Pokrovsk Raion
Pokrovsk Raion (; ) is a raion (district) within Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine. Its administrative center is Pokrovsk. It has an area of and its population is approximately
An architectural monument in the raion is the Petropavlovs'ka Chu ...
,
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 ...
. It is located northwest of the city
Avdiivka
Avdiivka (, ; , ) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The city is located in the centre of the oblast, just north of the regional centre, Donetsk. The large Avdiivka Coke Plant is located in Avdiivka. The city had a population of before th ...
. Before 2016, it was known as Petrivske ( As part of
decommunization in Ukraine
Decommunization in Ukraine started during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and expanded afterwards. Following the 2014 Revolution of Dignity and beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Government of Ukraine, Ukrainian government ap ...
in 2016, it was renamed to Stepove.
Russian invasion of Ukraine
In late 2023 and early 2024, Stepove was a site of fighting during the battle of Avdiivka of 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 December 3, 2023, Russian forces were accused of committing a war crime when they murdered two unarmed surrendering Ukrainian soldiers near Stepove.
On 24 February 2024, Russian troops had seized control over the village.
Demographics
According to 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.Ukrainian and 64.52% natively spoke
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 ...