Konotop (Конотоп) is a city in northern Ukraine within the Sumy
Oblast. Konotop is the center of the Konotop Raion (district),
and is located about 129km from Sumy, the Oblast capital. It is
host to Konotop air base. During the beginning of the 17th
Century , Ukrainian Cossacks were first based in that area. The
settlement was first mentioned in 1635 in various documents as
Novoselitsa . In 1642 a Polish fortress was built in that place
named after the river Konotopka . Probably the river
disappeared, and another one was created, Yezuch. The
fortification became a key point in the struggle against the
Moscow state. Some historians suppose that Konotop was inhabited
even before the Tatar-Mongolian invasion. A legend says that
during the Tatar cavalry movement in this region many horses and
warriors drowned in the swamps, that's why the area was named
"Konotop" - a swampy land or a horse-ford where horses drowned.
There is another legend about the origination of the name.
According to it, there was an accident