Kirovsk (; ) or Holubivka (; ) is a city in Kadiivka urban hromada, Alchevsk Raion (

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Luhansk Oblast Luhansk Oblast (; ), also referred to as Luhanshchyna (), is the easternmost Administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Luhansk. The oblast was established in 1938 and bore the n ...

(

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

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 incorporated as a city of oblast significance. Population: It has been occupied by

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and its proxy the

Luhansk People's Republic The Luhansk People's Republic (LPR; , ) is a disputed territory administered as a republic of Russia in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, with its capital in Luhansk. The LPR was proclaimed by Russian-backed paramilitar ...

since 2014.

Geography

Kirovsk is located on the Luhan river. The landscape around the town is notable for pyramid-shaped manmade hills, by-products of the coal mining industry.

History

The settlement was founded in 1764 as a village named ''Holubivka'' by the Russian colonel Peter Golub. Coal was discovered in the area in the 1830s. When coal mines were developed in the area, the village became known as Holubivskyi Rudnyk (). 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 ...

, Holubivskyi Rudnyk 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 12 July 1942 to 3 September 1943. After the area was recaptured from Nazi Germany, in September 1944 the mining settlement was incorporated into Kadiivka as the Holubivskyi District. In 1962, Holubivskyi District was made an independent city, named ''Kirovsk''. In 2014, Kirovsk was captured by the

, an unrecognized breakaway state. The city was renamed back to ''Holubivka'' by Ukrainian authorities in 2016; however, as the settlement was under the control of the

, who did not recognise this, the renaming has been largely symbolic.

Demographics

As of the 2001 Ukrainian census: ; Ethnicity * Ukrainians: 56.9% * Russians: 40.7% * Belarusians: 1% ; Language * Russian: 84.6% * Ukrainian: 14.9% * Belarusian: 0.2%

Government

The Kirovsk Municipality represented by the Kirovsk City council consists of two urban settlements (towns, Donetskyi and Krynychanske) and two rural settlements (hamlets, Krynychne and Tavrychanske) that belonged to Chervonohvardiiske Municipality.

Notable People

* Maksym Dehtyarov (born 1993), Ukrainian professional football player of the club Desna Chernihiv in Ukrainian Premier League. * Oleh Naumenko (born 1986), Ukrainian paralympic fencer * Vadym Plotnykov (born 1968), Ukrainian football player

References

Cities in Luhansk Oblast Populated places established in 1764 Cities of regional significance in Ukraine Populated places established in the Russian Empire Soviet toponymy in Ukraine 1764 establishments in the Russian Empire Kadiivka urban hromada {{Luhansk-geo-stub