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107-506: On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the number of raions of Zaporizhzhia Oblast was reduced to five, and the area of Melitopol Raion was significantly expanded. The population was 48,191 (2020 est.). During the Russian invasion of Ukraine , the raion has been occupied by Russia . Pro-Ukrainian partisans are very active in the area. The raion is divided into sixteen hromadas : This article about

214-419: A National Guard base. According to SBU investigator Vasyliy Vovk, Russian covert forces were behind the attacks, and had intended to destabilise the otherwise calm city of Kharkiv. On 8 January 2015 five men wearing balaclavas broke into an office of Station Kharkiv, a volunteer group aiding refugees from Donbas . On 22 February an improvised explosive device killed four people and wounded nine during

321-538: A Russian flag on the Kharkiv Regional State Administration Building. On 6 April 2014 pro-Russian protestors occupied the building and unilaterally declared independence from Ukraine as the " Kharkiv People's Republic ". Doubts arose about their local origin as they had initially targeted the city's Opera and Ballet Theatre before recognising their mistake. Kharkiv's mayor, Hennadiy "Gepa" Kernes , elected in 2010 as

428-594: A neutral country and renounce its aspirations to join NATO. Zelenskyy replied that Putin could not be trusted to abide by such a settlement. Ukraine had been a neutral country in 2014 when Russia occupied Crimea and invaded the Donbas . On 19 February, Zelenskyy made a speech at the Munich Security Conference , calling for Western powers to drop their policy of " appeasement " towards Moscow and give

535-508: A new Novorossiya . Putin referred to the Kosovo independence precedent and NATO bombing of Yugoslavia as a justification for the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas, while historians note the similarities with Nazi Germany's Anschluss of Austria . Because of Russia's occupation of Crimea and its invasion of the Donbas , Ukraine's parliament voted in December 2014 to remove

642-861: A sphere of influence to try to control their neighbours". NATO underlined that it is a defensive alliance , and that it had co-operated with Russia until the latter annexed Crimea. It offered to improve communication with Russia, and to negotiate limits on missile placements and military exercises , provided Russia withdrew its troops from Ukraine's borders, but Russia did not do so. Western leaders vowed that heavy sanctions would be imposed should Putin choose to invade rather than to negotiate. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met Putin in February 2022 to dissuade him from an invasion. According to Scholz, Putin told him that Ukraine should not be an independent state. Scholz told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to declare Ukraine

749-724: A European country and the first full-scale war in Europe since the Second World War. Russia launched a simultaneous ground and air attack. Russian missiles struck targets throughout Ukraine, and Russian troops invaded from the north, east, and south. Russia did not officially declare war. It was Russia's largest combined arms operation since the Soviet Union 's Battle of Berlin in 1945. Fighting began in Luhansk Oblast at 3:40 a.m. Kyiv time near Milove on

856-528: A Russian voivode from Chuhuiv 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the east. The first appointed voivode from Moscow was Voyin Selifontov in 1656, who began to build a local ostrog (fort). In 1658, a new voivode, Ivan Ofrosimov, commanded the locals to kiss the cross in a demonstration of loyalty to Tsar Alexis . Led by their otaman Ivan Kryvoshlyk, they refused. However, with the election of a new otaman, Tymish Lavrynov, relations appear to have been repaired,

963-485: A clear time-frame for when Ukraine could join NATO. As political analysts Taras Kuzio and Vladimir Socor agree, "when Russia made its decision to invade Ukraine, that country was more remote than ever not only from NATO membership but from any track that might lead to membership". On 21 February, Putin announced that Russia recognized the Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine as independent states:

1070-460: A distorted view of Ukraine, as well as of its own history, and that these distortions were propagated through the state. In December 2021, Russia issued an ultimatum to the West , which included demands that NATO end all activity in its Eastern European member states and ban Ukraine or any former Soviet state from ever joining the alliance. Russia's government said NATO was a threat and warned of

1177-477: A further 30,000 residents, among them suspected Soviet partisans and, after a brief period of toleration, Ukrainian nationalists. 80,000 people died of hunger, cold and disease. 60,000 were forcibly transported to Germany as slave workers ( Ostarbeiter ). Among these was Boris Romanchenko . The 96-year-old survivor of forced labor at the Buchenwald , Peenemünde , Dora and Bergen Belsen concentration camps

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1284-524: A ground invasion were launched on a northern front from Belarus towards the capital Kyiv , a southern front from Crimea , and an eastern front from the Donbas and towards Kharkiv . Ukraine enacted martial law , ordered a general mobilization and severed diplomatic relations with Russia . Russian troops retreated from the north and the outskirts of Kyiv by April 2022, after encountering stiff resistance and logistical challenges. The Bucha massacre

1391-720: A location in Zaporizhzhia Oblast is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Russian invasion of Ukraine Eastern Ukraine campaign Southern Ukraine campaign Other regions Naval operations Spillover & related incidents Eastern Ukraine campaign Southern Ukraine campaign Other regions Spillover & related incidents Eastern Ukraine campaign Southern Ukraine campaign Other regions Naval operations Spillover & related incidents Post-Minsk II conflict Attacks on civilians Related On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in

