Kreminna (; ) is a city in the

Sievierodonetsk Raion Sievierodonetsk Raion ( uk, Сєвєродонецький район, russian: Северодонецкий район) is a raion (district) of Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine. It was created in July 2020 as part of the reform of administrative division ...

of the

Luhansk Oblast Luhansk Oblast ( uk, Луга́нська о́бласть, translit=Luhanska oblast; russian: Луганская область, translit=Luganskaya oblast; also referred to as Luhanshchyna, uk, Луга́нщина) is the easternmost oblast ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. Prior to 2020, it served as the administrative center of the former

Kreminna Raion Kreminna Raion () was a raion (district) in Luhansk Oblast of Eastern Ukraine. The administrative center of the raion was the town of Kreminna. The raion was abolished on 18 July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced ...

. It has a population of The city was occupied by

Russian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (, ), commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military forces of Russia. In terms of active-duty personnel, they are the world's fifth-largest military force, with at least two m ...

on 18 April 2022 during the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

History

Kreminna was founded in 1680. Kreminna acquired the status of a city in 1938. A local newspaper has been published in the city since December 1943.

Russo-Ukrainian War

In July 2014, fighting took place in the city during the

2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine From the end of February 2014, demonstrations by pro-Russian and anti-government groups took place in major cities across the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the succes ...

. Kreminna remained under Ukrainian control. In March 2022, during the

, the pro-Russian mayor Volodymyr Struk who welcomed the Russian move, was found shot dead in the street after having been kidnapped from his home. Official advisor and a former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs

Anton Herashchenko Anton Yuriiovych Herashchenko ( uk, Антон Юрійович Геращенко, born 10 February 1979) is a current official advisor and a former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. He is a former member of the Ukr ...

said that Struk was judged under the Lynch Law. Herashchenko suggested that the mayor was murdered by "unknown patriots" as the Russian forces were 15 kilometers away from Kreminna. On 11 March 2022, a residential care home for the elderly in Kreminna came under the fire of Russian tanks after Ukrainian armed forces set up a firing position there. According to

Serhiy Haidai Serhiy Volodymyrovych Haidai ( uk, Сергій Володимирович Гайдай; born 6 November 1975) is a Ukrainian entrepreneur and politician. He is the current head of the Luhansk Regional Military–Civil Administration since 2 ...

, the Ukrainian

Governor of Luhansk Oblast The Governor of Luhansk Oblast is the head of the executive branch for the Luhansk Oblast. Due to the current Russo-Ukrainian War, the administration has been assigned as a civil–military administration since 5 March 2015. As a result, the Gov ...

, 56 elderly residents were killed and 15 others were taken by the Russian military to

Svatove Svatove () or Svatovo () is a city on the Krasna river in Eastern Ukraine currently occupied by Russia as part of Luhansk People's Republic. It serves as the administrative headquarters of Svatove Raion. Its population is . History After the ...

, a town under their control. Ukrainian emergency services and officials were unable to reach the incident scene due to ongoing fighting. The town was the site of some of the first fighting of the Battle of Donbas during the Battle of Kreminna. On April 18, 2022, Russian and LNR troops entered the city of Kreminna, capturing it a few hours later after clashes with the Ukrainian Army. Haidai said "there were plans to evacuate the population," although due to heavy fighting it proved impossible. Haidai described the Russian forces as having "a huge amount of equipment". On 13 September 2022, Haidai stated that Russian forces had fled Kreminna three days earlier, that the Ukrainian flag has been raised by local residents, but Ukrainian forces had not yet entered the town. However, on 14 September, Haidai stated that Russian troops had returned to Kreminna and "torn down the Ukrainian flag". In early October 2022, the Battle of the Svatove-Kreminna line near the town was initiated.

References

{{Authority control Cities in Luhansk Oblast Sievierodonetsk Raion Populated places established in 1680 Cities of district significance in Ukraine 1680 establishments in Russia