Vuhledar

Vuhledar (Ukrainian: Вугледар, IPA: [wʊɦleˈdɑr] ; Russian: Угледар, romanized: Ugledar, IPA: [ʊɡlʲɪˈdar]), is a city in Volnovakha Raion, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Vuhledar urban hromada. At the beginning of 2022, its population was 14,144. Vuhledar is a coal mining city in the cultural and economic Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, with its origins in the 1960s development of the coal industry in the region. It was planned to be a major economic center, but failed to meet expectations, and has remained a minor economic node in the 21st century. For more than two years beginning in March 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vuhledar was the site of fighting. The battle for the city almost completely destroyed and depopulated it, with reportedly less than 500 civilians remaining in the city in early 2023. The city has been under Russian occupation since October 2024.