Yelsk

Yelsk is a town in southern Homielskaja voblasć (Gomel Region), near the Ukrainian border, with a population of roughly 8,600 (2025) and administrative center of Yelsk District. It was a private town within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; in the 16th century it passed to the Spads, a family of French religious refugees, who took the local name Jelski. During the Second World War German forces occupied the town from summer 1941, and its Jewish population was deported or killed, including a massacre of Jews brought in from the nearby village of Skorodnoye. Yelsk lies in a part of Gomel Region that received significant fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster; the town itself was not evacuated and sits outside the formal exclusion zones, but visitors interested in the disaster's regional impact will find Yelsk District within the affected area. The town's Holy Trinity Church is a documented local landmark.

• Holy Trinity Church — the town's documented Orthodox church

• Narowlya (north) — near the Chernobyl exclusion zone
• Mazyr (north-east) — the region's main industrial city
• Ukraine border — a nearby international frontier; check current crossing status before planning a visit