1498-530: A major centre of industry, trade, and of Ukrainian culture in Sloboda Ukraine. At the beginning of the 20th century the city had a predominantly Russian population, but as industrial expansion drew in further labor from the distressed countryside, and as the Soviet Union moderated previous restrictions on Ukrainian cultural expression, by the eve of World War II Ukrainians had become its largest ethnic group. From December 1919 to January 1934, Kharkiv

1605-535: A major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War , which started in 2014. The invasion, the largest and deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II , has caused hundreds of thousands of military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties . As of 2024, Russian troops occupy about 20% of Ukraine . From a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced and more than 8.2 million had fled

1712-481: A march commemorating the Euromaidan victims . The authorities launched an 'anti-terrorist operation'. Further bombings targeted army fuel tanks, an unoccupied passenger train and a Ukrainian flag in the city centre. On 23 September 2015, 200 people in balaclavas and camouflage picketed the house of former governor Mykhailo Dobkin , and then went to Kharkiv town hall, where they tried to force their way through

1819-632: A measure to prevent friendly fire . Immediately after the invasion began, Zelenskyy declared martial law in Ukraine in a first video speech. The same evening, he ordered a general mobilisation of all Ukrainian males between 18 and 60 years old, prohibiting them from leaving the country. Wagner Group mercenaries and Kadyrovites contracted by the Kremlin reportedly made several attempts to assassinate Zelenskyy , including an operation involving several hundred mercenaries meant to infiltrate Kyiv with

1926-821: A military response if it followed an "aggressive line". Some of the demands had already been ruled out by NATO. A senior US official said the US was willing to discuss the proposals, but added that there were some "that the Russians know are unacceptable". Eastern European states willingly joined NATO for security reasons, and the last time a country bordering Russia had joined was in 2004. Ukraine had not yet applied, and some members were wary of letting it join. Barring Ukraine would go against NATO's " open door " policy, and against treaties agreed to by Russia itself. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg replied that "Russia has no say" on whether Ukraine joins, and "has no right to establish

2033-894: A mining engineer and served as a party functionary in Kharkiv. He led the Communists to victory in Kharkiv and across the country in the parliamentary election held in the Ukrainian SSR in March 1990. The election was relatively free, but occurred well before organised political parties had time to form, and did not arrest the decline in the CPSU's legitimacy. This was accelerated by the intra-party coup attempt against President Mikhail Gorbachev and his reforms on 18 August 1991, during which Ivashko temporarily replaced Gorbachev as CPSU General Secretary. The National University of Kharkiv

2140-795: A missile strike against Kyiv on 6 June after not directly attacking the city for several weeks. On 10 June 2022, deputy head of the SBU Vadym Skibitsky stated that during the Severodonetsk campaign, the frontlines were where the future of the invasion would be decided: "This is an artillery war now, and we are losing in terms of artillery. Everything now depends on what [the west] gives us. Ukraine has one artillery piece to 10 to 15 Russian artillery pieces. Our western partners have given us about 10% of what they have." On 29 June, Reuters reported that US Intelligence Director Avril Haines, in an update of past US intelligence assessments on

2247-399: A pro-Ukrainian rally in the central square. Polls conducted from September to December 2014 found little support in Kharkiv for joining Russia. From early November until mid-December, Kharkiv was struck by seven non-lethal bomb blasts. Targets of these attacks included a rock pub known for raising money for Ukrainian forces, a hospital for Ukrainian forces, a military recruiting centre, and

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2354-564: A probative spearhead on 24 February, from Belarus south along the west bank of the Dnipro River . The apparent intent was to encircle the city from the west, supported by two separate axes of attack from Russia along the east bank of the Dnipro: the western at Chernihiv , and from the east at Sumy . These were likely intended to encircle Kyiv from the northeast and east. Russia tried to seize Kyiv quickly, with Spetsnaz infiltrating into

2461-716: A quick victory in Kyiv, Russian forces switched their strategy to indiscriminate bombing and siege warfare. On 25 March, a Ukrainian counter-offensive retook several towns to the east and west of Kyiv, including Makariv . Russian troops in the Bucha area retreated north at the end of March. Ukrainian forces entered the city on 1 April. Ukraine said it had recaptured the entire region around Kyiv, including Irpin, Bucha, and Hostomel, and uncovered evidence of war crimes in Bucha . On 6 April, NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said that

2568-498: A reconstruction conference in Switzerland that Ukraine needs $ 750bn for a recovery plan and Russian oligarchs should contribute to the cost. The invasion began on 24 February, launched out of Belarus to target Kyiv, and from the northeast against the city of Kharkiv. The southeastern front was conducted as two separate spearheads, from Crimea and the southeast against Luhansk and Donetsk. Russian efforts to capture Kyiv included

2675-797: A resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR promising further democratic reform. In the event, the only demand fulfilled was the removal of the Communist Prime Minister. In the 1 December 1991 Referendum on the Act of Declaration of Independence , on a turnout of 76 percent 86 percent of the Kharkiv Oblast approved separate Ukrainian statehood. During the 1990s post-Soviet aliyah , many Jews from Kharkiv emigrated to Israel or to Western countries. The city's Jewish population, 62,800 in 1970, dropped to 50,000 by

2782-461: A similar landing at Vasylkiv , near Vasylkiv Air Base , on 26 February. By early March, Russian advances along the west side of the Dnipro were limited by Ukrainian defences. As of 5 March, a large Russian convoy , reportedly 64 kilometres (40 mi) long, had made little progress toward Kyiv. The London-based think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) assessed Russian advances from

