Krasnodon (Ukrainian and Russian: Краснодон) is a city in the Luhansk Oblast (province) of south-eastern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Krasnodonskyi Raion (district), the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast.
The population of Krasnodon in 1972 was 70,400, in 1989 it was around 53,000, in 2001 it was 49,921.
Krasnodon was established in 1914 along the banks of the Welikyj Kamjaniza, a tributary of the Seversky Donets River, as the settlement of Sorokino. It soon became one of the centers of the coal mining industry of the Donbass region. By a Decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, on October 28, 1938 it was renamed Krasnodon.
During the Great Patriotic War Krasnodon was occupied by Nazi Germany from July 20, 1942 to February 14, 1943. In that period, between October 1942 and January 1943, the anti-fascist Komsomol organization Young Guard operated in the city. There are monuments and the memorial complex built to the Young Guard in Krasnodon.
Ukraine (Ukrainian: Україна, transliterated: Ukrayina) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev (Kyiv) is both the capital and the largest city of Ukraine.
