Kreminna
Kreminna (; ) is a city in the Sievierodonetsk Raion of the Luhansk Oblast of Ukraine. Prior to 2020, it served as the administrative center of the former Kreminna Raion. It has a population of The city was occupied by Russian Armed Forces on 18 April 2022 during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. History. Kreminna was founded in 1680. Kreminna acquired the status of a city in 1938. A local newspaper has been published in the city since December 1943. In July 2014, the city was the scene of fighting during the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine. Kreminna remained  under Ukrainian control. In March 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the pro-Russian mayor Volodymyr Struk who welcomed the Russian move, was found shot dead in the street after having been kidnapped from his home. Official advisor and a former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs Anton Herashchenko said that Struk was judged under the Lynch Law. Herashchenko suggested that the mayor was murdered by "unknown patriots" as the Russian forces were 15 kilometers away from Kreminna. On 11 March 2022, a residential care home for the elderly in Kreminna came under the fire  of Russian tanks. According to Serhiy Haidai, the Ukrainian Governor of Luhansk Oblast, 56 elderly residents were killed and 15 others were taken by the Russian military to Svatove, a town under their control. Ukrainian emergency services and officials were unable to reach the incident scene due to ongoing fighting. The town was the site of some of the first fighting of the Battle of Donbas. On April 18, 2022, Russian and LNR troops entered the city of Kreminna, subsequently capturing it few hours later after clashes with the Ukrainian Army. Haidai said "there were plans to evacuate the population ," although due to heavy fighting it proved impossible. Mr Haidai described the Russian forces as having "a huge amount of equipment".