Novoprokopivka () is a village in southern

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 ...

, administratively located in

Tokmak urban hromada Tokmak urban hromada () is a hromada in the Polohy Raion (district) of Zaporizhzhia Oblast in Ukraine. The area of the territory is 728.3 km2. In 2020, 36,719 people lived there. Its administrative center is the city of Tokmak Tokmak ...

Polohy Raion Polohy Raion () is one of the five raions (districts) of Zaporizhzhia Oblast in southern Ukraine. The administrative center of the region is the town of Polohy. Population: On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the n ...

Zaporizhzhia Oblast Zaporizhzhia Oblast (), commonly referred to as Zaporizhzhia (), is an oblast (region) in south-east Ukraine. Its administrative centre is the city of Zaporizhzhia. The oblast covers an area of , and has a population of The oblast is an import ...

. It had a population of 747 as of 2001.

Geography

It is located near the watershed of tributaries of the Konka river, which flows roughly northwestward into the

Dnieper The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

, and the

Molochna The Molochna (; ) is a river in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, southern Ukraine. The river is connected with the Russian Mennonite culture, once based in the southeastern region of Ukraine since 1804 as Molotschna colony which was part of the Russian E ...

river, which flows roughly southwards 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 ...

. It is away from

Tokmak Tokmak (, ) is a small city in Polohy Raion, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, in south-central Ukraine. It stands on the Tokmak River, a tributary of the Molochna. It is the administrative centre of the Tokmak urban hromada, and was the centre of the T ...

, and south of

Orikhiv Orikhiv (, ; , ) is a city in Polohy Raion, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, southern Ukraine. It had an estimated population of as of 1 January 2022. Early in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, many residents were evacuated, with 6,000 remaining by Au ...

. It is a few kilometres south of

Robotyne Robotyne (, ) is a village in Polohy Raion, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine. Administratively, it is part of Tokmak urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. The village is approximately southeast of Orikhiv, and north of Tokmak. It had a p ...

History

Novoprokopivka was founded in the mid-19th century under 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 ...

as Vershyna () by settlers from Mala Tokmachka. It gained its current name in 1882. The village has become a frontline battlefield of the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

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 25 August 2023, it was reported by Russian and Ukrainian sources that Ukrainian forces were advancing on the village during their

2023 Ukrainian Counteroffensive In early June 2023, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine launched a Counter-offensive, counteroffensive against Russian forces Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, occupying its territory with a goal of breaching the front lines ...

. On September 24, 2023, it was reported that the Ukrainian soldiers were inside the village; however, their advance stalled at this point and

Russian forces The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Ground Forces, Navy, and Aerospace Forces—two independent combat ...

succeeded in pushing them out. As of May 2024, fighting was still ongoing in Robotyne, just north of Novoprokopivka.

Demographics

As of the

2001 Ukrainian census The 2001 Ukrainian census is to date the only census of the population of independent Ukraine. It was conducted by the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989.Villages in Polohy Raion 19th-century establishments in the Russian Empire