Kurakhove

Kurakhove (Курахове, ; Курахово) is a city in Pokrovsk Raion of Donetsk Oblast (province) of Ukraine. Population: ; 21,479 (2001). Kurakhove is home to the Kurakhove Power Station.

War in Donbas
The unrecognized 11 May 2014 Donetsk Oblast independence referendum was held in Kurakhove, but the city did not become part of the territory controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (who held the referendum). Since then the city was 10.0 km west of the frontlines of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Russian invasion of Ukraine
In 2024, as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a renewed offensive effort to capture all of Donetsk Oblast, Russian forces seek to capture Kurakhove and Pokrovsk. This axis being the main attack direction, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi noted the disparity of forces in terms of equipment and manpower, and high pressure on Ukrainian lines in this area.

The town is noted to be of major importance for Russian resource warfare and related war goals, as it encompasses resource infrastructure and lithium worth hundreds of billions of dollars, that is stored in the Shevchenko deposit. A few weeks before the start of the Russian invasion in December 2021, the Ukrainian government granted the Australian company European Lithium the mining rights for this deposit. In the summer of 2023, the CEO of European Lithium, Tony Sage, declared that the company would no longer lay claim to the Shevchenkovskoye field - it was too close to the front line. On 10 January 2024, the Russian occupants sent "approval documents" for lithium extraction in the region to the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Russian exiled writer Edward Topol argues that by seizing Ukrainian lithium, Russia aims to keep Russian monumentum and pressure on the European energy market with a monopoly on European lithium.

Demographics
As of the 2001 Ukrainian census, the town had a population of 21,516, which decreased to 18,220 in 2022. The majority of the population identifies as ethnic Ukrainian, but is vastly Russian-speaking.