Bilopillia (, ) 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 ...

Sumy Raion Sumy Raion () is a raion (district) in Sumy Oblast in central Ukraine. The administrative center of the raion is the city of Sumy, which was formerly administratively incorporated as a city of oblast significance until 2020. Population: On 18 ...

Sumy Oblast Sumy Oblast (), also known as Sumshchyna (), is an oblast (province) in northeast Ukraine. The oblast was created in its modern-day form, from the merging of raions from Kharkiv Oblast, Chernihiv Oblast, and Poltava Oblast in 1939 by the Presid ...

of northeastern

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 was the administrative center of Bilopillia Raion until it was abolished on 18 July 2020. It is located close to

Kursk Oblast Kursk Oblast (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Kursk. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, Kursk Oblast had a pop ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Population: The city's ancient name is

Vyr Vyr is an archaeological site of an ancient city located on the left bank of the Vyr river (a tributary of the Seym river in the Dnipro basin) at the mouth of its tributary, the Kryha river. The modern-day city of Bilopillia is located at the sit ...

Geography

Bilopillya railway station Bilopillia () is a railway station in Bilopillia, Ukraine. It is a major passenger station on the Bilopillia-Basy line of the Sumy Directorate of Southern Railways. The station is located between Vorozhba Vorozhba (, ) is a city in Sumy Ra ...

is situated in the south part of the city. Roads , , , and highway are present in the city.

History

The territory of modern Bilopillia was settled as early as the 2nd-6th centuries, as evidenced by the discovered settlement of the

Chernyakhiv culture Cherniakhiv or Chernyakhiv () may refer to several places in Ukraine; * Cherniakhiv, Kyiv Oblast, a village in Obukhiv Raion, Kyiv Oblast * Cherniakhiv, Rivne Oblast, a village in Ostroh Raion, Rivne Oblast * Cherniakhiv, Zhytomyr Oblast, a town ...

. During the time of

Kievan Rus Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of Russ ...

, the fortified city of

emerged, which was an outpost in the fight against nomads. Vyr is mentioned for the first time in the "Povchannya" of Volodymyr Monomakh in 1096, but the events depicted there relate to the year 1113. In 1239, the city was devastated and burned by the

Mongol-Tatars The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, extending northward into parts of t ...

. In the mid-16th century, the posts of the Moscow military guard appeared in this area. One of them was established on the Vyr hillfort. It existed until 1571. In 1672, a new settlement emerged on the site of the ancient Vyr, which had 1352 inhabitants. The settlement was first named Kryha after the river. It is mentioned under this name, which was preserved in the people's memory for a long time, in the chronicle of Samovydets in 1687. The second name — Bilopillia — was given by settlers from the town of the same name. Bilopillia was an important town in the Sumy Cossack regiment. It consisted of a town with 9 towers and a fort with 13 towers. In 1678 there were 53 Russian service people and 1,202 Cossacks. In 1681, the three villages of Krygu (in office),

Vorozhba Vorozhba (, ) is a city in Sumy Raion, Sumy Oblast, in north-eastern Ukraine. Population: In May 2025, the city's population remains at about 2,000. Geography Vorozhba is situated on the left bank of the Vyr River. Adjacent upstream is the to ...

(2 kilometers from the city), and Pavlivka (5 km from the city) were assigned to Bilopillia. Later, Bilopillia became a settlement (since 1791 — a town) in Sumskoy Uyezd in the

Kharkov Governorate Kharkov Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire founded in 1835. It embraced the historical region of Sloboda Ukraine. From 1765 to 1780 and from 1796 to 1835 the governorate was called Sloboda Uk ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. In 1933 Bilopillia Machine-Building Plant was built here. The settlement suffered as a result of the genocide of the Ukrainian people, conducted by the Government of the USSR in 1932–1933 and 1946–1947. At least 2,000 people died during the Soviet-organized

Holodomor The Holodomor, also known as the Ukrainian Famine, was a mass famine in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–193 ...

of 1932–1933. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, town was occupied by the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

from 8 October 1941 to 3 September 1943. In January 1989 the population was 19,746 people. In January 2013 the population was 16,731 people.

Ukraine invasion of Russian

The city has been shelled during the

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 April 26, 2024, Russian artillery killed two civilian women aged 77 and 69 and injured three more, according to Ukrainian sources.

Gallery

File:Білопілля-Птропавлівська церква.JPG, Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Bilopillia File:Автостанція Білопілля.jpg, Bus station File:Вокзал ст. Білопілля.jpg, Bilopillia railway station File:Школа-інтернат (колишня чоловіча гімназія).JPG, School in Bilopillia

References

Cities in Sumy Oblast Sumsky Uyezd {{Sumy-geo-stub