Vuhledar

Vuhledar Вугледар Угледар
City of regional significance
Vuhledar coal mine
Flag Coat of arms
Vuhledar Vuhledar
Coordinates: 47°46′45″N 37°14′54″E
Country	Ukraine
Oblast	Donetsk Oblast
Raion	Volnovakha Raion
Founded	1964
Government
• Head of the military-civilian administration	Andriy S. Shilch
Elevation	187 m (614 ft)
Population  (2022)	14,144
Climate	Dfb

Vuhledar (Ukrainian: Вугледа́р, pronounced [wʊɦɫeˈdɑr]; Russian: Угледар, pronounced [ʊgɫeˈdɑr], transcribed Ugledar; both names meaning 'gift of coal', referring to its coal mining industry) is a city of oblast significance in Donetsk Oblast (province) of Ukraine. Its population is 14,144 (2022 estimate). In 2001, its population was 17,440.

History

In 1964 during the Soviet era, at the beginning of the development of the mining basin south of Donetsk, a major industrial city – under the name of Piwdennyj Donetsk (Ukrainian: Південний Донецьк), 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 (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, Vuhledar was hit by a Russian 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:

Ethnicity

• Ukrainians: 63.1%
• Russians: 33.1%
• Belarusians: 1.0%

Language

• Russian: 70.8%
• Ukrainian: 28.2%
• Belarusian: 0.1%