The Kalmius (, ) is a river flowing through

Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its capital city, administrative centre is Donetsk, though d ...

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 ...

. Its source is near the Ukrainian city of Yasynuvata, and its mouth is in

Mariupol Mariupol is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius, Kalmius River. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the tenth-largest city in the coun ...

. The Kalmius is one of two rivers flowing through Mariupol. The other is the Kalchyk, which flows into the Kalmius. The Kalmius flows into the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...

near the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol. Major cities along the Kalmius are Yasynuvata,

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; ; ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capita ...

, Kalmiuske, and Mariupol.

History

Kalmius is said to be the name of a 16th-century

Cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...

encampment where the town of Pavlovsk was founded, later renamed

. The Kalmius Trail was a Tatar raiding trail, one of the branches of the Muravsky Trail. After an offensive by the separatist forces of the

Donetsk People's Republic The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR; , ) is Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, occupied territory in Ukraine that the Russian Federation has claimed to annex and declared as a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia, comprising parts o ...

in August 2014 during the

war in Donbas The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...

, in southern Donetsk Oblast, the river became the boundary between Donetsk People's Republic-controlled territory to the east, and Ukrainian government-controlled territory to the west. A Donetsk People's Republic unit was named the Kalmius Brigade after the river. Under decommunization laws, the city of Komsomolske was renamed Kalmiuske in May 2016 after the river. However, the Ukrainian government does not control Kalmiuske, and the new name is not recognized by the pro-Russian occupation authorities.

References

Drainage basins of the Sea of Azov Rivers of Donetsk Oblast {{Ukraine-river-stub