Makiivka (, , ), formerly Dmytriivsk () until 1931, is an industrial city in Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine, located east from Donetsk. The two cities are practically a conurbation. It has a population of It hosts the administration of Makiivka urban hromada.
Makiivka is a metallurgical and coal-mining centre of the Donets Basin, with heavy industry and coking plants supporting the local steel and coal industries. The city was captured by pro-Russian separatists in 2014 at the start of the war in Donbas and is currently occupied by Russia.
Subdivisions and local government
Makiivka comprises a total of five urban districts (raions):
- Hirnytskyi District () — 107,835 inhabitants
- Kirovskyi District (), de jure since 2026 Hruzkyi District () — 52,768 inhabitants
- Sovietskyi District (, de jure since 2026 Khanzhonkivskyi Raion (
As of the 2001 Ukrainian census:
;Ethnicity
- Russians: 50.8%
- Ukrainians: 45%
- Tatars: 1.1%
- Georgians: 0.3%
- Greeks: 0.3%
History
Ancient prior settlement
The rough area of the city has been inhabited for millennia. Kurgans from the Bronze Age, Scythian civilization, and the 800s-1200s AD have been excavated in the surrounding area. In 1875–1877, several minor mines were opened nearby. In 1931, Dmytriivsk was renamed Makiivka.
Industrialization and the Soviet era
The city became increasingly industrialized throughout the 1930s, with its population rising from 79,000 in 1926 to 242,000 in 1939. In the Operational Situation Report (USSR No. 177) of German Chief of the Security Police dated from 6 March 1942, it is stated that as a result of the measures carried out by Einsatzkommando 6, both the Horlivka and Makiivka districts had been made "free of Jews". Nazis and Ukrainian collaborators executed a total of 493 people here, among them 80 political agitators, 44 saboteurs and looters, and 369 Jews. The Germans operated the Dulag 102 and Dulag 123 transit prisoner-of-war camps in the city in 1942 and 1943, respectively.
After the end of the war, Makiivka was rebuilt. By 1959, its population had reached 381,000. Security Service of Ukraine chief Valeriy Khoroshkovsky opened a criminal case on the blasts the same day, under the article on terrorism. Two suspects - Anton Voloshyn and Dmytro Onufrak - were detained on 15 February 2011. Voloshyn and Onufrak were later found guilty and sentenced to eight and fifteen years in prison, respectively. Since then, Makiivka has been controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
On 1 January 2023, a military quarters in the city was shelled. It was reported by both Russian and Ukrainian sources that a Ukrainian strike on Russian military forces based at a vocational school in Makiivka resulted in significant casualties, particularly among conscripts. First Deputy Minister of Information of the Donetsk People's Republic Daniil Bezsonov stated that the strike took place at exactly 00:01 Moscow Time and made use of the M142 HIMARS rocket system. Russian officials claimed that at least 25 HIMARS rockets were fired at the school, resulting in at least 15 casualties. Officials of the Donetsk People's Republic stated that the reason for the strike was the use of mobile phones by Russian serviceman at the school, which revealed their location to the Ukrainian military. The Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on the same day that 400 Russian forces had been killed in the strike, with a further 300 wounded, resulting in 700 total casualties. Igor Girkin, the former commander of separatist forces in the Donbas, said about the attack, "the number of dead and wounded runs into many hundreds".