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Founding
Founding of Donetsk
city in Ukraine
- 1869
- Europe
Founding
city in Ukraine
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Donetsk (, dən-; Ukrainian: Донецьк [doˈnɛtsʲk] ⓘ; Russian: Донецк [dɐˈnʲetsk] ⓘ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capital of the Donetsk People's Republic. The population was estimated at 901,645 (2022 estimate) in the city core, with over 2 million in the metropolitan area (2011). According to the 2001 census, Donetsk was the fifth-largest city in Ukraine.
Administratively, Donetsk has been the centre of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the larger economic and cultural Donets Basin (Donbas) region. Donetsk is adjacent to another major city, Makiivka, and along with other surrounding cities forms a major urban sprawl and conurbation in the region. Donetsk has been a major economic, industrial and scientific centre of Ukraine with a high concentration of heavy industries and a skilled workforce. The density of heavy industries (predominantly steel production, chemical industry, and coal mining) determined the city's challenging ecological situation. In 2012, a UN report ranked Donetsk among the world's fastest depopulating cities.
The original settlement was first mentioned as Aleksandrovka in 1779. In 1869, the Welsh businessman John Hughes founded a steel plant and several coal mines in the region, and the town was named Hughesovka or Yuzovka (Юзовка) in recognition of his role ("Yuz" being a Russian-language approximation of Hughes). During Soviet times, the city's steel industry expanded. In 1924, Yuzovka was renamed Stalin. In 1929, Stalin was renamed Stalino, and in 1932, the city became the centre of the Donetsk region. Renamed Donetsk in 1961, the city today remains a centre for coal mining and for the steel industry.
Since April 2014, Donetsk and its surrounding areas have been one of the major sites of fighting in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, as pro-Russian separatist forces battle against Ukrainian military forces for control of the city and surrounding areas. Throughout the war, the city of Donetsk has been administered by the pro-Russian separatist forces as the center of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), with outlying territories of the Donetsk region divided between the two sides. Donetsk International Airport became the epicenter of the war in 2014 with almost a year-long battle.
As of June 2026, Russia has full control of the city.
One of the early mining settlements in the territory of Donetsk was Alexandrovka (Oleksandrivka). The existence of Aleksandrovskaya (Oleksandrivska) Cossack sloboda in its place is attested by 1779, with the Aleksandrovsky (Oleksandrivska) coal mine eventually being opened there.
The city of Donetsk was founded in 1869 by Welsh businessman John Hughes, who operated a steel plant and several coal mines at Aleksandrovka. The workers’ settlement at the plant merged with Aleksandrovka and the place was named Yuzovo/Yuzove, later Yuzovka/Yuzivka (Russian: Юзово, Юзовка, Ukrainian: Юзове, Юзівка), after Hughes. In its early period, it received immigrants from Wales, especially from the town of Merthyr Tydfil. By the beginning of the 20th century, Yuzovka had approximately 50,000 inhabitants, and attained the status of a city in 1917. The main district of Yuzovka is named English Colony, and the British origin of the city is reflected in its layout and architecture.
When the Ukrainian War of Independence broke out, Yuzivka became a part of the Ukrainian People's Republic as per the Third Universal. It became a part of Cuman Zemlia, the administrative center of which was Bakhmut. During the First Ukrainian–Soviet War, Yuzivka was captured by the Bolshevik forces on 5 January 1918, but then recaptured by Ukraine in April. Soviet forces captured Yuzivka again during the Second Ukrainian–Soviet War. Donetsk became a part of Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic from its declaration of independence on 12 February 1918. The Republic was disbanded at the 2nd All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets on 20 March 1918, when the independence of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic was declared. It failed to achieve recognition, either internationally or by the Russian SFSR, and was abolished under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. After the war, the city was administratively part of the Donets Governorate of Ukraine.
In 1924, under Soviet rule, the city's name was changed to Stalin. In that year, the city's population totaled 63,708, and in the next year, 80,085. In 1929–31 the city's name was changed to Stalino. The city did not have a drinking water system until 1931, when a 55.3 km (34.4 mi) system was laid underground. In July 1933, the city became the administrative center of the Donetsk Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1933, the first 12 km (7 mi) sewer system was installed, and the use of gas began the next year. Some sources state that the city was briefly called Trotsk—after Leon Trotsky—for a few months in late 1923.
At the start of World War II, the population of Stalino was 507,000. After the war, the population was 175,000. The invasion by Nazi Germany almost completely destroyed the city. It was occupied by German and Italian forces as part of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine between 16 October 1941 and 5 September 1943. The Germans operated the Stalag 386, Stalag 387 and Stalag 397 prisoner-of-war camps, and the Dulag 162, Dulag 181, Dulag 151 and Dulag 182 transit prisoner-of-war camps in the city. The city was mostly rebuilt on a large scale after the war.
In 1945, young men and women aged 17 to 35, from the Danube Swabian (Schwowe) communities of Yugoslavia, Hungary and Romania (the Batschka and Banat), were forcibly sent to Russia as Allied "war reparations", being put to work as slave labour to rebuild Stalino and to work in its mines. The conditions were so poor that many died from disease and malnutrition.
During Nikita Khrushchev's second wave of destalinization in November 1961, the city was renamed Donetsk, after the Seversky Donets River, a tributary of the Don in order to distance it from the former leader Joseph Stalin.
In 1965, the Donetsk Academy of Sciences was established as part of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.
After the declaration of independence made by the Ukrainian parliament on 24 August 1991 the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum was held on 1 December 1991. In this referendum 83.90% of Donetsk's voters voted in favour of independence.
After experiencing a tough time in the 1990s, when it was the center of gang wars for control over industrial enterprises, Donetsk modernised quickly, largely under the influence of big companies.
