Vuhledar (, ; , , transcribed Ugledar; both names meaning 'gift of coal', referring to its coal mining industry) is a city of oblast significance in Donetsk Oblast (

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

) of

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 ...

. Its population is In 2001, its population was 17,440.

History

In 1964 during the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

era, at the beginning of the development of the mining basin south of

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; uk, Донецьк, translit=Donets'k ; russian: Донецк ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino (see also: cities' alternative names), is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine loca ...

, a major industrial city – under the name of ''Piwdennyj Donetsk'' (), meaning “South Donetsk” – inhabited by a hundred thousand inhabitants, with ten mines, is forecast. In the 1970s, the development of coal reserves in the southern Donbas basin was less promising than in the Kusbass, and only a small town emerged. In 1969, the village was renamed “Ugledar” (in Russian) or “Vuhledar” (in Ukrainian); in 1991, Vuhledar received city status. Since the beginning of the

War in Donbas War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

(2014), the city appears to have been strongly fortified because of the fights between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the separatists from the Donetsk People's Republic. 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. ...

, Vuhledar was hit by a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

ballistic missile carrying a cluster munition on February 24, 2022. The missile struck outside a hospital and killed four civilians and injured another 10.

Demographics

As of the

2001 Ukrainian Census The Ukrainian Census of 2001 is to date the only census of the population of independent Ukraine. It was conducted by the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989.

: ;Ethnicity * Ukrainians: 63.1% * Russians: 33.1% * Belarusians: 1.0% ;Language *

: 70.8% * Ukrainian: 28.2% * Belarusian: 0.1%

References

Cities in Donetsk Oblast Populated places established in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Cities of regional significance in Ukraine Volnovakha Raion {{Donetsk-geo-stub