this excellent drone video by SlavBrovko; highlights include the ferris wheel of the Gorky Central Park at the :20 mark, the Palace of Industry building (Derzhprom) on Freedom Square (:50), the Dormition Cathedral (1:20), and more.

The Sea of Azov is a northeastern extension of the Black Sea, shared by the Ukraine and Russia.  Fed by two of the most important rivers in Eastern Europe (the Don and Kuban), the Sea of Azov is the shallowest sea in the world - its average depth is only 1-14 meters (3-45 ft.) depending on the season and river intake.  In this video, you will get a bird's eye view of the frozen Azov Sea, compliments of contributor and pilot danielsamoilenko.  The video was filmed around the Ukrainian port of Berdyansk.  

Content creator and pilot Vasylkevych created this stunning drone video of a now-abandoned military base in the Carpathian Mountains of southwestern Ukraine.  "Pamirs" served as an air-defense base for the Soviet Union, of which the Ukraine was part for most of the 20th century.  The base is located atop Hutyn Tomnatyk, a 2k meter (about 6.6k ft.) peak of the Chornohora region.  Upon the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, hundreds of military bases in the former Soviet Republics were similarly abandoned.  

Contributor and drone pilot Tempostudio created this drone video of Dnipro, the fourth largest city of the Ukraine.  As the name suggests, the city lies on the banks of the Dneiper River, the country's most important waterway.  It is situated in the great eastern bend of the river, about 400 km (around 240 mi.) southeast of Kiev.  The city became critical to the military-industrial complex of the USSR during Soviet rule, and continues to be one the country's most important manufacturing centers. 

Check out this drone video of a well-known castle in the western Ukraine.  It's called Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle, and it's located in the historical region of Podolia that covered parts of western modern-day Ukraine and parts of Moldova.  The castle was built in the 14th century, when the region (indeed much of Eastern Europe) was under the control of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.  It later became important to the outer defenses of the successor prot-state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Check out this very creative dronie from a wheat field in the Ukraine, compliments of contributor Energy Butterfly.  Once known as the Breadbasket of Europe, the Ukraine suffered massive declines in agricultural productivity during Soviet times.  In the past couple of decades though Ukrainian wheat production has staged an amazing comeback: in recent years, its annual exports have been approaching 20 million tons.  The country is now amongst the world's top half-dozen wheat exporters.  

Here's a haunting yet fascinating aerial tour of the site of one of history's great industrial disasters: the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near the town of Pripyat in the Ukraine.  Commissioned in 1977, the giant plant's No. 4 reactor exploded in 1986, spewing a huge cloud of radioactive material across the western part of the then-Soviet Union and all the way into Western Europe.  The town of Pripyat, which had a population of 50k, was permanently evacuated and will likely never be re-occupied.    

Take a look at this excellent 60 second drone video showing the landscapes of the heart of the Ukraine.  Apart from the corner of the country which is covered by the Carpathian Mountains, most of this giant land is covered by the great Eastern European Plain.  This great flat expanse is interrupted by the great cities which dot this country of over 40 million, as well as areas of forests and lakes.  Much of it though is under agricultural cultivation, giving rise to the Ukraine's nickname: the Breadbasket of Europe.  

Contributor and drone pilot ukrainian created this aerial film of the churches of Kozelets, a town in the northern Ukraine.  Kozelets is part of the Chernihiv Oblast, which covers much of the north-central part of this Eastern European country.  The town dates to the 11th century and was once an important Cossack outpost.  The video features the town's main attraction, the 18th century Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin church, as well as Saint Michael's Church (built in 1784) and Ascension Church (1866).

Check out these stunning aerial views of a well-known park in the Ukraine, compliments of contributor and drone pilot Dann.  It's called Sofiyvka Park, and it located on the outskirts of Uman, a medium-sized city in the Cherkasy Oblast in the central part of the country.  The park is one of the most popular attractions in the region, attracting about 500k visitors annually.  Established in 1796, the park is home to about 2,000 species of trees and brush.  It's considered one of the leading parks of its kind.    

You may have seen drone videos of weddings, but probably nothing like this amazing piece from the Ukraine by DmyAnd.  The video shows a white-gowned bride followed by a black-tuexedoed groom walking up Mt. Gemba, a peak in the Carpathian Mountains which cover the southwestern part of this giant country.  With a peak elevation of just under 1.5k meters above sea level, or about 4.9k ft., the mountain's summit can be reached via a trail.  As you will see in the video, the graceful mountains make a stunning backdrop for the wedding scene.