In 1994 a consultative referendum was held in Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast, with around 90% supporting recognition of Russian as an official language alongside Ukrainian, and for Russian to be an official language on a regional level.
The Donetsk region was the site of various coal mine collapses from the 1990s into the 2010s in which hundreds were killed. These included the 2008 Ukraine coal mine collapse, the 2007 Zasyadko mine disaster, and the 2015 Zasyadko mine disaster. Ukraine has had various mining accidents since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, with a union official stating that the linking of miners' pay to production had served as an incentive to ignore safety procedures that slow production.
In a summit in Moscow in 2008, Donetsk was recognised as the best city in the Commonwealth of Independent States for its implemented development strategies; in 2012 and 2013 Donetsk was recognised as the best place for business in Ukraine.
Whilst getting praise for its business potential in 2009, Donetsk also received criticism for the strong mafia connection of its growing oligarchy, and for an increasing poverty rate. Some analysts warned of a long-term collapse of the Donetsk economy; and that it could share Detroit's gloomy fate, due to its failure to combat crime and poverty.
After President Viktor Yanukovych fled Ukraine to seek asylum in Russia, Russian-backed separatists took over the Regional State Administration Building, the main government building, in Donetsk. The police did not offer resistance. Later in the week the authorities of Donetsk disallowed a referendum on the status of the region and the police retook the Donetsk OSA building. Donetsk became one of the centers of the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine.
On 7 April 2014, pro-Russian activists seized control of Donetsk OSA and declared the "Donetsk People's Republic", asking for Russian intervention.
On 11 May 2014, a referendum on the self-rule was held in Donetsk. The head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic election commission, Roman Lyagin, said that almost 90 percent of those who voted in the Donetsk Region endorsed political independence from Kyiv. Ukraine does not recognize the referendum, while the EU and US stated that the polls were illegal.
Heavy shelling by the Ukrainian Army and paramilitary units have caused civilian fatalities in Donetsk. Human Rights Watch has called on both warring factions to cease using the unguided BM-21 Grad missiles in populated areas, and has said the use of these weapons systems was a violation of international humanitarian laws and could constitute a war crime. It also called on the insurgents to avoid their deployment in densely populated areas.
The 2015 IIHF World Championship Division I, Group A was scheduled for 18 to 24 April 2015 in Donetsk, but Ukraine withdrew as hosts due to the ongoing conflict in the country. Instead of Donetsk, the tournament was organized in Kraków, Poland. Eventually, Ukraine co-organized 2017 IIHF World Championship Division I, again Group A, but in its capital, Kyiv.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the area around Donetsk has seen full-scale fighting between Ukrainian forces against Russian forces and their DNR counterparts. Russian-installed local officials have repeatedly accused Ukrainian armed forces of shelling Donetsk. On 30 September 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree annexing four districts, including Donetsk, to Russia. This annexation has been rejected by the global community as a breach of international law.
Donetsk lies in the steppe landscape, surrounded by scattered woodland, hills, spoil tips, rivers and lakes. The northern outskirts are mainly used for agriculture. The Kalmius River links the city with the Sea of Azov, which is 95 km (59 mi) to the south, and a popular recreational area for those living in Donetsk. A wide belt of farmlands surrounds the city.
The city stretches 28 km (17 mi) from north to south and 55 km (34 mi) from east to west. There are 2 nearby reservoirs: Nyzhnekalmius (60 ha), and the Donetsk Sea (206 ha). 5 rivers flow through the city, including the Kalmius, Asmolivka (13 km), Cherepashkyna (23 km), Skomoroshka and Bakhmutka. The city also contains a total of 125 spoil tips.
Donetsk's climate is moderate hot summer continental (Köppen: Dfa). The average temperatures are −4.0 °C (25 °F) in January and 22.5 °C (73 °F) in July. The average number of rainfall per year totals 162 days and up to 556 millimetres per year.
Starting on 7 April 2014, Donetsk was de facto governed by the Donetsk People's Republic as its capital city. The Donetsk People's Republic was at that time not recognized internationally, and all UN member states recognized the city as Ukrainian. However, in February 2022, Russia recognized the DPR and the neighboring Luhansk People's Republic as sovereign states, and later that year officially annexed them (along with various other parts of Ukraine that were then at least partially under Russian military occupation). The member states of the United Nations still overwhelmingly considered the areas to be Ukrainian, with only Syria, North Korea, and Russia itself considering them to be Russian.
The territory of Donetsk is divided into 9 administrative districts, whose local government is administered by district councils, which are subordinate to the Donetsk City Council.
On 26 February 2026, the Donetsk Oblast Military Administration renamed eight districts as part of the decommunization and derussification campaign; their new de jure names are shown in parentheses in the table below.
Donetsk had a population of over 985,000 inhabitants in 2009 and over 1,566,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2004. It was the fifth-largest city in Ukraine.
The structure of the Donetsk City Municipality by ethnicity as of the Ukrainian Census of 2001:
Native language of the population of the city of Donetsk:
In a 1991 poll one-third of the population identified as Russian, one-third as Ukrainian while the majority of the rest declared themselves Slavs. Smaller minorities include in particular ethnic groups from the South Caucasus and northeast Anatolia region, including Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Georgians, and Pontic Greeks (including those defined as Caucasus Greeks).
Donetsk and the surrounding territories are heavily urbanised and agglomerated into conurbation. The workforce is heavily involved with heavy industry, especially coal mining. The city is an important center of heavy industry and coal mines in the Donets Basin (Donbas). Directly under the city lie coal mines, which have recently seen an increase in mining accidents, the most recent accident being at the Zasyadko mine, which killed over 100 workers.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Donetsk”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.