Kuk (1,361 m) is one of the most rewarding summits in the Borzhava range of the Ukrainian Carpathians, sitting in the southeastern part of the Polonyna Borzhava massif. The Ukrainian writer Vasyl Hrenzha-Donsky once put it best: 'To be in the Carpathians and not visit Kuk is like being in Rome and not seeing the Pope' — a recommendation that still holds true today.
The slopes of Kuk are draped in beech forest up to about 1,200–1,250 m, with scattered spruce and fir trees. Above that, open alpine meadows — polonyny — spread wide, carpeted in bilberry. The summit panorama is genuinely spectacular: to the northwest lies the Borzhava ridge (Stiy, Velykyi Verkh, Mahura-Zhyde); to the north you can spot Velykyi Yavornyk and Trostyan; to the east and northeast the Gorgany peaks rise (Grofa, Ihrovets, Popadya, Petros); and to the southeast the Polonyna Krasna stretches out with the Svydovets and Marmarosh massifs visible in the far background. In summer the meadows are peaceful and wide open; in autumn the beech forests turn spectacular shades of gold.
How to reach the summitThe stream Kozay rises on the eastern slopes of Kuk — Hrenzha-Donsky used to come here to fish for golden trout and rest from his writing and political life, and it was here he once met the legendary outlaw Ilko Lypey, whose story he later turned into a novel.