{{Short description|Major Central European river}} {{ about|the Bug, a tributary of the Narew|the river in Southern Ukraine|Southern Bug}}

{{Infobox river | name = Bug | native_name = {{unbulletedlist|{{native name|pl|Bug}}|{{native name|uk|Західний Буг}}|{{native name|be|Заходні Буг}}|{{native name|ru|Западный Буг}}}} <!-- IMAGE & MAP --> | image = Wyszkow_Bug.jpg | image_size = 250 | image_caption = Bug River in the vicinity of Wyszków, Poland | map = Vistula river map.png | map_size = 250px | map_caption = Bug River | pushpin_map_size = 250px | mapframe = yes | mapframe-zoom = 5 <!-- LOCATION --> | subdivision_type1 = Country | subdivision_name1 = Poland, Belarus, Ukraine | subdivision_type2 = Voivodeship<br />Region<br />Oblast | subdivision_name2 = Podlaskie, Mazovian, Lublin, Brest, Lviv | subdivision_type3 = Cities | subdivision_name3 = Sheptytskyi, Sokal, Włodawa, Brest, Drohiczyn, Wyszków, Serock <!-- PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS --> | length = {{convert|774|km|mi|abbr=on}} | discharge1_location= Serock | discharge1_avg = {{convert|1|m3/s|cuft/s|abbr=on}} | discharge2_location= Narew | discharge2_avg = {{convert|155|m3/s|cuft/s|abbr=on}} <!-- BASIN FEATURES --> | source1_location = near Verkhobuzh, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine | source1_coordinates= {{coord|49.8715|25.0960|display=inline}} | source1_elevation = {{convert|310|m|abbr=on}} | mouth = Narew | mouth_location = near Serock, Poland | mouth_coordinates = {{coord|52.50814|21.08408|display=inline,title}} | mouth_elevation = {{convert|75|m|abbr=on}} | progression = {{RNarew}} | basin_size = {{convert|38712|km2|abbr=on}} }}

The '''Bug''' or '''Western Bug'''{{efn|{{langx|pl|Bug}} {{IPAc-pl|AUD|Pl-Bug.ogg|b|u|k}}, {{langx|uk|Західний Буг}}, ''Zakhidnyi Buh,'' {{langx|be|Захо́дні Буг}}, ''Zakhodni Buh''; {{langx|ru|Западный Буг}}, ''Zapadnyy Bug''}} is a major river in Central Europe that flows through Belarus (border), Poland, and Ukraine, with a total length of {{convert|774|km|mi}}.<ref name=yearbook>[http://stat.gov.pl/download/gfx/portalinformacyjny/en/defaultaktualnosci/3328/2/17/1/statistical_yearbook_of_the_republic_of_poland_2017.pdf Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Poland 2017], Statistics Poland, p. 85-86</ref> A tributary of the Narew, the Bug forms part of the border between Belarus and Poland for {{convert|178|km|mi}} and part of the border between Ukraine and Poland for {{convert|185|km|mi}}.<ref name="floodwise"/><ref name=statistics>{{cite web |url = http://landofancestors.com/travel/statistics/geography/237-main-characteristics-of-the-largest-rivers.html |title = Main Geographic Characteristics of the Republic of Belarus. Main characteristics of the largest rivers of Belarus |publisher = Data of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus. |year = 2011 |website = Land of Ancestors |access-date = 27 September 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140115190617/http://landofancestors.com/travel/statistics/geography/237-main-characteristics-of-the-largest-rivers.html |archive-date = 15 January 2014 |url-status = dead }}</ref>

The Bug is connected with the Dnieper by the Dnieper–Bug Canal. Out of its {{convert|38712|km2|mi2}} drainage basin, half is in Poland,<ref name=yearbook/> just over a quarter in Belarus, and slightly under a quarter in Ukraine.<ref name="floodwise"/>

==History== According to Zbigniew Gołąb, the Slavic hydronym ''Bug'' as ''*bugъ''/''*buga'' derives from the Proto-Indo-European verbal root ''*bheug-'' (with cognates in old Proto-Germanic ''*bheugh-'' etc. with the meaning 'bend, turn, move away'), with the hypothetical original meaning 'pertaining to a (river) bend', and derivatives in Russian ''búga'' 'low banks of a river overgrown with bushes', Polish ''bugaj'' 'bushes or woods in a river valley or on a steep river bank', and Latvian ''bauga'' 'marshy place by a river'.<ref>{{citation |first=Zbigniew |last=Gołąb |author-link = Zbigniew Gołąb |year=1992 |title=The Origins of the Slavs: A Linguist's View |url=https://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/39006 |location=Columbus |publisher=Slavica |pages=258–260 |isbn=9780893572310}}</ref>

Traditionally (e.g., by the drafters of the Curzon Line), the Bug River has been considered the ethnographic border between the East and West as well as the border between Orthodox (Ukrainians, Belarusians) and Catholic (Poles) peoples, with Podlachia being a historical borderland where ethnic elements of those nations intermerged.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Barwiński, Marek The Contemporary Ethnic and Religious Borderland in Podlasie Region (2005) |url=https://zanotowane.pl/1113/2644/?utm_source= |access-date=2025-09-14 |website=zanotowane.pl}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.lwow.com.pl/przes2.html|title= POLSKIE PRZESIEDLENIA - HISTORIA NIEZNANA|website= www.lwow.com.pl|access-date= 13 August 2018}}</ref>{{verify source|date=October 2020}}

The Bug was part of the frontier between the territories occupied by Austria, Russia, and Prussia after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, the southern half of the eastern border of the Duchy of Warsaw and Lithuanian Provisional Governing Commission (1809–1815), Congress Poland and Russia proper (1815–1867), of the Vistula Land and Russia proper (1867–1913), and of the Regency Kingdom of Poland and BPR (1917–1918). The Bug also formed part of the dividing line between German Wehrmacht and Soviet Red Army zones specified in a clause of the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty of 28 September 1939 following the September 1939 invasion of Poland in the Second World War.

==Geographic characteristics==

[[File:Łazienki - Pałac na wodzie - 20.jpg|thumb|left|''Allegory of the Bug River'', a statue on the terrace of the Łazienki Palace in Royal Baths Park, Warsaw, Poland]] The Bug is a left tributary of the Narew. It flows from the Lviv Oblast in the west of Ukraine northwards into the Volyn Oblast, before passing along the Ukraine-Polish and Polish-Belarusian border and into Poland, where it follows part of the border between the Masovian and Podlaskie Voivodeships. It joins the Narew at Serock, a few kilometers upstream of the artificial Zegrze Lake, which was constructed in 1963 with a hydroelectric complex.<ref name="floodwise">{{cite web | url=http://www.lugv.brandenburg.de/media_fast/4055/final_floodwise_proj.pdf | title=Characteristics and cross-border cooperation within the river basins of the FLOOD-WISE project | publisher=Zuyd University of Applied Sciences Maastricht, the Netherlands | year=2010 | access-date=29 October 2013 | author1=D.François | author2=J. Kikken | author3=P. Moiret | author4=J. Paulzen | author5=B. Stevens | pages=49–55 | archive-date=31 October 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131031203749/http://www.lugv.brandenburg.de/media_fast/4055/final_floodwise_proj.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref>

This part of the Narew between the confluence and the Vistula is sometimes referred to as Bugo-Narew but on December 27, 1962, the Prime Minister of Poland's act abolished the name "Bugo-Narew", soon after Zegrze Lake was completed.<ref name="Monitor">{{in lang|pl}} "Monitor Polski" 1963, nr 3, poz. 6</ref>

On the Bug, a few kilometers from the Vysokaye in Kamenets District of the Brest Region, is the westernmost point of Belarus.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://landofancestors.com/travel/statistics/geography/235-coordinates-of-the-extreme-points-of-the-state-frontier.html |title = Main Geographic Characteristics of the Republic of Belarus |publisher = The Scientific and Production State Republican Unitary Enterprise “National Cadastre Agency” of the State Property Committee of the Republic of Belarus |year = 2011 |website = Land of Ancestors |access-date = 20 September 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130921053717/http://landofancestors.com/travel/statistics/geography/235-coordinates-of-the-extreme-points-of-the-state-frontier.html |archive-date = 21 September 2013 |url-status = dead }}</ref> It is also connected with the Dnieper via the Mukhavets, a right-bank tributary, by the Dnieper-Bug Canal.

==Basin==

The total basin area of the Bug is {{convert|38712|km2|mi2}} of which half, {{convert|19239|km2|mi2}} or, 50%, is in Poland.<ref name=yearbook/> Somewhat more than a quarter, {{convert|11400|km2|mi2}} or 29%, is in Belarus, and a bit under a quarter, {{convert|8700|km2|mi2}} or 22% lies in Ukraine.<ref name="floodwise"/>

The climate of the Bug basin is temperate.<ref name="floodwise"/>

The basin experiences annual high-water levels during spring flooding due to thawing snow, after which a low flow period starts and lasts until October or mid-November. Occasional summer floods often occur in the headlands, where mountains influence favorable flash-flood conditions. In Autumn the water level increases are inconsiderable; in some years they do not happen at all. During the winter the river can have temporary ice-outs that sometimes provoke ice jams, causing an increase of the level up to {{convert|2|m|ft}}. The resultant water levels are changeable due to the instability of ice cover.<ref name="floodwise"/>

==Flooding==

Significant floods during the last 60 years in Belarus were registered in 1958, 1962, 1967, 1971 and 1974.<ref name="floodwise"/> The largest spring flood was observed in 1979, when the maximum water discharge was 19.1 cubic metres per second on 24 March 1979, at the village of Chersk; 166 cubic metres per second near the village of Tyukhinichi (Lyasnaya river) on 31 March 1979; and 269 cubic metres per second near Brest on 1 April 1979. A similar spring flood occurred in 1999 when the spring run-off in March–May exceeded the average annual value by almost half again (48%).

The last time the Bug flooded in Poland and Ukraine was in 2010 and the last time it flooded in Belarus was in 1999.<ref name="floodwise"/>

==Tributaries==

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em| '''Left bank''' * Poltva * Bukowa * Huczwa * Uherka * Włodawka * Krzna * Toczna * Liwiec * Kałamanka

'''Right bank''' * Solokiya * Luha * Mukhavets * Lyasnaya ** Leśna Prawa ** Lyevaya Lyasnaya * Nurzec * Brok * Warenzhanka }}

==Photo gallery==

<gallery> Image:Bug_wlodawa01b-04.jpg | Bug River in the vicinity of Włodawa Image:Bug Nur.jpg | Bug River in the vicinity of Nur Image:Rzeka Bug w Drohiczynie.jpg | Bug River in the vicinity of Drohiczyn Image:Rzeka Bug.jpg | Bug River landscape near Nadbużański Image:Bug..JPG | Bug River in the vicinity of Małkinia Górna Image:Bug Serpelice.JPG | Bug River in the vicinity of Serpelice </gallery>

==See also== {{Commons category|Western_Bug|Bug River}}

* {{annotated link|Bug Landscape Park}} * {{annotated link|Geography of Belarus}} * {{annotated link|Geography of Poland}} * {{annotated link|Geography of Ukraine}} * {{annotated link|Rivers of Belarus}} * {{annotated link|List of rivers of Poland}} * {{annotated link|Rivers of Ukraine}} * {{annotated link|Southern Bug}}

==References== ===Notes=== {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} ===Sources=== {{reflist}}

==External links==

* {{in lang|pl}} [http://dir.icm.edu.pl/pl/Slownik_geograficzny/Tom_I/450 Bug] in the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland (1880)

{{Polish rivers}} {{Rivers of Ukraine}} {{Borders of Belarus}} {{Borders of Poland}} {{Borders of Ukraine}} {{Europe topic |Borders of}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Belarus–Poland border Category:Belarus–Ukraine border Category:Poland–Ukraine border Category:Border rivers Category:Borders of Belarus Category:Borders of Poland Category:Borders of Ukraine Category:Bug basin Category:International rivers of Europe Category:Natura 2000 in Poland Category:Rivers of Belarus Category:Rivers of Brest region Category:Rivers of Lublin Voivodeship Category:Rivers of Lviv Oblast Category:Rivers of Masovian Voivodeship Category:Rivers of Podlaskie Voivodeship Category:Rivers of Poland Category:Rivers of Volyn Oblast