2889-748: A terrorist state. Protests occurred around the world, with anti-war protesters in Russia being met by mass arrests and greater media censorship . The Russian attacks on civilians have led to allegations of genocide . War-related disruption to Ukrainian agriculture and shipping contributed to a world food crisis , while war-related environmental damage has been described as ecocide . The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation into crimes against humanity , war crimes , abduction of Ukrainian children , and genocide against Ukrainians. The ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova , and for four Russian military officials. After

2996-598: A western area of operations toward Mariupol was opened by the Southern Military District , including the 58th , 49th , and 8th Combined Arms Army , the latter also commanding the 1st and 2nd Army Corps of the Russian separatist forces in Donbas . By 7 April, Russian troops deployed to the northern front by the Russian Eastern Military District pulled back from the Kyiv offensive, reportedly to resupply and redeploy to

3103-614: Is committing severe human rights violations in occupied Ukraine. The invasion was met with widespread international condemnation . The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the invasion and demanding a full Russian withdrawal. The International Court of Justice ordered Russia to halt military operations, and the Council of Europe expelled Russia. Many countries imposed sanctions on Russia and its ally Belarus, and provided humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. The Baltic states and Poland declared Russia

3210-579: Is the second-largest city in Ukraine . Located in the northeast of the country, it is the largest city of the historic region of Sloboda Ukraine . Kharkiv is the administrative centre of Kharkiv Oblast and Kharkiv Raion . It had a population, before the Russian invasion, of 1,421,125 (2022 estimate). Kharkiv was founded in 1654 as a fortress, and within the Russian Empire grew to become

3317-505: The 1937–38 Stalinist purges . During World War II , Kharkiv was the focus of major battles. The city was captured by Nazi Germany on 24 October 1941. A disastrous Red Army offensive failed to recover the city in May 1942. It was retaken ( Operation Star ) on 16 February 1943, but lost again to the Germans on 15 March 1943. 23 August 1943 saw a final liberation . On the eve of

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3424-687: The 29th , 35th , and 36th Combined Arms Armies . A second axis, deployed towards eastern Kyiv from Russia by the Central Military District (northeastern front), comprised the 41st Combined Arms Army and the 2nd Guards Combined Arms Army . A third axis was deployed towards Kharkiv by the Western Military District (eastern front), with the 1st Guards Tank Army and 20th Combined Arms Army . A fourth, southern front originating in occupied Crimea and Russia's Rostov oblast with an eastern axis towards Odesa and

3531-648: The Charter for European Security , affirming the right of each state "to choose or change its security arrangements" and to join alliances. In 2002, Putin said that Ukraine's relations with NATO were "a matter for those two partners". Russian forces invaded Georgia in August 2008 and took control of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia , demonstrating Russia's willingness to use military force to attain its political objectives. The United States "was accused of appeasement and naivete" in their reaction to

3638-763: The Constituent Assembly after its first sitting, the Tsentralna Rada in Kyiv proclaimed the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR). Bolsheviks withdrew from Tsentralna Rada and formed their own Rada (national council) in Kharkiv. By February 1918 their forces had captured much of Ukraine . They made Kharkiv the capital of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic . Six weeks later, under

3745-486: The Crimean War , in 1860–61, a hromada was established in the city, one of a network of secret societies that laid the groundwork for the appearance of a Ukrainian national movement. Its most prominent member was the philosopher, linguist and pan-slavist activist Oleksandr Potebnia . Members of a student hromada in the city included the future national leaders Borys Martos and Dmytro Antonovych , and reputedly were

3852-546: The Khmelnytsky uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth saw the brief establishment of an independent Cossack Hetmanate . In 1654 in the midst of this period of turmoil for Right-bank Ukraine , groups of people came onto the banks of Lopan and Kharkiv rivers where they resurrected and fortified an abandoned settlement. There is a folk etymology that connects the name of both

3959-887: The Russian Constituent Assembly election held in November 1917, the Bolsheviks who had seized power in Petrograd and Moscow received just 10.5 percent of the vote in the Governorate , compared to 73 percent for a bloc of Russian and Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionaries. Commanding worker, rather than peasant, votes, within the city itself the Bolsheviks won a plurality. When in Petrograd Lenin's Council of People's Commissars disbanded

4066-659: The Russian Defence Ministry stated that the first stage of the "military operation" in Ukraine was "generally complete", that the Ukrainian military forces had suffered serious losses, and the Russian military would now concentrate on the "liberation of Donbas ." The "first stage" of the invasion was conducted on four fronts, including one towards western Kyiv from Belarus by the Russian Eastern Military District , comprising

4173-1068: The Russia–Ukraine border . The city remains under intermittent Russian fire , with reports that almost a quarter of the city was destroyed by April 2024. De-jure: [REDACTED] [REDACTED] RT / RI 1654–1789 De-facto: [REDACTED] Kharkiv Regiment 1654–1789 [REDACTED] Russian Empire 1789–1917 [REDACTED] Russian Provisional Government Mar–Nov 1917 [REDACTED] UPR Nov-–Dec 1917 [REDACTED] UPRS Dec 1917 – Apr 1918 [REDACTED] Ukrainian People's Republic / Ukrainian State Apr 1918 – Jan 1919 [REDACTED] PWPGU / [REDACTED] UkSSR 1919 Jan–Jun [REDACTED] ARSR 1919 Jun–Dec [REDACTED] UkSSR Dec 1919 – Dec 1922 [REDACTED] USSR 1922–1941 [REDACTED] Third Reich 1941–1943 [REDACTED] USSR Feb–Mar 1943 [REDACTED] Third Reich Mar–Sep 1943 [REDACTED] USSR 1943–1991 [REDACTED] Ukraine 1991–present The earliest historical references to

