Rivne
Rivne (; ; ) is a city in western Ukraine. Historically known as "Rovno", the city is the administrative center of Rivne Oblast (province), as well as the surrounding Rivne Raion (district created in USSR) within the oblast. Administratively, Rivne is incorporated as a city of oblast significance and does not belong to the raion. Population: Between World War I and World War II, the city was located in Poland as a district-level (county) seat in Wolyn Voivodeship. At the start of World War II in 1939, Rivne was occupied by the Soviet Red Army and received its current status by  becoming a seat of regional government of the Rivne Oblast which was created out of the eastern portion of the voivodeship. During the German occupation of 1941–44 the city was designated as a capital of German Ukraine (Reichskommissariat Ukraine). In the spring of 1919, it also served as a provisional seat of the Ukrainian government throughout the ongoing war with Soviet Russia. Rivne is an important transportation hub, with the international Rivne Airport, and rail links to Zdolbuniv, Sarny, and Kovel, as well as highways linking it with Brest, Kyiv and Lviv. Among other leading companies there is a chemical  factory of Rivne-Azot (part of Ostchem Holding). History. Rivne was first mentioned in 1283 in the Polish annals ""Rocznik kapituły krakowskiej"" as one of the inhabited places of Halych-Volhynia near which Leszek II the Black was victorious over a part of the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army. Following the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia's partition after Galicia–Volhynia Wars in the late 14th century, it was under the rule of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in 1434 the Grand Duke of Lithuania Švitrigaila awarded the settlement to a Lutsk nobleman Dychko. In 1461 Dychko sold his settlement to Prince  Semen Nesvizh. In 1479 Semen Nesvizh died and his settlement was passed to his wife Maria who started to call herself princess of Rovno. She turned the settlement into a princely residence by building in 1481 a castle on one of local river islands and managed to obtain Magdeburg rights for the settlement in 1492 from the King of Poland Casimir IV Jagiellon. Following her death in 1518, the city was passed on to the princes of Ostrog and declined by losing its status as a princely residency. In 1566 the town of Rovno became part of newly established Volhynian  Voivodeship. Following the Union of Lublin in 1569, it was transferred from the realm of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Crown of Poland. The city had a status of privately held by nobles (Ostrogski and Lubomirski families). Following the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 Rivne became a part of the Russian Empire, and in 1797 it was declared to be a county level (uyezd) town of the Volhynian Governorate. During World War I and the period of chaos shortly after, it was briefly under German, Ukrainian, Bolshevik and Polish rule. During April–May 1919 Rivne served as  the temporary capital of the Ukrainian People's Republic. In late April 1919 one of the Ukrainian military leaders Volodymyr Oskilko attempted to organize a "coup-d'état" against the Directorate led by Symon Petliura and the cabinet of Borys Martos and replace them with Yevhen Petrushevych as president of Ukraine. In Rivne, Oskilko managed to arrest most of the cabinet ministers including Martos himself, but Petliura at that time was in neighboring Zdolbuniv and managed to stop Oskilko's efforts. At the conclusion of the conflict, in accordance with the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921 it became a part of  Polish Volhynian Voivodeship, a situation which would last until the Second World War. Before World War II, Rovno (Równe) was a mainly Jewish-Polish city (Jews constituted about 50% of the city's population, and Poles 35%). When Jews died during the Holocaust, Poles from Rivne were deported to Poland's new borders after 1945. In 1939, as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the partition of Poland, Rivne was occupied by the Soviet Union. From December of the same year Rivne became the center of the newly established Rivne Oblast, within the Ukrainian SSR. On 28 June  1941 Rivne was invaded by the 6th army of Nazi Germany, which later established the city as the administrative center of Reichskommissariat Ukraine on 20 August. A prison for the Gestapo was created on Belaia Street. At the time, roughly half of Rivne's inhabitants were Jewish; of these, about 23,000 were taken to a pine grove in Sosenki and killed between 6–8 November. At the same period the well known German actor Olaf Bach was flown over to the city to perform for the German forces, for morale and to support the troops. He remained in Rivne from 8–13  November. A ghetto was established for the remaining 5,000 Jews. In July 1942, its population was sent north to Kostopil where they were killed; the ghetto was subsequently liquidated. On 2 February 1944, the city was captured by the Red Army in the Battle of Rovno, and remained under Soviet control until Ukraine regained its independence on the break-up of the USSR in 1991. In 1958, a TV tower began broadcasting in the city; in 1969, the first trolley ran through the city; in 1969, Rivne airport was opened. In 1983, the city celebrated its 700th anniversary. On 11  June 1991, the Ukrainian parliament officially renamed the city Rivne according to the rules of Ukrainian orthography, whereas it had previously been known as Rovno. In 1992, a memorial complex of 20 thousand square meters was established at the site of the World War II massacre to commemorate the killing of 17,500 Jews there in November 1941 during the Holocaust, commemorating the mass grave with an obelisk inscribed in Yiddish, Hebrew and Ukrainian. On 6 June 2012, the World War II Jewish burial site was vandalised, allegedly as part of an antisemitic act. On March 14, 2022, Rivne TV Tower  has experienced heavy missile attack by Russian troops. The tower was damaged and an administrative room was destroyed. As a result of attack 20 people were killed and nine injured. Climate. Rivne has a moderate continental climate with cold, snowy winters and warm summers. Snow cover usually lasts from November until March. The average annual precipitation is June and July being the wettest months and January and February the driest. Industry. During Soviet times the provincial town was transformed into an industrial center of the republic. There were two significant factories built. The first was a machine building and metal  processing factory capable of producing high-voltage apparatus, tractor spare parts and others. The other was a chemical factory and synthetic materials fabrication plant. Light industry, including a linen plant and a textile mill, as well as food industries, including milk and meat processing plants and a vegetable preservation plant, have also been built. In addition the city became a production center for furniture and other building materials. Attractions. As an important cultural center, Rivne hosts a humanities and a hydro-engineering university, as well as a faculty of the Kyiv State Institute of Culture, and medical and musical as  well as automobile-construction, commercial, textile, agricultural and cooperative polytechnic colleges. The city has a historical museum. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the monument for the Soviet hero Dmitry Medvedev was removed, and the Nikolai Kuznetsov monument was moved to another location within the city. Instead, in order to reflect the controversial history of the region the monuments for "People who died in the honor of Ukraine", and "Soldiers who died in local military battles" were installed. Memorials. The following memorials are found in Rivne: International relations. Twin towns – Sister cities. Rivne is twinned with: