Polesie (Polish spelling; Polissya, Полісся in Ukrainian, Poles'ye, Полесье in Russian, Palyessye or Palesse, Пале́сьсе in Belarusian) is one of the largest European swampy areas, located in the South-Western part of the Eastern-European Lowland, within the territories of Belarus, Ukraine and Poland.

The name Polesie is loosely translated as "woodland".

An inhabitant is called Poleszuk in Polish, Polishchuk in the local Ukrainian dialect, Poleshchuk in Russian, Palyashchuk in Belarusian.

The swamp areas of Polesie are known as Pripyat Marshes (by the name of the Pripyat River) or Pinsk Marshes (by the name of the major city in the area).

Geography

Polesie is a marshy region lining the Pripyat River in Southern Belarus (Brest, Pinsk, Kalinkavichy, Homel), Northern Ukraine (Volyn, Povna, Zhytomyr, North of Kyiv, Chernihiv), and partly in Poland (Lublin) and Russia (Bryansk). It is a flatland within the watersheds of the Western Bug and Pripyat rivers. The two rivers are connected by the Dnepr-Bug Canal, built during the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski, the last king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Notable tributaries of the Pripyat are the Horyn (Goryn), Stokhod (Stokhod, Stokhid), Styr, Ptich (Ptycz), Yasielda (Jasolda) rivers. The largest towns in the Pripyat basin are Pinsk, Stolin, Davyd-Gorodok. Huge marshes were reclaimed in the 1960s–80s for farmlands. The reclamation is believed to have harmed the environment along the course of the Pripyat river.

This region suffered severely from the Chernobyl accident. Huge areas were polluted by radioactive elements and are considered unsuitable for living.