4280-594: The Ukrainian language , mandating it for all schools. In practice the share of secondary schools teaching in the Ukrainian language remained lower than the ethnic Ukrainian share of the Kharkiv Oblast 's population. The Ukrainization policy was reversed, with the prosecution in Kharkiv in 1930 of the Union for the Freedom of Ukraine . Hundreds of Ukrainian intellectuals were arrested and deported. In 1932 and 1933,

4387-673: The Urals with all their equipment, and became the heart of Red Army 's tank programs (particularly, producing the T-34 tank earlier designed in Kharkiv). These enterprises returned to Kharkiv after the war, and became central elements of the post-war Soviet military industrial complex . Houses and factories were rebuilt, and much of the city's center was reconstructed in the style of Stalinist Classicism . Kharkiv's Jewish community revived after World War II: by 1959 there were 84,000 Jews living in

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4494-863: The dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the newly independent states of the Russian Federation and Ukraine maintained cordial relations. In return for security guarantees, Ukraine signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1994, agreeing to dismantle the nuclear weapons the former USSR had left in Ukraine. At that time, Russia, the UK, and the USA agreed in the Budapest Memorandum to uphold Ukraine's territorial integrity. In 1999, Russia signed

4601-710: The neutrality clause from the Constitution and to seek Ukraine's membership in NATO . However, it was impossible for Ukraine to join NATO at the time, as any applicant country must have no "unresolved external territorial disputes". In 2016, President of the European Commission , Jean-Claude Juncker , said that it would take 20–25 years for Ukraine to join the EU and NATO. The Minsk agreements , signed in September 2014 and February 2015, aimed to resolve

4708-589: The 12th century, the area was part of the territory of the Cumans , and then from the mid 13th century of the Mongol / Tartar Golden Horde . By the early 17th century the area was a contested frontier region with renegade populations that had begun to organise in Cossack formations and communities defined by a common determination to resist both Tatar slavery, and Polish-Lithuanian and Russian serfdom . Mid-century,

4815-641: The Crimean Parliament . Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014, after a widely disputed referendum held under occupation. Pro-Russian unrest immediately followed in the Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Luhansk . The war in Donbas began in April 2014 when armed Russian-backed separatists seized Ukrainian government buildings and proclaimed the independent Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic . Russian troops were directly involved in these conflicts. The annexation of Crimea and

4922-796: The Donbas region in an effort to reinforce the renewed invasion of southeastern Ukraine. The northeastern front, including the Central Military District, was similarly withdrawn for resupply and redeployment to southeastern Ukraine. On 26 April, delegates from the US and 40 allied nations met at Ramstein Air Base in Germany to discuss the formation of a coalition that would provide economic support in addition to military supplies and refitting to Ukraine. Following Putin's Victory Day speech in early May, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said no short term resolution to

5029-558: The Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic. The following day, Russia announced that it was sending troops into these territories as "peacekeepers", and the Federation Council of Russia authorised the use of military force abroad. Before 5 a.m. Kyiv time on 24 February, Putin, in another speech , announced a " special military operation ", which effectively declared war on Ukraine. Putin said

5136-436: The Euromaidan events and Russian actions in the Crimea and Donbas ruptured relations with Moscow, the Kharkiv region experienced a sharp fall in output and employment. Once a hub of cross border trade, Kharkiv was turned into a border fortress. A reorientation to new international markets, increased defense contracts (after Kyiv, the region contains the second-largest number of military-related enterprises) and export growth in

5243-595: The Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians ", in which he called Ukraine "historically Russian lands" and claimed there is "no historical basis" for the "idea of Ukrainian people as a nation separate from the Russians". Days before the invasion, Putin claimed that Ukraine never had "real statehood" and that modern Ukraine was a mistake created by the Russian Bolsheviks . American historian Timothy Snyder described Putin's ideas as Russian imperialism . British journalist Edward Lucas described it as historical revisionism. Other observers found that Russia's leadership held

5350-439: The Intercession Cathedral and Monastery, which became a seat of a local church hierarch, the Protopope . Administrative reforms led to Kharkiv being governed from 1708 from Kyiv , and from 1727 from Belgorod. In 1765 Kharkiv was established as the seat of a separate Sloboda Ukraine Governorate . Kharkiv University was established in 1805 in the Palace of Governorate-General . Alexander Mikolajewicz Mickiewicz, brother of

5457-415: The Polish national poet Adam Mickiewicz , was a professor of law in the university, while another celebrity, Goethe , searched for instructors for the school. One of its later graduates was In Ivan Franko , to whom it awarded a doctorate in Russian linguistics in 1906. The streets were first cobbled in the city centre in 1830. In 1844 the 90 metres (300 ft) tall Alexander Bell Tower, commemorating

