Alchevsk
An industrial city named after the entrepreneur and patron Oleksiy Alchevsky.
The city grew up around the steelworks of the Donetsk-Yurivka Company, founded in 1895 by the industrialist and banker Oleksii Alchevsky; according to ESU, the works were built in 1896. His wife, Khrystyna Alchevska, founded the Kharkiv women's Sunday school in 1862. According to Skhidnyi Variant, in 1903 the settlement of Yurivka was named after Alchevsky; in 1931–1961 the city was called Voroshylovsk, then Komunarsk, and in 1991, according to ZAXID, after a referendum it got its name back (according to ESU, in 1992). According to ESU, Alchevsk has a history museum (1970), a museum of the history of the steel plant (1966) and a monument to Oleksii Alchevsky (1996). On 30 April 2014 militants seized the city council building, took down the Ukrainian flag and demanded that a “referendum” be held; since then the city has been occupied. In 2022 the plant came to a halt because of the forced mobilisation of its workers, and in spring 2026, after SBU strikes, it stopped working again.
Temporarily occupied since 2014.
Chronicle
- 30 April 2014 — A pro-russian group of about 30 people seized the Alchevsk city council building and took down the Ukrainian flag; the militants demanded that the mayor hold a “referendum”. The beginning of the city's occupation.
- 2014–2021 — In 2014 the owners of the Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works declared that they had effectively lost control over it; in July 2021 a court declared the enterprise bankrupt.
- September 2022 — The plant stopped production because of the forced mobilisation of its workers.
- March–April 2026 — After SBU strikes, blast furnaces and key shops were damaged; the plant stopped working.