Dnipropetrovsk

Introducing Dnipropetrovsk

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to come to Dnipropetrovsk these days, but at one time you practically did. As the USSR’s leading missile production base, it manufactured ICBMs and was closed to all outside the industry. However, that era is long past. Soon after Ukrainian independence the city gates opened, Europe’s largest missile factory turned to making space hardware instead and its director, Leonid Kuchma, packed his bags and headed for Kyiv as national president.

Nowadays, local oligarchs have ensured that Dnipropetrovsk – known as Yekaterinaslav in tsarist times – is one of the ritziest cities in Ukraine outside Kyiv. Its broad main thoroughfare, pr Karla Marksa, is awash with shops selling Swiss watches, Scandinavian furniture, French cosmetics and Italian fashion. The city’s modern, palatial nightclubs, which trump even those in Kyiv, are the city’s other big draw. And Dnipropetrovsk (‘DP’) will be one of the host cities for the 2012 European Football Championship.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009