, settlement_type = City , image_skyline = File:Executive Committee building in Khrustalnyi.jpg , image_caption = Executive Committee building in Khrustalny , image_flag = , image_shield = File:Kryshtalevyy herb.jpg , image_map = , pushpin_map = Ukraine Luhansk Oblast#Ukraine , pushpin_label_position = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 =

Oblast An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdo ...

, subdivision_name1 = , coordinates = , established_title = Founded , established_date = 1895 , total_type = , area_total_km2 = 153,56 , elevation_m = 269 , population_total = 79,533 , population_as_of = 2022 , website = , blank_name =

Climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

, blank_info =

Dfb DFB may refer to: * Deerfield Beach, Florida, a city * Decafluorobutane, a fluorocarbon gas * Dem Franchize Boyz, former hip hop group, Atlanta, Georgia * Dfb, Köppen climate classification for Humid continental climate * Distributed-feedback ...

, official_name = Khrustalnyi , pushpin_map_caption = Location in

Luhansk Oblast Luhansk Oblast ( uk, Луга́нська о́бласть, translit=Luhanska oblast; russian: Луганская область, translit=Luganskaya oblast; also referred to as Luhanshchyna, uk, Луга́нщина) is the easternmost Adminis ...

## Location in

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 inva ...

, subdivision_type2 =

Raion A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet states. The term is used for both a type of subnational entity and a division of a city. The word is from the French (meaning 'honeycomb, department'), and is c ...

, subdivision_name2 = Rovenky Raion , timezone1 = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 Mius-Front

Khrustalnyi () or Krasnyi Luch (; ) is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

in Rovenky Raion of

(

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 out ...

) of south-eastern

. It is incorporated as a city of oblast significance. Its population is approximately . The city came under the control of the pro-Russian

Luhansk People's Republic The Luhansk or Lugansk People's Republic (russian: Луга́нская Наро́дная Респу́блика, Luganskaya Narodnaya Respublika, ; abbreviated as LPR or LNR, rus, ЛНР) is a disputed entity created by Russian-backed ...

in early 2014. After the September

2022 annexation referendums in Russian-occupied Ukraine In late September 2022, in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian-installed officials in Ukraine staged referendums on the annexation of occupied territories of Ukraine by Russia. They were widely described as sham referend ...

, Russia claimed the city as part of Russia.

History

The settlement was founded as Kryndachivka () or Krindachevka (Russian: Криндачёвка)Krasny Luch, also spelled Krasnyi Luch // The New Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th edition. Micropaedia. Vol.7. Chicago, 1994. page 1 in the last years of the 19th century.Красный Луч // Большая Российская Энциклопедия / редколл., гл. ред. Ю. С. Осипов. том 15. М., научное издательство "Большая Российская Энциклопедия", 2010. стр.647Красный Луч // Большой энциклопедический словарь (в 2-х тт.). / редколл., гл. ред. А. М. Прохоров. том 1. М., "Советская энциклопедия", 1991. стр.648 It became one of the most important

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

centres of the

Donets Basin The Seversky Donets () or Siverskyi Donets (), usually simply called the Donets, is a river on the south of the East European Plain. It originates in the Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine (Kharkiv, Done ...

. A local newspaper has been published here since September 1920. In December 1920 the locality was renamed as Krasnyi Luch (lit. "red beam") and designated as a city in 1926. The city was under German occupation from June 1942 to September 1943. The local Jewish population was killed along with other categories of victims, such as Communists, and were thrown into the shaft of the Bogdan coal mine. The total number of victims was about 2,000. In January 1965 the city had a population of 101,000 people. In January 1989 the city population was 113,278 people. It remained an important coal-mining centre. There were several coal-enriching plants, a machine-tool factory, light industries and a railway station. In January 2013 the city population was 82,765 people. Since spring 2014, the city has been controlled by Russian-led separatist forces of the

. On 12 May 2016, the

Ukrainian parliament The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

renamed the city from Krasnyi Luch to Khrustalnyi under

Ukrainian decommunization laws Ukrainian decommunization laws refer to four Ukrainian laws of 2015. These laws relate to decommunization as well as commemoration of Ukrainian history. Such laws have been referred to as " memory laws". As a result of the law mandating the remov ...

. 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. A ...

, the city was subject to a Ukrainian Tochka-U ballistic missile strike on 16 June that caused a large Russian ammunition depot belonging to the 2nd Army Corps to detonate. Footage of the attack was uploaded to social media where a group of

militiamen are seen to be sheltering and fleeing from the ensuing ammunition fire.

Demographics

As of the Ukrainian Census of 2001: ;Ethnicity *

Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...

: 49.2% *

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

: 46.1% *

Belarusians , native_name_lang = be , pop = 9.5–10 million , image = , caption = , popplace = 7.99 million , region1 = , pop1 = 600,000–768,000 , region2 = , pop2 ...

: 1.1% ;Language *

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 ...

: 87.8% *

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

: 10.4% *

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

: 0.2% * Belarusian: 0.1%

People associated with Khrustalnyi

On the right is a picture of the Wall of Honor. Such walls were installed in every

oblast An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdo ...

seat throughout the

Soviet Union 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 nationa ...

. With the dissolution of the Soviet state those landmarks were mostly removed, but in some instances were retained as relics of the past. Light heavyweight fighter

Nikita Krylov Nikita Andreyevich Krylov (born March 7, 1992) is a Ukrainian-Russian mixed martial artist who competes in the light heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. A professional since 2012, he has also competed for M-1 Global. As ...

originates from Krasnyi Luch. On August 1, 1943, the well-known

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

fighter pilot Lydia Litvyak took off from a base at Krasnyy Luch, to the last mission from which she never came back.

References

{{Authority control Cities in Luhansk Oblast Cities of regional significance in Ukraine Populated places established in the Russian Empire City name changes in Ukraine Holocaust locations in Ukraine