Snizhne (, ) or Snezhnoye (), formerly known as Vasylivka (; ) until 1864, is a city in Horlivka Raion,

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 ...

. The eastern edge of Snizhne is adjacent to administrative border of

Luhansk Oblast Luhansk Oblast (; ), also referred to as Luhanshchyna (), is the easternmost Administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Luhansk. The oblast was established in 1938 and bore the n ...

. Its population is

History

The settlement was established in 1784 as a "winter place" Vasylivka (Vasilyevka) by

Don Cossacks Don Cossacks (, ) or Donians (, ), are Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don River (Russia), Don. Historically, they lived within the former Don Cossack Host (, ), which was either an independent or an autonomous democratic rep ...

and was part of the Taganrog city municipality. In 1864 it was renamed as Snizhne/Snezhnoye which literally means ''Snowy''. During the

2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine From the end of February 2014, in the aftermath of the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the ousting of Russian-leaning President of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, demonstrations by Russian-backed, ...

the town was held by separatists. On 15 July 2014, rockets from an unidentified aircraft struck the town hitting an apartment building and a tax office, leaving at least eleven people dead and eight injured. Separatists blamed the

Ukrainian Air Force The Ukrainian Air Force (, PS ZSU) is the air force of Ukraine and one of the eight Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ZSU). Its current form was created in 2004 by merging the Ukrainian Air Defence Forces into the Air Fo ...

for the attack, but Ukrainian sources denied it and stated that since the incident where an

An-26 The Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined turboprop civilian and military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986.Gordon, Yefim. Komissarov, Dmitry & Sergey. "Antonov's Turboprop Twins ...

plane was shot down on 14 July 2014, they have carried out no flights there. Instead they blamed Russian jets. After the downing of

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian-backed forces with a Buk missile system, Bu ...

on 17 July 2014, a YouTube video and photo emerged with citizen journalists claiming the material was from Snizhne and showed a Buk missile launcher. In September 2016 a Joint Investigation Team confirmed that the plane had been downed by a 9M38 BUK missile launched from a rebel-controlled area near the town of Pervomaiske, south of Snizhne. Fighting for the control of the town between the separatists and the

Ukrainian army The Ukrainian Ground Forces (SVZSU, ), also referred to as the Ukrainian army, is a land force, and one of the eight Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It was formed from Ukrainian units of the Soviet Army after Declaratio ...

broke out on 28 July 2014. Snizhne remained under the effective control of the self-proclaimed

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 ...

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.Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: 84.1% * Ukrainian: 14.8% *

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 around the ...

: 0.1% * Belarusian: 0.1%

Economy

* Snizhneantratsyt * Snizhne Engineering Factory (a branch of

Motor Sich The Motor Sich, Joint Stock Company () is a Ukrainian aircraft engine manufacturer headquartered in Zaporizhzhia. The company manufactures engines for airplanes and helicopters as well as industrial marine gas turbines and installations. Ov ...

) * Snizhnianskkhimmash, a factory of chemical engineering * Sofyino-Brodska train station

Gallery

File:Снежное. Шахта 9.jpg, Mine № 9 File:Snezhnoe 047.jpg,

Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful Human spaceflight, crewed sp ...

monument File:Snezhnoe 033.jpg, School №1 File:Snezhnoe 014.jpg, Military museum File:Snezhnoe 062.jpg, Church File:Snezhnoe 080.jpg, Monument File:Snezhnoe 084.jpg, St. Dmytro Church File:Snezhnoe 091.jpg, Water tower File:Snezhnoe 096.jpg, Sofino-Bridska rail station File:Snezhnoe 138.jpg, Snizhne apartment blocks

References

External links

Cities in Donetsk Oblast Cities of regional significance in Ukraine Populated places established in the Russian Empire Snizhne urban hromada {{Donetsk-geo-stub