Marinka, Ukraine

Marinka, Ukraine
Marinka or Maryinka is a city in Pokrovsk Raion, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. Population: 10,722 (2001).
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the city was largely destroyed as a result of ongoing fighting, with no civilians living in the town since November 2022.
History
The area which is now Marinka was part of the , an 18th-century administrative division of the Zaporizhian Sich.
After the liquidation of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775, the area that is today Marinka was included in the lands granted to Greek settlers, but Marinka itself remained undeveloped by the 1830s. Former Ukrainian Cossacks and state serfs from various counties of the Poltava and Kharkov governorates began moving in during the 1840s. Poles from the Kiev and Podolia governorates were also exiled to what is now Marinka after the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century. While the state serfs worked communal land, the exiled Poles were considered odnodvortsy (landowners).
By 1859, Marinka had 1,318 residents. Administratively, Marinka belonged to Aleksandrovsk county in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate. The village administration consisted of a starshyna (village head), a tax collector, a secretary, and an overseer.
The city was under German occupation between 1941 and 1943. Having been locked up in the police station, the Jews of the city (and the surrounding villages) were killed in a mass execution by an Einsatzgruppe. The site of the massacre is located in a pit near the cemetery.
Russo-Ukrainian War
Starting in mid-April 2014 Russian-backed paramilitaries captured several towns in Donetsk Oblast, including Marinka. On 5 August 2014, Ukrainian forces regained control of Marinka. Ukrainian forces involved in the recapture included the Azov Battalion, whose flag flew in the city in early August. A member of the group with Russian citizenship was killed in action during the battle for the city. Fourteen other Azov members were wounded, nine of whom by the explosion of their tank due to an anti-tank mine.
The city was shelled on a regular basis, with Ukrainian troops returning fire. Pro-Russian fighters accused Ukrainian troops of using their positions in Marinka to shell militant-controlled Donetsk, a claim denied by the Ukrainian military.
Three people died close to a checkpoint on 10 February 2016 when a minibus while bypassing a queue drove roadside and hit a land mine. The driver had ignored land mine warning signs.
According to Ukrainian MP Iryna Herashchenko, 5,000 people lived in Marinka in September 2016.
Battle of Marinka
On 3 June 2015, violence returned to the area as pro-Russian combatants launched an offensive on the city involving 1,000 fighters, tanks and heavy artillery. They stated they were engaging in defensive measures in response to a Ukrainian army assault. By then, the town had already been devastated by months of heavy fighting.
According to the BBC, the fighting was the heaviest of the war in Donbas since the Minsk II ceasefire was signed on 11 February 2015. By the early evening of 3 June, Donetsk People's Republic's Defence Minister Vladimir Kononov and the Ukrainian military confirmed to the OSCE that Marinka was under Ukrainian control. According to OSCE figures, 28 people, including 9 civilians, were killed in Marinka on 3 June 2015.
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 17 March 2022, battles for Marinka resumed following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the process, much of the city was destroyed, with only a few residents remaining , according to Der Spiegel. One reporter likened Marinka in January 2023 to an "urban hellscape." During the battle, buildings were purposefully destroyed in order to prevent them from being used as cover.
Gallery
Notable people
Oleksandr Klymenko (born 1965), politician and entrepreneur
References
External links
Marinka in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
Christopher Miller, Guns Of August: Fears Of Full-Scale War Return As Casualties Mount In Ukraine, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 9 August 2016
Cities in Donetsk Oblast
Yekaterinoslav Governorate
Cities of district significance in Ukraine
Populated places established in the Russian Empire
Holocaust locations in Ukraine
Marinka urban hromada
Buildings and structures destroyed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Populated places destroyed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine