Pivdenne (; ) is a rural settlement (a selyshche) in

Bakhmut Raion Bakhmut Raion (), known as Artemivsk Raion () between 1924 and 2016, is a raion (district) within the northeastern part of Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine. Its administrative center is Bakhmut. Its area is , and its population is approximately ...

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 ...

. Before 2016, it was known as Leninske (). It is located north-northeast from the centre of

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 ...

city. Population:

History

The settlement has its origins in 1877, with the founding of the "South Russian" coal industry in the area. The name "Pivdenne" is derived from this, literally meaning "south". Control of the settlement changed several times during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, before being finally made part of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, whose government named the settlement ''Leninske'' after

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the settlement was occupied by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

from October 1941 to September 1943. It received rural settlement status in 1957.

Russo-Ukrainian War

War in Donbas

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 ...

, Leninske was captured by Russian proxy militant forces. In 2016, Leninske was renamed to ''Pivdenne''. On 17 May 2018, Ukrainian government forces retook control of Pivdenne. On 21 May two Ukrainian servicemen were killed and four others were wounded at the settlement.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

During the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

in 2022, the settlement again came under attack by the Russian forces. On 26 January 2024, a new law entered into force which abolished the status of urban settlement, so Pivdenne became a rural settlement. As part of a renewed effort to capture the Toretsk area, the Russian Armed Forces gained a foothold near Pivdenne as well as other satellite settlements of

Toretsk Toretsk (; ) is an industrial city in Bakhmut Raion, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. It served as the administrative center of Toretsk urban hromada. As of January 2022, its population was approximately It has its origins as the hamlet Shcher ...

and the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

urban area in June–July 2024, and by the end of July had captured most of the settlement. Russia claimed to have seized the entire settlement on 30 July 2024.

Demographics

The population of Pivdenne has steadily declined over the past half-century, from 5,654 in 1959 to only 1,404 in 2022. In censuses, the residents of the settlement mostly reported their ethnic background as

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

and

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

References

{{Donetsk-geo-stub Rural settlements in Bakhmut Raion Toretsk urban hromada