Ust-Kut is a city in Russia that became a city in 1954, and it is the administrative center of the Ust-Kut district in the Irkutsk region.
The city is located approximately 510 kilometers north of Irkutsk and is located in the central part of the region where the Lena and Kuta rivers meet.
The population of Ust-Kut is 36,918 people as of 2021.
This city is one of the first Russian settlements in Eastern Siberia and was founded in 1631 under the name Ust-Kutsky fort. For a long time it was used as a place of political exile. In 1974, the city became the starting point for the all-Union Komsomol construction project, known as the Baikal-Amur Mainline.
Ust-Kut is also a major transport hub where railway, river, air and road routes intersect. This city includes the port of Osetrovo, which was previously the largest river port in the USSR and served as a transshipment point for goods to the north. An important industry in the city is logging and hydrocarbon production.