Sloviansk[lower-alpha 1] is a city in Donetsk Oblast, northern part of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The city was known as Tor until 1784.[6] While it did not actually belong to the raion itself, Sloviansk served as the administrative center of the Sloviansk Raion (district) until its abolition on 18 July 2020.
Sloviansk was one of the focal points in the early stages of the war in Donbas, in 2014, as it was one of the first cities to be seized and controlled by Russian-backed rebels (separatists), in mid-April 2014.[7][8] Ukrainian forces then retook control of the city in July 2014, and since then, Sloviansk has been under Ukrainian control.
The 2001 population of Sloviansk was 141,066. Largely due to the ongoing war in Donbas, by early 2022 this was down to 105,141.[9] Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city's population fell markedly, to around 24,000 by July 2022, due to shelling, and ongoing war, according to Ukrainian authorities.[10] In April 2023, The Financial Times estimated the population to have recovered to 40-50,000.[11]
History
Founding and early history
The history of Sloviansk dates back to 1645 when Russian Tsar Alexei Romanov founded a border fortress named Tor[12] against the Crimean attacks and slave raids on the southern suburbs of modern Ukraine and Russia.[13] In 1664, the first salt plant for the extraction of salt was built, and workers began to settle in the area.[14] In 1676, a fortress named Tor was built at the confluence of the Kazenyy Torets and Sukhyy Torets River, where they form the Torets River, a tributary of Donets River.[15] Shortly thereafter, the town of Tor grew up next to the fortress.[13]
Sloviansk in the late 19th century
As several salt lakes were located close by, the town soon became a major producer of salt. During the sixteenth century, salt production was the principal local industry. In 1784, the city was renamed Slovenske, and a decade later, Sloviansk (Slavyansk). [16]
In 1827, military doctor A. Yakovlev was the first to use mud treatment and bathing in Lake Ropne to treat sick soldiers. Four years later, a military hospital of 200 beds was opened near the lake, where mud therapy was used. In 1832, the first resort was established on the shores of Lake Ropne.[17] With the construction of a railway line in 1869, the town grew rapidly, from a population of 5,900 in 1847 to 15,700 by 1897.[16]
In World War II, the city was occupied by Nazi Germans on 28 October 1941. In December 1941, the SSEinsatzkommando 4b murdered more than a thousand Jews who lived in Sloviansk.[19] The Red Army temporarily expelled the Nazi occupiers on 17 February 1943. Germans retook it on 1 March 1943. The Red Army finally liberated Sloviansk on 6 September 1943.
Salt extraction in Sloviansk in turn gave rise to salt refining and packaging, soda and other chemical manufacturing. By 1972 there were 18 related enterprises in the city, including plastics and the making of vinyl records.[16] Sloviansk reached its peak population of 143,000 in 1987. Sloviansk would remain as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic until its dissolution in 1991, after which the city became part of an independent Ukraine.[16]
The 2014 Ukrainian revolution for the most part passed Sloviansk by, with no large-scale gatherings or events in the city, and polls showing people in the east of Ukraine to be largely opposed to the Maidan movement in Kyiv.[20] However, Sloviansk would quickly become the epicentre of events following the fallout of the revolution. On 12 April 2014, in the crisis and chaos which gripped the country following the revolution's installing of the First Yatsenyuk government, a reported 55 armed men, led by Russian military veteran Igor Girkin, known as 'Igor Strelkov' stormed Sloviansk, quickly capturing the executive committee building, the police department, and the SBU office of the city.[21][22][23] Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov described the gunmen as "terrorists" and vowed to use the Ukrainian special forces to retake the buildings.[24][25] On 13 April 2014, there were reports of fighting between the gunmen and Ukrainian troops, with casualties reported on both sides.[26][27] The BBC's David Stern described the pro-Russian forces as carrying Russian weapons and resembling the soldiers that took over Crimean installations at the start of the 2014 Crimean crisis.[26][28]
Pro-Russia rebels in Sloviansk
Initially, the pro-Russia rebels enjoyed strong support, with the New York Times reporting: "Thousands of residents thronged a large square in front of City Hall to welcome the pro-Russian putsch, chanting “Russia, Russia” and posing for photographs with gunmen they hailed as their saviors from the fascists who had seized power in Kiev with the February ouster of President Victor F. Yanukovych, a Russian-speaker from Donetsk."[29]
Victory Day 2014 in Sloviansk
Elected mayor of Sloviansk Nelya Shtepa gave a series of contradictory statements on her support for the pro-Russia side, and was then taken captive by the pro-Russia side. Shtepa would be one of several high-profile detainments during rebel control of Sloviansk. [30] On 14 April the pro-Russia side installed their own 'people's mayor' Vyacheslav Ponomarev, to deal with civilian matters, and press, while Strelkov / Girkin took charge of military matters.[31] Throughout April, and May, Ponomarev would hold near daily press conferences in the city's admininstrative building.[32] On 9 May, Victory Day, there was a parade, and large gathering of people in the central Square of Sloviansk. Nelya Shtepa appeared, the first time she had been seen in public since mid-April, and gave a pro-Russian speech on stage, urging people to vote in the referendum scheduled for 11 May. Recently freed rebel leader Pavel Gubarev also appeared on stage.[33] Referendums went ahead across Donbas on 11 May, including Sloviansk, with the pro-Russia side reporting a turnout of near 75%, with over 90% voting for self rule as part of the Donetsk/Luhansk People's Republics. However, the referendums were not monitored, or endorsed, by any international observers, or organisations, and their results almost universally unrecognised in the west. Russia issued a statement saying they 'respected' the results of the referendums, but stopped short of recognising them.[34][35]
Fighting intensified throughout May, as Ukrainian forces escalated their 'ATO' (Anti-Terror Operation) to retake the city, with a Ukrainian military helicopter shot down at the start of the month, and multiple casualties reported in fighting on both sides.[36] May would also see escalating civilian casualties in Sloviansk, as Ukrainian forces began their assault on the city. On 5 May, 30-year-old Irina Boevets was killed by a stray Ukrainian bullet, as she stepped out on her balcony. The Guardian at the time reported these civilian deaths as "fuelling pro-Russian sentiment".[37] Fighting between sides would wage in May, with increasing intensity. A follow-up referendum to the referendum on 11 May had been planned for 18 May, giving voters the option of joining Russia, however this was abandoned due to the escalation of fighting. On 29 May 2014, a Ukrainian helicopter carrying fourteen Ukrainian special service soldiers, including General Serhiy Kulchytskiy – the head of combat and special training for Ukraine's National Guard, crashed after being shot down by militants near Sloviansk. Ukraine's outgoing President Olexander Turchynov described the downing as a "terrorist attack," and blamed pro-Russian militants.[38]
As June went on, it became clear that the pro-Russia side were losing the battle for Sloviansk, beset by a number of problems, including infighting, with enmity between 'people's mayor' Ponomarev, and Strelkov/Girkin, resulting in Strelkov/Girkin having Ponomarev arrested, and dismissed from his duties, on 12 June.[31] Ukrainian forces further stepped up their shelling of Sloviansk in June.[39] Sloviansk was ultimately held by Russian-backed rebels for nearly three months, from mid-April until 5 July 2014, during which time fighting between the rebels and the Ukrainian army escalated, along with shelling of civilian areas of the city, with both military and civilian casualties.[40] In late June, the Ukrainian army started advancing on Sloviansk, taking strategically significant locationed, including the Karachun Mountains. This, combined with Strelkov's videos decrying a lack of support, made the rebel retreat an inevitability.[41][42] A 10-day ceasefire, not entirely observed by either side, ended on 30 June, and in early July, faced with a full-on Ukrainian offensive, Strelkov co-ordinated the retreat of his forces from Sloviansk.[43] Initially they had planned to go to nearby Kramatorsk, however when it became clear that the Ukrainian army would also take Kramatorsk, which they duly did, most headed to Donetsk, which would then become their stronghold.[44]
Sloviansk was one of several territories taken by Ukrainian forces at this time, including the nearby cities of Kramatorsk, and Kostiantynivka.[45] Although Sloviansk's capture was a military victory for Ukrainian forces, the successful co-ordinated retreat of the rebel forces, and fall back to a fortified Donetsk, led to accusations, and recriminations, from the Ukrainian side.[46]
General Serhiy Krivonos, Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said in 2020 that the Ukrainian Army was aware of the movement of Girkin's columns out of Sloviansk but did not attack the columms:
Having some information from our sources from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, we understood that they [the separatists] would come out. This understanding was clearly formed between 2 and 3 July. And already on the 4th it was clear that they would leave that night from 4 to 5 July. We actively conducted reconnaissance and gave coordinates directly on the night movement of the column, and on the daytime location of the enemy in Kramatorsk, and then on the exit of Girkin's columns from Kramatorsk. These coordinates were given. There was no implementation of [an attack on] these coordinates.[47]
A series of incidents, and a difficult ongoing living situation had resulted in support for the pro-Russian rebels eroding in the near three months that Sloviansk was under their control. The New York Times reported that 'many of the same people' who had once supported the pro-Russia rebels 'rushed into the same square to greet Ukrainian military trucks as soldiers handed out free food. Virtually nobody now admits to having supported the separatists.' Konstantin Batozsky, an aide to the Kyiv-appointed governor of the Donetsk region, which included Sloviansk, stated of the people of Sloviansk: “They are happy to welcome whoever gives them food.” [29]
Aftermath of the siege and decommunization
Following Ukraine's recapture of Sloviansk in July 2014, Ukrainian authorities began a 'hunt' for collaborators, setting up a hotline encouraging residents of the city to inform on those who had 'collaborated with pro-Russian rebels'. There were further discoveries of 'mass graves'. The New York Times reported at this time "There is no mood of joyous celebration at what Ukrainian officials trumpet as the city’s “liberation.” Anger and animosity bubbles just below the calm surface. In each workplace, everyone knows who did what during rebel rule, creating poisonous currents of suspicion."[29] The population of Sloviansk had fallen to around 80,000 at this time.
In 2015, as part of Ukraine's process of decommunization, the fate of Sloviansk's statue of Lenin, in the city's central square, became a topic of heated debate at council meetings. Large factions from Ukrainian ultra-national groups Svoboda and the Right Sector attended these meetings, in support of the removal / destruction of the statue. There were also locals in favour of keeping the statue, with a petition of 4,500 signatures supporting the Lenin statue remaining. No consensus had been reached, when in the early hours of June 3, Right Sector militants tore the statue down.[48] Also in 2015, a plaque to the memory of Volodymyr Rybak, a Ukrainian politician killed by pro-Russian rebels in 2014, was placed in the town center.[49]
Although war continued in parts of Donbas, there were no notable incidents in Sloviansk following its recapture by Ukrainian forces in July 2014, until 2022. In 2016, the city was visited by Orlando Bloom in his role as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.[50] The population of Sloviansk would recover in the years up to 2022, to pre-2014 level.[16]
Damage to a residential building in Sloviansk after the April 2023 airstrike by Russia
Sloviansk has been affected from the start of the 2022 Invasion of Ukraine, without becoming a central theatre of war.[11] Sloviansk has been described as being a "crucial part Moscow’s objective of capturing all of the Donbas region".[51]
The city has several times fallen under shelling, with the loss of civilian life.[52][53][54] An April 2023 profile of Sloviansk by the Financial Times described the city as being like a 'ghost town', with mayor Vadym Lyakh having given an order to evacuate. The population of Sloviansk at this time was estimated at 40-50,000, up from 2022's estimate of 24,000, but significantly down from the pre-Russian invasion population of over 100,000.[11] In September 2023, The Guardian reported from a Sloviansk still on a war footing.[55]
Before the war in 2014, Sloviansk was an important industrial and health resort center, providing spa treatments and mud baths using mud from the bottom of salt lakes located nearby, and attracting tourists from across Ukraine and beyond. After sustaining damage in 2014, some of the city's resort facilities were repaired, and operated until active war broke out in Sloviansk again in 2022. As of 2023, none of Sloviansk's spa resorts or tourist facilities are in operation.[60]
The Slovvazhmash heavy-machinery production plant, specialised in chemical equipment for coke production.[16]
The Betonmash machine-building factory, specialised in concrete mixing plants, spare parts for mining equipment and metal works, parts for coke ovens.[61]
The Sloviansk mechanical plant, specialised in coke production as well as overhead cranes and other machinery.[62]
Sloviansk is a nexus of a number of railways and roads. The city is served by three railway passenger stations: Slovianskyi Resort (in the northeast), ‘Mashchormet’ (at the junction), and 'Sloviansk' (the main station, west of the junction, on the southwest side of the city). Three railway lines leave the city in directions of Lozova, Lyman and Kramatorsk. The local population is served by a trolleybus network consisting of two permanent routes and one summer route. Marshrutkas are widely used.
The M03 goes by the edge of Sloviansk. In early 2015, Ukraine lost control of the section of this from Debaltsevo on, then in early 2023 Ukraine lost control of the section from Soledar to Debaltsevo. H20 leaves from the city toward Mariupol, via Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, Donetsk, and Volnovakha. Ukraine lost control of part of this highway, around Donetsk, in 2014. The first part of 2022 saw fierce fighting on or around the highway, and by summer of 2022, Ukraine had lost control of the H20 highway, from around Donetsk onto Mariupol.
Religious organizations
The Church of the Resurrection of Christ
Christian churches:
Cathedral of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Orthodox Church
Kramatorsk is a city and the administrative centre of Kramatorsk Raion in Donetsk Oblast of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Prior to 2020, Kramatorsk was a city of oblast significance. Since October 2014, Kramatorsk has been the provisional seat of Donetsk Oblast, following the events surrounding the war in Donbas. Its population is 147,145. It is an important industrial and mechanical engineering center in Ukraine. Kramatorsk is on the banks of the Kazennyi Torets, a right tributary of the Siverskyi Donets.
Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, primarily the People's Militias of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), were pro-Russian paramilitaries in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. They were under the overall control of the Russian Federation. They were also referred to as Russian proxy forces. They were active during the war in Donbas (2014–2022), the first stage of the Russo-Ukrainian War. They then supported the Russian Armed Forces against the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the 2022 Russian invasion. In September 2022, Russia annexed the DPR and LPR, and began integrating the paramilitaries into its armed forces. They are designated as terrorist groups by the government of Ukraine.
The siege of Sloviansk was conducted by Ukraine between 12 April 2014 and 5 July 2014. It began immediately after Sloviansk was seized by the separatist group, the Donetsk People's Republic, which, having received support from Russia, declared itself independent from Ukraine on 7 April. Following three months of heavy fighting between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the DPR People's Militia, the Ukrainian government retook the city as the pro-Russia rebels retreated to Donetsk. The engagement in Sloviansk marked the first military engagement of the War in Donbas.
Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, also known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, is a Russian political prisoner, army veteran and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who played a key role in the Russian annexation of Crimea, and then in the Donbas War as an organizer of militant groups in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).
Vyacheslav Vladimirovich Ponomarev is a former owner of a soap production company who in 2014 briefly achieved prominence as the self-proclaimed mayor of the city of Sloviansk, at that time a focal point at the beginning of the 2014 War in Donbas.
The war in Donbas, also known as the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the Donbas region of Ukraine. The war began in April 2014, when a commando unit headed by Russian citizen Igor Girkin seized Sloviansk in Donetsk oblast. The Ukrainian military launched an operation against them. The war continued until subsumed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
A series of armed skirmishes and confrontations between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists affiliated with the Donetsk People's Republic took place from 12 April until 5 July 2014, and is known as the Battle of Kramatorsk.
The Russian Orthodox Army, ROA was a Russian separatist paramilitary group in Ukraine that has been fighting Ukrainian forces in the Donbas war. It was founded in 2014. The ROA was later absorbed into the Oplot Fifth Separate Infantry Brigade.
Vladimir Petrovich Kononov is a former defence minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, serving from August 15, 2014, after the resignation of Igor Girkin until October 1, 2018.
During the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War between the Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine that began in April 2014, many international organisations and states noted a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the conflict zone.
Volodymyr Ivanovych Rybak was a Ukrainian politician, member of the Horlivka city council, kidnapped and then murdered by the pro-Russian militia on 17 April 2014. It was one of the first war crimes alleged to have been committed by pro-Russian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Nelya Ihorivna Shtepa is a Ukrainian politician. She was mayor of Sloviansk from 2010 until 2014, when Russian paramilitary troops occupied the city. She was imprisoned by the separatists because she refused to fully co-operate with them, freed by Ukrainian forces, but then imprisoned again by Ukrainian authorities for alleged collusion with the Donetsk People's Republic.
The Sparta Battalion or 80th Separate Guards Reconnaissance Battalion "Sparta" named after A. S. Pavlov is a special purpose unit of the Russian Armed Forces. Until 2023, unit was part of Russian people's militia military unit of the Russian republic of Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine. The unit has been fighting against the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbas war and the 2022 Russian invasion. Formed in 2014, it was initially led by the Russian-born Arsen Pavlov until his death in October 2016, and then by Vladimir Zhoga, from Sloviansk, until his death in March 2022.
Sergei Nikolayevich Zhurikov was a commander of the Donbas People's Militia in the secessionist Donetsk People's Republic during the war in Donbas. He was killed in the siege of Sloviansk fighting against Ukrainian government forces.
In Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, four members of the Transfiguration of The Lord Pentecostal church were captured and killed in June 2014, allegedly by members of the Russian Orthodox Army. The reason for the killings is disputed. In a car of one of the kidnapped the money in foreign currency was found, which was the pretext to declare the Protestants American spies. Church officials believe that it was an act of religious persecution.
Football Federation of Donetsk Oblast (FFD) is a football governing body in the region of Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The federation is a collective member of the Football Federation of Ukraine.
This is a timeline of the war in Donbas for the year 2014.
The combatants of the war in Donbas included foreign and domestic forces.
The battle of Krasnyi Lyman was a series of battles in 2014 for control of the city of Krasnyi Lyman of Donetsk Oblast during the War in Donbas.
The 1st Slavyansk Brigade also known as the 1st Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Slavyansk Order of the Republic Brigade is a military unit of Russian Ground Forces. Until January 1, 2023, it was part of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" (DPR). It is attached to the 1st Donetsk Army Corps.
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