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5564-424: The RUP in Kharkiv, Poltava , Kyiv , Nizhyn , Lubny , and Yekaterinodar repudiated the more extreme elements of Ukrainian nationalism. Adopting the Erfurt Program of German Social Democracy , they restyled themselves the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party (USDLP). This was to remain independent of, and opposed by, the Bolshevik faction of the Russian SDLP . After the February Revolution of 1917,

5671-401: The Russian "retraction, resupply, and redeployment" of their troops from the Kyiv area should be interpreted as an expansion of Putin's plans for Ukraine, by redeploying and concentrating his forces on eastern Ukraine. Kyiv was generally left free from attack apart from isolated missile strikes. One did occur while UN Secretary-General António Guterres was visiting Kyiv on 28 April to discuss

5778-411: The Russian invasion", was not entirely sure of the comment's accuracy. Reporter Glenn Kessler said it came from "a single source, but on the surface it appears to be a good one." Russian forces advancing on Kyiv from Belarus gained control of the ghost town of Chernobyl . Russian Airborne Forces attempted to seize two key airfields near Kyiv, launching an airborne assault on Antonov Airport , and

5885-442: The Russian invasion, said that US intelligence agencies agree that the invasion will continue "for an extended period of time ... In short, the picture remains pretty grim and Russia's attitude toward the West is hardening." On 5 July, BBC reported that extensive destruction by the Russian invasion would cause immense financial damage to Ukraine's reconstruction economy, with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal telling nations at

5992-405: The Russian share of the population had fallen from almost two-thirds to one third, while the Ukrainian share rose from a quarter to almost half. The Jewish population rose from under 6 percent of the total, to over 15 percent (sustaining a Hebrew secondary school, a popular Jewish university and extensive publication in Yiddish and Hebrew). In the 1920s, the Ukrainian SSR promoted the use of

6099-693: The Russo-Ukrainian border, Ukrainian forces claimed that on 28 February that 100 Russian armoured vehicles had been destroyed and dozens of soldiers captured following a Bayraktar TB2 drone and artillery attack on a large Russian column near Lebedyn in Sumy Oblast . Russian forces also attacked Okhtyrka , deploying thermobaric weapons . Kharkiv Kharkiv ( / ˈ k ɑːr k ɪ v / KAR -kiv ; Ukrainian: Харків , IPA: [ˈxɑrkiu̯] ), also known as Kharkov ( UK : / ˈ k ɑːr k ɒ v / KAR -kov , US : / ˈ k ɑːr k ɔː f / KAR -kawf ; Russian: Харькoв , IPA: [ˈxarʲkəf] ),

6206-407: The Soviet Union as fabrications . In 1934 hundreds of Ukrainian writers, intellectuals and cultural workers were arrested and executed in the attempt to eradicate all vestiges of Ukrainian nationalism. The purges continued into 1938. Blind Ukrainian street musicians Kobzars were also rounded up in Kharkiv and murdered by the NKVD. Confident in his control over Ukraine, in January 1934 Stalin had

6313-414: The Tsar in Moscow granting the community's request (signed by the deans of the new Assumption Cathedral and parish churches of Annunciation and Trinity) to establish a local market. At that time the population of Kharkiv was just over 1000, half of whom were local Cossacks. Selifontov had brought with him a Moscow garrison of only 70 soldiers. Defence rested with a local Sloboda Cossack regiment under

6420-522: The USDLP was the main party in the first Ukrainian government, the General Secretariat of Ukraine . The Tsentralna Rada (central council) of Ukrainian parties in Kyiv authorised the Secretariat to negotiate national autonomy with the Russian Provisional Government . In the succeeding months, as wartime conditions deteriorated, the USDLP lost support in Kharkiv and elsewhere to the Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR) which organised both in peasant communities and in disaffected military units. In

6527-437: The Ukraine", and the Malyshev Factory , an enlargement of the old Kharkiv Locomotive Factory, which at its height employed 60,000 workers in the production of heavy equipment. By 1937 the output of Kharkiv's industries was reported as being 35 times greater than in 1913. Since the turn of the century, the influx of new workers from the countryside changed the ethnic composition of Kharkiv. According to census returns, by 1939

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6634-428: The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church, the Church of the Myrrhophores, Saint Demetrius's Church, and the Cossack fortified Church of the Nativity. Under Stalin 's First Five Year Plan , the city underwent intensified industrialisation, led by a number of national projects. Chief among these were the Kharkiv Tractor Factory (HTZ) , described by Stalin as "a steel bastion of the collectivisation of agriculture in

6741-416: The Ukrainian Polytechnic Institute of Distance Learning (UZPI), the Kharkiv City Council building, with its massive asymmetric tower, and the central department store that was opened on the 15th Anniversary of the October Revolution . As new buildings were going up, many of city's historic architectural monuments were being torn down. These included most of the baroque churches: Saint Nicholas's Cathedral of

6848-691: The acting commander of the Ukrainian Internal Forces . On 13 April, some pro-Russian protesters again made it inside the Kharkiv regional state administration building, but were quickly evicted. Violent clashes resulted in the severe beating of at least 50 pro-Ukrainian protesters in attacks by pro-Russian protesters. On 28 April, Kernes was shot by a sniper, a victim, commentators suggested, of his former pro-Russian allies. Relatively peaceful demonstrations continued to be held, with "pro-Russian" rallies gradually diminishing and "pro-Ukrainian unity" demonstrations growing in numbers. On 28 September, activists dismantled Ukraine's largest monument to Lenin at

