Palmnicken was eventually captured by the Red Army on 7 April 1945, during the closing days of the war. The northern third of East Prussia, including Palmnicken, became part of the Soviet Union in 1945 under terms of border changes promulgated at the Potsdam Conference. The German population evacuated or was subsequently expelled to western Germany. Palmnicken was renamed Yantarny, derived from "yantar", the Russian word for amber, and was repopulated by Soviet settlers, predominantly Russians, as well as Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Tatars.