Vovchansk

Vovchansk (Вовчанськ,, Волчанск) is a city in Chuhuiv Raion, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Vovchansk urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: about 300 (2024). The city was largely destroyed during 2024 northeastern Ukraine offensive.

History
Vovchansk was first settled in 1674 under the Tsardom of Russia when a territory of Belgorod Monastery was provided to Ukrainian migrants from Dnieper Ukraine led by Martyn Starochudny. The settlement was named as Vovche and designated as a guarding settlement.

In April 1780 it was officially renamed as Vovchansk and became an administrative centre of Volchansk uyezd in the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire. The year 1780 is considered by the Verkhovna Rada as the official date of the city establishment. Between 1674 and 1780 a lot of changes took place and the borders of the Russian Empire moved away from the settlement.

In 1896 a Belgorod – Donbas railroad was installed through the town.

A local newspaper has been published here since February 1918.

It became a part of the Donets-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, although in spring 1918 it was occupied by German troops. This lasted until November 1918.

On April 12, 1923, an administrative-territorial reform was carried out in Ukraine. Vovchansk district was divided into 8 districts: Bilokolodyazhkyi, Velykoburlutskyi, Vovchanskyi, Zhovtnevyi, Pechenizkyi, Rubizhne, Khotimlianskyi, and Shypuvativskyi. In 1923, as part of the administrative reform, it became a district center. As of January 1, 1924, the population of Vovchansk district was 27,329 people. The town suffered as a result of the genocide of the Ukrainian people committed by the USSR government in 1932-1933; the number of identified victims in Vovchansk, Zavody Pershi, Zavody Druhi, Chapliivka, and Herhelivka was 1,789 people.

During World War II, Vovchansk was occupied by the Wehrmacht on June 10, 1942 in the aftermath of the German victory at the Second Battle of Kharkov. It was liberated by the Red Army in August 1943 during the Fourth Battle of Kharkov.

In 1964, the construction of two reinforced concrete bridges over the Vovcha River on Lenin and Gagarin streets was completed and the district House of Culture was built. In 1966, the city's population amounted to 20600 people. In 1979, Vovchansk had a carriage factory, a building materials factory, an asphalt plant, an oil extraction plant, a bread factory, a butter factory, a shoe factory, a cotton factory, a furniture factory, a meat processing plant, a bakery, and a district agricultural machinery, a consumer services plant, 8 a medical school, an aviation school, a technical school of agricultural mechanization, three medical institutions, a House of Culture, six clubs, a cinema, and 14 libraries.

The economic crisis that began in 2008 hit the local industry. A dairy factory that was built here by Soviet Union stopped work and in December 2009 ceased to exist.

The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Kharkiv Oblast to seven. The area of Vovchansk Raion was merged into Chuhuiv Raion.

Until 18 July 2020, Vovchansk was the administrative center of Vovchansk Raion.

Russo-Ukrainian War
Vovchansk was occupied by the Russian military on 24 February 2022, the first day of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was retaken by Ukrainian forces on 10 September 2022 as part of a major counteroffensive in the Kharkiv Oblast.

On 10 May 2024, Russian forces launched a new offensive near Vovchansk, with the speculated goal of establishing a buffer zone at least 10km from the Russian border, according to a Ukrainian military source. Vovchansk is a focal point of the offensive, seeing heavily increased bombardment of the city.

On 12 May, Russian forces entered northern Vovchansk and established a foothold in the city by seizing the Vovchansk Meat Processing Plant, with unverified reports claiming that the Russians had also seized the local shoe factory by the morning of 13 May and penetrated as far as the northern bank of the Vovcha River by that same evening.

On May 14, geolocated footage confirmed that Russian forces were continuing to advance through the northwestern and northeastern parts of the city. Several Russian and Ukrainian sources also reported that the Russians were using a new tactic of deploying small teams of no more than five soldiers to penetrate Ukrainian positions before converging at a predetermined point to merge into a larger assault group.

On May 15, a speaker of the Ukrainian military stated that troops were withdrawn from the Lukiantsi and Vovchansk areas to "preserve the lives of our servicemen and avoid losses" and move to "more advantageous positions", and that the situation "remains difficult".

As of 31 May 2024, Vovchansk was largely destroyed. About 300 citizens (of pre-war 17,000) remained there.

Demographics
As of the 2001 Ukrainian census, the town had a population of 20,484 inhabitants. Over 80% of the population were Ukrainians, ethnic Russians are the second largest group, followed by Armenians. In terms of spoken languages, 82% of the city's inhabitants declared Ukrainian as their first language, while roughly 16% considers Russian as their native tongue. The exact ethnic and linguistic composition was:

Notable people

 * Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya, animated films director (21 February 1909 — 29 December 1980)
 * Orest Somov, writer (gothic and gothic-romantic genres) (21 December 1793 — 8 June 1833)
 * Vasyl Babenko (1877 — 1955), Imperial Russian archeologist, born in Vovchansk
 * Edward Balcerzan (1937), Polish literary critic and poet
 * Artem Pyvovarov (born 28 June 1991), new wave singer and composer