6955-400: The agreement, choosing closer ties to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union instead. This coerced withdrawal triggered a wave of protests known as Euromaidan , culminating in the Revolution of Dignity in February 2014. Yanukovych fled and was removed from power by parliament, ending up in Russia. Russian soldiers with no insignia occupied the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, and seized

7062-401: The aim of killing the Ukrainian president. The Ukrainian government said anti-war officials within Russia's FSB shared the plans with them. Zelenskyy appeared defiant in his first and following video message , showing in another on 25 February, that he and his cabinet is still in Kiyv. On 26 February NATO met and its countries pledged military aid for Ukraine and on 27 February Germany called

7169-421: The border with Russia. The main infantry and tank attacks were launched in four spearheads, creating a northern front launched towards Kyiv from Belarus, a southern front from Crimea, a southeastern front from Russian-controlled Donbas, and an eastern front from Russia towards Kharkiv and Sumy . Russian vehicles were subsequently marked with a white Z military symbol (a non- Cyrillic letter ), believed to be

7276-414: The capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and, in 1922, this was formally incorporated as a constituent republic of the Soviet Union . A number of prestige construction projects in new officially-approved Constructivist style were completed, among them Derzhprom (Palace of Industry) then the tallest building in the Soviet Union (and the second tallest in Europe), the Red Army Building,

7383-432: The capital of the Ukrainian SSR moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv. During April and May 1940 about 3,900 Polish prisoners of Starobilsk camp were executed in the Kharkiv NKVD building, later secretly buried on the grounds of an NKVD pansionat in Piatykhatky forest (part of the Katyn massacre ) on the outskirts of Kharkiv. The site also contains the numerous bodies of Ukrainian cultural workers who were arrested and shot in

7490-436: The city of "material and spiritual relics" from the pre-revolutionary era, and its commitment to the new frontiers of Soviet industry and science. The city's machine-and-weapons building prowess was attributed to a forward-looking collaboration between its large-scale industrial enterprises and new research institutes and laboratories. The last Communist Party chief of Ukraine , Vladimir Ivashko , appointed in 1989, trained as

7597-413: The city supported by airborne operations and a rapid mechanised advance from the north, but failed. The United States contacted Zelenskyy and offered to help him flee the country, lest the Russian Army attempt to kidnap or kill him on seizing Kyiv; Zelenskyy responded that "The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride." The Washington Post , which described the quote as "one of the most-cited lines of

7704-583: The city, including the Morozov Design Bureau , the Malyshev Factory , Khartron , Turboatom , and Antonov . In March and April 2014 security forces and counter-demonstrators defeated efforts by Russian-backed separatists to seize control of the city and regional administration. Kharkiv was a major target for Russian forces in the eastern Ukraine campaign during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine before they were pushed back to

7811-462: The city. However, Soviet anti-Zionism restricted expressions of Jewish religion and culture, and was sustained until the final Gorbachev years (the confiscated Kharkiv Choral Synagogue reopened as a synagogue in 1990). In the Brezhnev-era , Kharkiv was promoted as a "model Soviet city". Propaganda made much of its "youthfulness", a designation broadly used to suggest the relative absence in

7918-582: The combination of grain seizures and the forced collectivisation of peasant holdings created famine conditions, the Holodomor , driving people off the land and into Kharkiv, and other cities, in search of food. Eye-witness accounts by westerners—among them those of American Communist Fred Beal employed in the Kharkiv Tractor Factory —were cited in the international press but, until the era of Glasnost were consistently denounced in

8025-440: The conflict, but ceasefires and further negotiations repeatedly failed. There was a large Russian military build-up near the Ukraine border in March and April 2021, and again in both Russia and Belarus from October 2021 onward. Members of the Russian government, including Putin, repeatedly denied having plans to invade or attack Ukraine, with denials being issued up to the day before the invasion. The decision to invade Ukraine

8132-467: The country by April 2023, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. In late 2021, Russia massed troops near Ukraine's borders and issued demands including a ban on Ukraine ever joining the NATO military alliance. After repeatedly denying having plans to attack Ukraine, on 24 February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a " special military operation ", saying that it

8239-429: The country, toppling Ukrainian authorities, disrupting the elections, and tearing our country apart". Kernes persuaded the police to storm the regional administration building and push out the separatists. He was allowed to return to his mayoral duties. Police action against the separatists was reinforced by a special forces unit from Vinnytsia directed by Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Stepan Poltorak

8346-422: The end of the century. The collapse of the Soviet Union disrupted, but did not sever, the ties that bound Kharkiv's heavy industries to the integrated Soviet market and supply chains, and did not diminish dependency on Russian oil, minerals, and gas. In Kharkiv and elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, the limited prospects for securing new economic partners in the West, and concern for the rights of Russian-speakers in

8453-504: The first to employ the slogan "Glory to Ukraine!" and its response "Glory on all of earth!". In 1900, the student hromada founded the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (RUP), which sought to unite all Ukrainian national elements, including the growing number of socialists. Following the revolutionary events 1905 in which Kharkiv distinguished itself by avoiding a reactionary pogrom against its Jewish population,

