Kremianets Hill, Izium
The highest point of Kharkiv region: the ramparts of a Cossack fortress of 1681 and Polovtsian stone babas taken away for restoration.
The hill rises 218 m above sea level and 160 m above the Siverskyi Donets. In 1681 the Kharkiv colonel Hryhorii Donets enlarged the fortress here — a ditch, ramparts, palisades; earlier a Tatar outpost, Gezun-Kermen, stood on the hill. The last battle for Kremianets in the Second World War took place on 17 July 1943; the Memorial of Glory with three concrete pylons 26.5 m high was opened in 1988. Nine Polovtsian stone babas of the 9th–13th centuries from the burial mounds of the Izium area were gathered on the hill. On 26 March 2022 an aerial bomb toppled one of the memorial's stelae, and one baba was destroyed by a direct hit; in November 2023 all nine sculptures were taken to Kharkiv for restoration — they will return after martial law ends.
De-occupied territory: do not leave paved surfaces, mine danger; the hill is reached on foot from the town. The memorial on the hill was seriously damaged by bombing in spring 2022, and the russians smashed one of the 9 Polovtsian stone babas (city-izyum.pp.ua, 08.02.2026). Izium regularly comes under strikes with guided aerial bombs: on 15.09.2026 11 people were hurt (Obiektyv, 15.09.2026), on 22.09.2026 — 7 (LB.ua, 23.09.2026).