Check out these lovely aerial views from the western Ukraine, compliments of contributor martini.  The area filmed is a rural area in the Lviv Oblast, the westernmost of Ukraine's 24 regular provinces.  The watchtower here is indicative of the strategic importance of the region, which is considered the gateway to the Carpathian Mountains and which has changed hands many times.  It became part of the Ukraine when Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union at the outset of World War II. 

AirVuz contributor and pilot boma.story created this beautiful drone video of a church in eastern Ukraine.  The gold-domed St. Michael's Church is one of the most prominent landmarks in Pokrovsk, a city in the Oblast (province) of Donetsk.  Located about a 90-minute drive northwest of the province's namesake capital city, Pokrovsk was founded in 1875 as a rail junction.  Originally called Grishino, it became a significant center for coal mining and later evolved into a center of heavy industry.     

For a first upload to AirVuz, Travel Highlights brings us this excellent mini aerial tour of the Carpathian region of the Ukraine.  The great mountain range covers the southwestern corner of this large Eastern European country, covering parts of four oblasts (provinces): Zakarpattia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Chernivtsi.  Covering only a very small percentage of the country's land area of over 600k square km (just over 200k square mi.), Carpathian Ukraine is generally considered the most beautiful region of the country.

AirVuz contributor PL-UA History by Drone brings us this excellent drone video of a famous medieval fortress in Ukraine.  Khotyn Fortress is located on the right (eastern) bank of the Dneister River, in the western oblast (province) of Chernivtsi.  Originally dating to the 14th century, the complex played an important role in the centuries-long struggle for control of the historical region of Bessarabia, which involved (at various times) the Ottoman and Russian Empires, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Romania, the USSR, and others.  

In this chilling yet thorough aerial tour of the Chernobyl disaster site - courtesy of drone pilot Smakozawr - remnants from the nuclear accident on April 26, 1986, are seen in the plain light of day. The video shows many facets of the destruction, including the abandoned city of Pripyat, founded solely to serve the plant, the plant's train station, which was instead used for rescue and evacuation in the days after the accident, and a car cemetery, the only conceivable method for disposing of vehicles forever tainted by radioactivity.

Ukraine's Donbas Region is named after the Donets River, a major Don tributary which runs through the eastern part of the country.  The Donbas is closely associated with a single commodity: coal.  At their peak in the 1970's, the Donbas coal mines produced over 200 million tons of coal annually.  Due to a combination of political and economic factors, Donbas coal production is now less than 20% of its peak.  In this drone video by smakozawr, you'll get a bird's eye view of this legacy: an abandoned coal mine and its giant excavators.  

Check out this amazing aerial view of a shipwreck in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, compliments of AirVuz contributor and drone pilot Iafar.  Odessa is major seaport on the northern side of the Black Sea.  The largest city in the southern Ukraine, it's sometimes called the Pearl of the Black Sea for its beauty.  Once the most important body of water in the world, the Black Sea is home to countless shipwrecks. This one is unusual in that it occurred so close to shore; most of the ships which have sunk in the Black Sea have never been found.  

During their peak in the 1970's, the coal mines of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine produced upwards of 200 million tons of coal per year.  Production declined modestly in the 1980's, then (for a variety of reasons) collapsed in the years following the dissolution of the USSR in the early 1990's; Ukraine's coal production now languishes at around 40 million tons per year.  In this drone video by AirVuz contributor boma.story, you'll get an aerial view of the environmental legacy left by the once-mighty coal industry here.  

Check out this excellent drone video of a spot in the Carpathian Mountains known as the Ukrainian Stonehenge. It's called the Dovbush Rocks, and it's located near the town of Bolekhiv in southwestern Ukraine.  The hand-carved rocks are thought to have been used as a pagan sanctuary during the period of the first millennium BC when the area was inhabited by Celtic tribes.  The rocks are surrounded by natural boulders which have not been altered.  The area is part of the Polyanytskiy Regional Landscape Park.