8560-432: The illegal annexation of four partly-occupied provinces . In November, Ukraine liberated Kherson . In June 2023, Ukraine launched another counteroffensive in the southeast, but made few gains. After small but steady Russian advances in the east in the first half of 2024, Ukraine launched a cross-border offensive into Russia's Kursk Oblast in August of that year. The United Nations Human Rights Office reports that Russia

8667-534: The invasion a historic watershed. That day in the evening Putin put Russia's nuclear deterrence into alert. The Russian invasion was unexpectedly met by fierce Ukrainian resistance. In Kyiv, Russia failed to take the city and was repulsed in the battles of Irpin , Hostomel , and Bucha . The Russians tried to encircle the capital, but its defenders under Oleksandr Syrskyi held their ground, effectively using Western Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to thin Russian supply lines and stall

8774-840: The invasion should be expected. Ukraine's reliance on Western-supplied equipment constrained operational effectiveness, as supplying countries feared that Ukraine would use Western-made matériel to strike targets in Russia. Military experts disagreed on the future of the conflict; some suggested that Ukraine should trade territory for peace, while others believed that Ukraine could maintain its resistance due to Russian losses. By 30 May, disparities between Russian and Ukrainian artillery were apparent, with Ukrainian artillery being vastly outgunned, in terms of both range and number. In response to US President Joe Biden 's indication that enhanced artillery would be provided to Ukraine, Putin said that Russia would expand its invasion front to include new cities in Ukraine. In apparent retribution, Putin ordered

8881-494: The invasion. In 2013, Ukraine's parliament overwhelmingly approved finalising an association agreement with the European Union (EU). Russia had put pressure on Ukraine to reject it. Kremlin adviser Sergei Glazyev warned in September 2013 that if Ukraine signed the EU agreement, Russia would no longer acknowledge Ukraine's borders. In November, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych suddenly withdrew from signing

8988-463: The jurisdiction of the Razryad Prikaz , a military agency commanded from Belgorod . The original walls of Kharkiv enclosed today's streets: vulytsia Kvitky-Osnovianenko, Constitution Square, Rose Luxemburg Square, Proletarian Square, and Cathedral Descent. There were 10 towers of which the tallest, Vestovska, was some 16 metres (52 ft) high. In 1689 the fortress was expanded to include

9095-527: The new national state, combined to promote the interests of political parties and candidates emphasising understanding and cooperation with the Russian Federation . In the new century, these were represented by the Party of Regions and by the presidential ambitions of Victor Yanukovych , which in Kharkiv triumphed in the city council elections of 2006, in the parliamentary elections of 2007 and in

9202-404: The nominee of the Party of Regions , was placed under house arrest. Claiming to have been "prisoner of Yanukovych's system", he now declared his loyalty to acting President Oleksandr Turchynov . In a televised address on 7 April, Turchynov had announced that "a second wave of the Russian Federation's special operation against Ukraine [has] started" with the "goal of destabilising the situation in

9309-441: The north and east as "stalled." Advances from Chernihiv largely halted as a siege began there . Russian forces continued to advance on Kyiv from the northwest, capturing Bucha , Hostomel and Vorzel by 5 March, though Irpin remained contested as of 9 March. By 11 March, the lengthy convoy had largely dispersed and taken cover. On 16 March, Ukrainian forces began a counter-offensive to repel Russian forces. Unable to achieve

9416-399: The occupation, Kharkiv's prewar population of 700,000 had been doubled by the influx of refugees. What remained of the pre-war Jewish population of 130,000, were slated by the Germans for "special treatment": between December 1941 and January 1942, they massacred and buried an estimated 15,000 Jews in a ravine outside of town named Drobytsky Yar . Over their 22 months occupation they executed

9523-641: The offensive. On the southern front, Russian forces had captured the regional capital of Kherson by 2 March. A column of Russian tanks and armoured vehicles was ambushed on 9 March in Brovary and sustained heavy losses that forced them to retreat. The Russian army adopted siege tactics on the western front around the key cities of Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv, but failed to capture them due to stiff resistance and logistical setbacks. In Mykolaiv Oblast , Russian forces advanced as far as Voznesensk , but were repelled and pushed back south of Mykolaiv. On 25 March,

9630-406: The operation was to "protect the people" of the Russian-controlled breakaway republics. He falsely claimed that they had "been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kyiv regime." Putin said that Russia was being threatened: he falsely claimed that Ukrainian government officials were neo-Nazis under Western control, that Ukraine was developing nuclear weapons, and that a hostile NATO

9737-399: The police cordon. At least one tear gas grenade was used. The rioters asked the mayor, Hennadiy Kernes , a supporter of the president, to come out. Following recovery from his wounds, Kernes had been re-elected mayor, and was so again in 2020. He died of COVID-19 related complication in December 2020. He was succeeded by Ihor Terekhov of the " Kernes Bloc — Successful Kharkiv ". After

9844-469: The presidential elections of 2010. Although never attaining the level of protest witnessed in Kyiv and in communities further west, following the disputed 2012 Parliamentary elections public opposition to President Yanukovych and his party surfaced in Kharkiv amid accusations of systematic corruption and of sabotaging prospects for new ties to the European Union. The Euromaidan protests in

9951-508: The region are to Scythian and Sarmatian settlement in the 2nd century BC. Between the 2nd to the 6th centuries AD there is evidence of Chernyakhov culture , a multiethnic mix of the Geto - Dacian , Sarmatian , and Gothic populations. In the 8th to 10th centuries the Khazar fortress of Verkhneye Saltovo stood about 25 miles (40 km) east of the modern city, near Staryi Saltiv . During

