Oleshky

Until 18 July 2020, Oleshky was the administrative center of Oleshky Raion. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions in Kherson Oblast to five. The area of Oleshky Raion was merged into Kherson Raion.[3][4]

The city is located in the south of Ukraine. The Konka River goes through the town before flowing into the Dnieper. The Oleshky Sands are located in close proximity to the town.

The city of Oleshia has been known since the 11th century, when it was a part of Kievan Rus, but the area itself has been known since antiquity.[5] Herodotus mentioned Scythian forests in the mouth of the Dnieper in the 5th century BCE, which were called "Oleshye" (from the Slavic word for forest) by the Slavs.[5] The town, which appeared later, took its name from the area, and the later form of the name, Oleshky, is also related.[5]

In 1711–1728, Oleshky was the capital of the Zaporizhian Host under the protection of the Crimean Khanate. In 1784, the settlement of Oleshky was established; by 1790, it became a part of the Kinburn palanka of the Black-Sea Cossacks. In 1802, the settlement was granted town status and became the seat of an uyezd in Taurida Governorate. In 1928, the town was given the name Tsiurupynsk after former Soviet Trade Minister and the chief of Gosplan Alexander Tsiurupa,[5] who was born in the town.[6]

Tsiurupynsk was occupied by German troops on September 10, 1941. In late September or early October 1941, some 800 Jews from Tsiurupynsk and its vicinity were murdered at a site east of the town. In 1943, the children of mixed marriages between Jews and non-Jews were murdered in Tsiurupynsk.[7] Tsiurupynsk was liberated by Soviet troops on November 4, 1943.

On 21 November 2007, the town council adopted resolution No.296 to restore the name Oleshky. The town council deputies and district councils, as well as the local Cossacks, wrote a letter to then president Victor Yushchenko requesting that the petition be carried out.[8] It was not until 19 May 2016 that the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament) adopted the resolution to rename Tsiurupynsk as Oleshky and conform to the law prohibiting names of Communist origin after a 9-year campaign by the town's council and residents.[9]

On 24 February 2022, Oleshky was occupied by Russian forces in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[10] On 14 April 2022, Russian forces removed the flag of Ukraine from the town hall and replaced it with a Russian flag.[11][12] Russian forces withdrew from Kherson city and the part of the region north of the Dnipro river in November 2022.[13] Ukraine's National Resistance Center reported in December 2022 that all Russian collaborators had left Oleshky.[14] On 20 March 2023 the Russian occupiers reinstated the name "Tsiurupynsk" for the town; the reason given was that it was "part of the reversal of the renamings" that had taken place after the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, which they referred to as "the coup d'état in Kyiv."[6]

In June 2023, Oleshky was almost completely flooded as a result of the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, with the water rising to roof level for many buildings.[15][16]

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  Mineral water plant
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  Residential blocks in Oleshky
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  M14 highway passing through Oleshky

• List of renamed cities in Ukraine

• Brief history profile (in Ukrainian)
• Information about the city council