Kruta Balka (; ) is a

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. ...

Donetsk Raion Donetsk Raion (; ) is a prospective raion (district) of Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It was formally created in July 2020 as part of the reform of administrative divisions of Ukraine. The center of the raion is in the city of Donetsk. Population: M ...

(

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 ...

) in

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 ...

of 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 ...

, at 17.2 km NNE 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.

History

The settlement was taken under control of pro-Russian forces (the DNR) during the

War in Donbass 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 began in April 2014, when Russian paramilitaries seized several towns. Ukraine's military launched an operation ...

, that started in mid-April 2014. Since then, the settlement was located in a gray area, with both sides claiming it as theirs, until in March 2016 the

Armed Forces of Ukraine The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are the Military, military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the president of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rad ...

reportedly moved in to retake the village. Due to shelling on 6 April 2016, the water pumping station in the "gray-zone" between the villages of Vasylivka and Kruta Balka in South Donbas was de-energized, cutting off the water supply to over 50 settlements. By early-December 2016, according to one source, the insurgents reported in social media that the village might have been retaken by the Ukrainian army and that they were unable to confirm that it was under their control. During a clash on 28 December, one Ukrainian serviceman was killed. BBC's Ukrainian Service, however, still reported Kruta Balka as controlled by separatists in May 2017. In 2020, Kruta Balka was transferred from

Yasynuvata Raion Yasynuvata Raion () was one of the administrative raions (a ''district'') of Donetsk Oblast, located in southeastern Ukraine. The administrative center of the district was the city of Yasynuvata, which was incorporated separately as a city of o ...

to newly created

as part of the reform of administrative districts in Ukraine. During the

Prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine In March and April 2021, prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces began massing thousands of personnel and military equipment near Russia's border with Ukraine and in Crimea, representing the largest mobil ...

, on 10 January 2022 two Ukrainian servicemen - Lieutenant Illya Suprun and PFC Vitaliy Petrenko - were killed by an unknown explosive device. Until the 2022

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 ...

, Kruta Balka was the only locality of Donetsk Raion under at least partial control of the Ukrainian government.

Demographics

Native language as of the Ukrainian Census of 2001: * Ukrainian 9.51% *

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

90.49%

References

Villages in Donetsk Raion Yasynuvata urban hromada {{Donetsk-geo-stub