AirVuz contributor and drone pilot SlavBrovko put together this excellent captioned aerial video from Ukraine's Kharkiv Oblast (province).  One of the country's 24 provinces, Kharkhiv lies in the eastern part of the country and its namesake provincial capital is the country's second-largest after Kiev.  The video features the following seven locations in the oblast: the Koropovo Farms; Kitsevka ; Sharovka Palace ; Zmiiv Steeps; Ionosphere Institute; Konev's High Ground; and Izium.

Olesko Castle is a well-recognized historical landmark in western Ukraine.  Seen in this drone video by former Drone Video of the Week Winner Tempostudio, it's located in the raion (district) of Busk, in the oblast (region) of Lvov.  The castle dates to the 14th century, and possibly earlier.  The castle sits atop a roughly 160 ft. (around 50 m) hill and is surrounded by a moat.  Originally a defensive fortification, in the 15th century its purpose was converted to a residence for local aristocracy.   

AirVuz contributor and pilot DmyAnd brings us this inspiring drone video from the deserted streets of a city in Ukraine during the Covid-19 pandemic in the Spring of 2020.  The video was filmed in Lutsk, an important city in the northwestern corner of this giant East European country.  Ukraine's first confirmed infection was announced on March 3.  While the country was seemingly faring better than much of Europe, the government announced emergency measures on March 24 to implement social distancing restrictions.  

When the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine exploded catastrophically in 1986, the city of Pripyat, which had been built to house workers for the gigantic project had to be completely evacuated.  The new home for many of the 50k former residents of Pripyat became the newly built town of Slavutych.  Located on the banks of the Dneiper River, the town is about 50 km (around 30 mi) from the Chernobyl Plant and about 200 km (around 120 mi.) from Kiev.  Seen here in this drone video by Paradoxck, the town now has a population of around 25k.  

Lutsk is an important city in western Ukraine.   It's the administrative center of Volyn, the northwesternmost of the country's 24 oblasts (provinces).  Dating to as long ago as the 7th century AD, Lutsk became an important commercial center during the years when the region was ruled by (in succession) Lithuania, Poland, the Russian Empire, Poland (again during the inter-war years) and then the USSR.  Check out the historic town from above in this excellent drone video by AirVuz contributor DmyAnd. 

Check out this drone video of an abandoned church in Ukraine, compliments of martini.  It's called the All Saints Church, and it's located near the town of Godovitsa in the western part of the country.  This part of Ukraine was part of Poland in the years immediately prior to World War II, and its ethnic makeup was roughly split between Poles and Ukrainians.  As a Catholic church, All Saints fell into a state of abandonment following the forced relocations that occurred after the war, and was destroyed by a fire in the 1970's.    

If you think shipwrecks are a thing of the past, check out this drone video by top AirVuz contributor and pilot smakozawr.  He was able to aerially filmed a tanker which ran agound on the Black Sea coast of Ukraine in November, 2019.  The incident occurred during a powerful storm near the port of Yuzhniy, which is part of the great Odessa seaport complex.  After initially refusing evacuation, the ship's small crew was eventually taken to safety.  According to news reports, the tanker was empty when it ran aground.  

Lviv is the largest city in the western part of the Ukraine, and the seventh largest overall in this Eastern European country.  Prior to World War II, Lviv was part of Poland, whose borders were shifted to the west as part of the postwar settlement putting Lviv in what was then the USSR.  While the inhabitants of the city suffered untold horrors during the war, the city center itself was left largely intact.  In this video by YoungPilot, you'll get a great bird's eye view of this important cultural city.  

Former Drone Video of the Week Winner Tempostudio brings us this fantastic drone video of Ukraine's Pidhirtsi Castle.  It's situated in the Lviv Oblast, the westernmost province of this giant Eastern European country.  The castle was constructed in the 17th century, when the region was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.  It overlooks the valley of the Styr River.  Heavily damaged by the conflicts which ravaged Eastern Europe in the first half of the 20th century, it's now part of the Lviv National Art Gallery.  

The great Carpathian Mountain range of Central and Eastern/Southeastern Europe faintly resembles top part of a "?" shape, beginning just east of Vienna (Austria), serving as the border between Poland and Slovakia, then "looping around" through the southwestern corner of Ukraine before heading south into Romania.  In this drone video by Tempostudio, you'll get a bird's eye view of Carpathian Ukraine, which features a landscape in vivid contrast to other parts of this vast East European country.