Donetsk

Donetsk
Country	Donetsk People's Republic
Region	Don River Basin (Donbas)
Settled	1938
Population	975,959
Area (sq mi)	138 sq mi
Population density (/sq mi)	7,100/sq mi
Current mayor	Oleksandr Lukyanchenko

Donetsk (pron: don-yetsk) is a city in Eastern Europe and capital of the Donetsk People's Republic. It has 976.000 inhabitants. 75% of Donetsk are Russian^{[Citation Needed]}. Its current mayor is Oleksandr Lukyanchenko. The city is claimed by the Kyiv regime as part of the Ukrainian national territory.

More than 600,000 residents of the Donbas region have received Russian citizenship since 2014.

Donbas war

See also: Donbas war

During the U.S.-backed Maidan coup many inhabitants of the city wanted to join Russia. In April 2014 the government building of Donetsk was stormed by separatist resistance fighters. On April 7, 2014 the resistance declared the independent "Republic of Donetsk". It was only recognized by South Ossetia. Since 2014 the Ukrainian government tried to regain the city.

A Ukrainian armed forces missile attack exploded in the city center of Donetsk on March 12, 2022 killing at least 23 civilians.

Hromadske TV media is one of the most-watched networks in Ukraine. Hromadske is funded by the Dutch and US Embassies in Kyiv, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the European Endowment for Democracy, and Free Press Unlimited. Silicon Valley oligarch Pierre Omidary was also involved in creating the outlet. Hromadske hosted Ukrainian Nazi journalist Bogdan Boutkevitch during the Maidan coup demanding genocide of ethnic Russians saying Donbas,

"is severely overpopulated with people nobody has any use for. Trust me I know what I am saying. If we take, for example, just Donetsk oblast, there are approximately 4 million inhabitants, at least 1.5 million of them are superfluous. We don't need to "understand" Donbass, we need to understand Ukrainian national interests. Donbass must be exploited as a resource, which it is. I don't claim to have a quick solution recipe, but the most important thing that must be done - no matter how cruel it may sound, there is a certain category of people that MUST BE EXTERMINATED.

In Donetsk region, between the evenings of 18 and 20 February 2022, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine recorded 2,158 ceasefire violations, including 1,100 explosions. In the previous reporting period, it recorded 591 ceasefire violations in the region.

Russia-Ukraine war

See also: Russia-Ukraine war

Partner Cities

• Bochum, Germany
• Charleroi, Belgium
• Katowice, Poland
• Kutaisi, Georgia
• Moscow, Russia
• Narva, Estonia
• Pittsburgh, USA
• Rostov-on-Don, Russia
• Sheffield, United Kingdom
• Taranto, Italy
• Vilnius, Lithuania
• Baku, Azerbaijan
• Matagalpa, Nicaragua

History

Donetsk was first founded in 1869 under the name Yuzovka. From 1929 to 1961 it was named after Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and was called Stalino.

World War II

See also: Operation Barbarossa

Between 1941 and 1944 during the Second World War, an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 civilians, members of the Donetsk underground, prisoners of war and officers were thrown down a mineshaft, 365 meters deep by 2.9 meters wide, in the Donetsk oblast by German and Ukrainian Nazis. Both living and dead people were thrown down the mineshaft. The shaft was filled with corpses up to 310 meters. Caustic soda was added to the pit of the mine to compact the bodies.

More than 150,000 people were also killed in several concentration camps that were set up around the city. Many of the city's residents were taken to Germany as forced laborers. Under the Nazi's Lebensraum program the population of Donetsk, then known as Stalino, decreased from 507,000 people to 175,000. Only a few managed to escape.

The place of mass execution of the civilian population by the German occupation authorities was the pit of the mine No 4/4-bis "Kalinovka" in the Kalininsky district of Donetsk. It is the second largest burial place for victims of fascism after Babi Yar.

After the liberation of the city, only 150 people were identified. The remains were buried at the Mushketovskoye cemetery in the Memorial Mass Grave. The remaining 75,000+ still rest in this place.