Bashtanka (, ) is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Mykolaiv Oblast Mykolaiv Oblast (, ), also referred to as Mykolaivshchyna (, ), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Mykolaiv. At the most recent estimate, the population ...

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 the administrative center of

Bashtanka Raion Bashtanka Raion () is a raion (district) in Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Bashtanka. Population: On 19 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the number of raions of Mykolaiv Oblast was ...

. Bashtanka hosts the administration of Bashtanka urban hromada, one of the

hromada In Ukraine, a hromada () is the main type of municipality and the third level Administrative divisions of Ukraine, local self-government in Ukraine. The current hromadas were established by the Cabinet of ministers of Ukraine, Government of Uk ...

s of Ukraine. Population: In 2001, population was 13,146.

History

Bashtanka was granted

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

status in 1963. During 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 ...

, on 1 March, 600 Russian soldiers in a column of about 250-300 military vehicles with the letter ''Z'' launched an offensive on Bashtanka after passing through . The Ukrainian Territorial Defense and local residents fired on the convoy, which retreated in disarray after entering the center of the city. Over the next few days, 28 Russian soldiers were found in and around Bashtanka hiding in basements and nearby villages. Bashtanka was shelled with

Grad missiles The BM-21 "Grad" () is a self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher designed in the Soviet Union. The system and the M-21OF rocket were first developed in the early 1960s, and saw their first combat use in March 1969 during the Sino-So ...

after the Russian retreat. One of the most serious bombardments, which involved

cluster munitions A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehi ...

, took place on the morning of 13 March, 2022. As of April 2022, 176 houses in the Bashtanka urban hromada had been destroyed, and only about 30% of the pre-war population remained in the city. On 20 April, a hospital was reportedly hit by a Russian missile.

References

{{Authority control Cities in Mykolaiv Oblast Kherson Governorate Cities of district significance in Ukraine Populated places established in the Russian Empire 1806 establishments in the Russian Empire 1806 establishments in Ukraine