10058-468: The settlement and the river to a legendary Cossack founder named Kharko (a diminutive form of the Greek name Chariton , Ukrainian : Харитон , romanized :  Kharyton , or Zechariah , Ukrainian : Захарій , romanized :  Zakharii ). But the river's name is attested earlier than the foundation of the fortress. The settlement reluctantly accepted the protection and authority of

10165-462: The state budget, mostly public servants). But Pro-Yanukovych demonstrations, held near the statue of Lenin in Freedom (previously Dzerzhinsky) Square , were similarly small. In the wake of Yanukovych's ouster in February, there were attempts in Kharkiv to follow the example of separatists in neighbouring Donbas . On 2 March 2014, a Russian "tourist" from Moscow replaced the Ukrainian flag with

10272-407: The survivors of the siege of Mariupol with Zelenskyy. One person was killed and several were injured in the attack. Russian forces advanced into Chernihiv Oblast on 24 February, besieging its administrative capital within four days of fighting . On 25 February Ukrainian forces lost control over Konotop . As street fighting took place in the city of Sumy , just 35 kilometres (22 mi) from

10379-725: The treaty terms agreed with the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk , they abandoned the city and ceded the territory to the German-occupied Ukrainian State . After the German withdrawal, the Red Army returned but, in June 1919, withdrew again before the advancing forces of Anton Denikin 's White movement Volunteer . By December 1919 Soviet authority was restored. The Bolsheviks established Kharkiv as

10486-469: The victory over Napoleon I in 1812, was built next to the first Assumption Cathedral (later to be transformed by the Soviet authorities into a radio tower ). A system of running water was established in 1870. In the course of the 19th century, although predominantly Russian speaking, Kharkiv became a centre of Ukrainian culture. The first Ukrainian newspaper was published in the city in 1812. Soon after

10593-404: The war in Donbas sparked a wave of Russian nationalism . Analyst Vladimir Socor called Putin's 2014 speech following the annexation a "manifesto of Greater-Russia irredentism ". Putin began referring to " Novorossiya " (New Russia), a former Russian imperial territory that covered much of southern Ukraine. Russian-backed forces were influenced by Russian neo-imperialism and sought to create

10700-408: The winter of 2013–2014 against then president Viktor Yanukovych consisted of daily gatherings of about 200 protestors near the statue of Taras Shevchenko and were predominantly peaceful. Disappointed at the turnout, an activist at Kharkiv University suggested that his fellow students "proved to be as much of an inert, grey and cowed mass as Kharkiv’s ‘ biudzhetniki ’ " (those whose income derives from

10807-444: Was at the forefront of democratic agitation. In October 1991, a call from Kyiv for an all-Ukrainian university strike to protest Gorbachev's new Union Treaty and to call for new multi-party elections was met with a rally at the entrance to the university attended not only by students and university teachers, but also by a range of public and cultural figures. The protests—the so-called Revolution on Granite —ended on 17 October with

10914-407: Was building up its forces and military infrastructure in Ukraine. He said Russia sought the "demilitarization and denazification" of Ukraine, and espoused views challenging the legitimacy of the Ukrainian state. Putin said he had no plans to occupy Ukraine. The invasion began within minutes of Putin's speech. The invasion began at dawn on 24 February. It was described as the biggest attack on

11021-438: Was killed when Russian fire hit his apartment bloc on 18 March 2022. By the time of Kharkiv's liberation in August 1943, the surviving population had been reduced to under 200,000. Seventy percent of the city had been destroyed. According to a New York Time's piece, "The city was more battered than perhaps any other in the Soviet Union save Stalingrad." Before the occupation, Kharkiv's tank industries had been evacuated to

11128-519: Was reportedly made by Putin and a small group of war hawks or siloviki in Putin's inner circle, including national security adviser Nikolai Patrushev and defence minister Sergei Shoigu . Reports of an alleged leak of Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) documents by US intelligence sources said that the FSB had not been aware of Putin's plan to invade. In July 2021, Putin published an essay " On

11235-862: Was the capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic . Kharkiv is a major cultural, scientific, educational, transport, and industrial centre of Ukraine, with numerous museums, theatres, and libraries, including the Annunciation and Dormition cathedrals, the Derzhprom building in Freedom Square , and the National University of Kharkiv . Industry plays a significant role in Kharkiv's economy, specialised primarily in machinery and electronics . There are hundreds of industrial facilities throughout

11342-529: Was to support the Russian-backed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk , whose paramilitary forces had been fighting Ukraine in the Donbas conflict since 2014. Putin espoused irredentist and neo-imperialist views challenging Ukraine's legitimacy as a state, falsely claimed that Ukraine was governed by neo-Nazis persecuting the Russian minority , and said that Russia's goal was to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine. Russian air strikes and

11449-439: Was uncovered after their withdrawal. In the southeast, Russia launched an offensive in the Donbas and captured Mariupol after a destructive siege . Russia continued to bomb military and civilian targets far from the front, and struck the energy grid through the winter months. In late 2022, Ukraine launched successful counteroffensives in the south and east , liberating most of Kharkiv province . Soon after, Russia announced

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