Zelenodolsk (, ) 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 ...

Kryvyi Rih Raion Kryvyi Rih Raion () is a raion (district) of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast situated in central and southern Ukraine. Its administrative centre is the city of Kryvyi Rih. Population: On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the n ...

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in simultaneously southern, eastern and central Ukraine, the most important industrial region of the country. It was created on February 27, 1932. Dnipropetro ...

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 hosts the administration of Zelenodolsk urban hromada, one of the

hromada In Ukraine, a hromada () is the main type of municipality and the third level Administrative divisions of Ukraine, local self-government in Ukraine. The current hromadas were established by the Cabinet of ministers of Ukraine, Government of Uk ...

s of Ukraine. As of the end of 2024, 12,000 people live in the city. Until 18 July 2020, Zelenodolsk belonged to Apostolove Raion. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to seven. The area of Apostolove Raion was merged into Kryvyi Rih Raion. At the beginning 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 ...

, Zelenodolsk mayor Dmytro Neveselyi commanded a territorial defense detachment consisting of 300 local volunteers armed only with light weapons. By the evening of 24 February 2022, the unit had established checkpoints along the Zelenodolsk hromada's entire border with

Kherson Oblast Kherson Oblast (, ; ), also known as Khersonshchyna (, ), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in southern Ukraine. It is located just north of Crimea. Its administrative center is Kherson, on the northern or right bank ...

. According to Neveselyi, during the first four weeks of the

, there were no regular Ukrainian soldiers in the area, and the local territorial defense was the only Ukrainian force defending Zelenodolsk. The unit reportedly held a 75-kilometer front line on the Kherson Oblast-Dnipropetrovsk Oblast border, which encompassed Zelenodolsk and Marianske. Neveselyi credits the territorial defense unit with preventing Russian forces from entering

and capturing the in late February 2022. In late March 2022, the Ukrainian military arrived in the area and pushed Russian forces deeper into Kherson Oblast. Zelenodolsk and nearby villages experienced Russian shelling on a near-daily basis during 2022, resulting in the destruction of about 70% of the village's houses.

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* {{Authority control Cities in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Cities of district significance in Ukraine Populated places established in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic