Pisky (; ) is a destroyed

rural settlement The definition of a rural settlement depends on the country, in some countries, a rural settlement is any settlement in the areas defined as rural by a governmental office, e.g., by the national census bureau. This may include even rural towns. ...

Pokrovsk Raion Pokrovsk Raion (; ) is a raion (district) within Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine. Its administrative center is Pokrovsk. It has an area of and its population is approximately An architectural monument in the raion is the Petropavlovs'ka Chu ...

Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its capital city, administrative centre is Donetsk, though d ...

, eastern

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. It is located about northwest from the center of the administrative center of the oblast,

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; ; ), 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 capita ...

, and about from the western border of Donetsk International Airport. Before 2014, the village was a former wealthy suburb of Donetsk.The 93rd brigade: Part of the Red Army in WWII, it now fights against Russian-backed separatists

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

(13 June 2015) It had a population of 2,160 in the 2001 census, but most residents left during the

war in Donbas The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...

, with only 9 people remaining as of 2019. In 2022, the village came under Russian occupation following a battle. As of 2024, the settlement has no permanent residents and is considered to be destroyed and abandoned.

History

Russo-Ukrainian War

In the

the village switched hands many times (between DPR separatists and Ukrainian forces).We Can Win After All
The Ukrainian Week (6 August 2015) The village was controlled by the

Ukrainian army The Ukrainian Ground Forces (SVZSU, ), also referred to as the Ukrainian army, is a land force, and one of the eight Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It was formed from Ukrainian units of the Soviet Army after Declaratio ...

between 21 July 2014 and 2022. According to an eyewitness, the Dnipro Battalion captured the settlement that day on its own initiative. Commander of Dnipro Battalion's squadron 5 Volodymyr Shylov claims they then ignored orders to leave Pisky. Following then, the village came under daily attack from the separatists. Pisky was one of the hotspots of the

Second Battle of Donetsk Airport The Second Battle of Donetsk Airport was an engagement between the Ukrainian military and Russian military and its proxy forces of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) during the War in Donbas. An earlier battle in May 2014 had left Donet ...

, from September 2014 to January 2015.Shelling pierces ceasefire in Ukraine's ghost town of Pisky

Ukraine Today Ukraine News Today was a Ukraine-based private English language satellite television channel and webcasting service. The channel, which was owned by the Ukrainian 1+1 group and headquartered in Kyiv, presented round-the-clock news bulletins aim ...

(26 Nov. 2015) The conflict brought both civilian and military casualties to the village that had a population of 2,000 before the war in Donbas. In June 2015, only a dozen of the poorest civilians continued to live in Pisky, many of them shell-shocked and bearing injuries. By then, the village lay in ruins. On 27 August 2015 the village had six residents – according to observers of the

OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...

Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

correspondent

Fergal Keane Fergal Patrick Keane (born 6 January 1961) is an Irish foreign correspondent with BBC News, and an author. For some time, Keane was the BBC's correspondent in South Africa. He is a nephew of the Irish playwright, novelist and essayist John B. ...

reported on 8 February 2016 that 18 people lived in Pisky.Return to the village on Ukraine's frontline

(8 February 2016)

Full-scale invasion

In late July 2022, Pisky became a battleground in a renewed Russian offensive during the Battle of Avdiivka. The

Donetsk People's Republic The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR; , ) is Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, occupied territory in Ukraine that the Russian Federation has claimed to annex and declared as a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia, comprising parts o ...

(DPR) claimed on 5 August that it had taken the control of the village, while the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine rejected these early claims. On 10 August, Russian forces used

TOS-1 TOS-1 Buratino (, Heavy Flamethrower System) is a Soviet 220 mm 30-barrel (original system, Object 634 or TOS-1M) or 24-barrel (Object 634B or TOS-1A Solntsepyok) multiple rocket launcher capable of using thermobaric warheads, mounted on a ...

thermobaric weapons on Ukrainian positions in central Pisky. Meanwhile, Russian and DPR sources claimed that roughly 90 percent of Pisky had been captured. By 12 August, Russian sources claimed that Russian forces "controlled" the "situation" in Pisky, suggesting control of the village, though the Ukrainians did not confirm the loss of the front line settlement. Satellite imagery and combat footage posted online suggested the village had been "visibly leveled" by bombardment during the Russian assault. On August 14, 2022,

Russian Defense Ministry The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (; MOD) is the governing body of the Russian Armed Forces. The President of Russia is the Commander-in-Chief of the forces and directs the activity of the ministry. The Minister of Defence exerci ...

Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov stated that "as a result of offensive operations by the allied forces, the settlement of Peski in the Donetsk People’s Republic has been completely liberated." The Ukrainian military denied the village had been captured and insisted that clashes were ongoing, and on August 16 fighting was still ongoing. On August 26, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed that the village had been captured by the DPR.

References

External links

Weather forecast for Pisky

Media coverage

The elderly couple trapped on Ukraine's frontline

BBC News Online BBC News Online is the website of BBC News, the division of the BBC responsible for newsgathering and production. It is one of the most popular news websites, with 1.2 billion website visits in April 2021, as well as being used by 60% of the U ...

, 9 February 2016 (video 2:16, ''in English/Russian'')
Return to the village on Ukraine's frontline

, 8 February 2016 (video 4:49, ''in English/Russian'') {{Authority control Villages in Pokrovsk Raion Former populated places in Ukraine Former villages Ocheretyne settlement hromada