Sloviansk

The 2014 Ukrainian revolution passed Sloviansk by, with no large-scale gatherings or events in the city, and polls showing people in the east of Ukraine to be largely opposed to the Maidan movement in Kyiv. However, Sloviansk would quickly become the epicentre of events following the fallout of the revolution.

On 12 April 2014, in the crisis and chaos which gripped the country following the revolution's installing of the First Yatsenyuk government, a reported 55 armed men, led by Russian military veteran Igor Girkin, known as 'Igor Strelkov' stormed Sloviansk, quickly capturing the executive committee building, the police department, and the SBU office of the city.[19][20][21] Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov described the gunmen as "terrorists" and vowed to use the Ukrainian special forces to retake the buildings.[22][23] On 13 April 2014, there were reports of fighting between the gunmen and Ukrainian troops, with casualties reported on both sides.[24][25] The BBC's David Stern described the pro-Russian forces as carrying Russian weapons and resembling the soldiers that took over Crimean installations at the start of the 2014 Crimean crisis.[24][26]

Elected mayor of Sloviansk Nelya Shtepa gave contradictory statements on her support for the pro-Russia side, and was then taken captive by the pro-Russia side. Shtepa would be one of several high-profile detainments during separatist control of Sloviansk. [27] On April 14 the pro-Russia side installed their own 'people's mayor' Vyacheslav Ponomarev, to deal with civilian matters, and press, while Strelkov / Girkin took charge of military matters. [28] Throughout April, and May, Ponomarev would hold near daily press conferences in the city's admininstrative building. [29]

On May 9, Victory Day, there was a parade, and large gathering of people in the central Square of Sloviansk. Nelya Shtepa appeared, the first time she had been seen in public since mid-April, and gave a pro-Russian speech on stage, urging people to vote in the referendum scheduled for May 11th. Recently freed separatist leader Pavel Gubarev also appeared on stage. [30] Referendums went ahead across Donbas on May 11, including Sloviansk, with the pro-Russia side reporting a turnout of near 75%, with over 90% vosting for self rule as part of the Donetsk/Luhansk People's Republics. However, the referendums were not monitored, or endorsed, by any international observers, or organisations, and their results almost universally unrecognised in the west. Russia issued a statement saying they 'respected' the results of the referendums, but stopped short of recognising. [31] [32]

Fighting intensified throughout May, as Ukrainian forces escalated their 'ATO' (Anti-Terror Operation) to retake the city, with a Ukrainian military helicopter shot down at the start of the month, and multiple casualties reported in fighting on both sides.[33] May would also see escalating civilian casualties in Sloviansk, as Ukrainian forces began their assault on the city. On May 5, 30-year-old Irina Boevets was killed by a stray Ukrainian bullet, as she stepped out on her balcony. The Guardian at the time reported these civilian deaths as "fuelling pro-Russian sentiment".[34] Fighting between sides would wage on May, with increasing intensity. A follow-up referendum to the referendum on May 11 had been planned for May 18th, giving voters the option of joining Russia, however this was abandoned due to the escalation of fighting. On 29 May 2014, a Ukrainian helicopter carrying fourteen Ukrainian special service soldiers, including General Serhiy Kulchytskiy – the head of combat and special training for Ukraine's National Guard, crashed after being shot down by militants near Sloviansk. Ukraine's outgoing President Olexander Turchynov described the downing as a "terrorist attack," and blamed pro-Russian militants.[35]

As June went on, it became clear that the pro-Russia side were losing the battle for Sloviansk. The pro-Russia side had a number of problems, including infighting, with emnity between 'people's mayor' Ponomarev, and Strelkov/Girkin, resulting in Strelkov/Girkin having Ponomarev arrested, and dismissed from his duties, on June 12. [28] Ukrainian forces further stepped up their shelling of Sloviansk in June. [36] Sloviansk was ultimately held by Russian-backed separatists for nearly three months, from mid-April until 5 July 2014, during which time fighting between the separatists and the Ukrainian army escalated, along with shelling of civilian areas of the city, with both military and civilian casualties.[37] In late June, the Ukrainian army started advancing on Sloviansk, and under heavy pressure, the Russian-backed separatists retreated from Sloviansk in early July. Initially they had planned to go to nearby Kramatorsk, however when it became clear that the Ukrainian army would also take Kramatorsk, which they duly did, most headed to Donetsk, which would then become their stronghold.[38]

Sloviansk was one of several territories taken by Ukrainian forces at this time, including the nearby cities of Kramatorsk, and Kostiantynivka.[39]

Since its recapture in July 2014, Sloviansk has remained in Ukrainian control. In 2015, as part of the process of Decommunization, the fate of Sloviansk's statue of Lenin, in the city's central square, became a topic of heated debate at council meetings. Large factions from Ukrainian ultra-national groups Svoboda and the Right Sector attended these meetings, in support of the removal / destruction of the statue. There were also locals in favour of keeping the statue, with a petition of 4,500 signatures supporting the Lenin statue remaining. No consensus had been reached, when in the early hours of June 3, Right Sector militants tore the statue down.[40]

Also in 2015, a plaque to the memory of Volodymyr Rybak, a Ukrainian politician killed by pro-Russian separatists in 2014, was placed in the town center.[41]

Although war continued in parts of Donbas, Sloviansk was not an active war zone in the years from 2014-22.

From the start of the 2022 Invasion of Ukraine, Sloviansk has been a key city, and active war zone. The city of Slovyansk is thought to be critical to Moscow’s objective of capturing all of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine due to its west-central location in the Donbas "pocket" of remaining Ukrainian-controlled territory.[42] In Spring of 2022, Russian forces seized the strategic town of Izyum, 47 km from Slavyansk, 51 km by road, to the north, with plans to use it as a staging post to attack Sloviansk, and then press onto the city.

On 4 July 2022, The Guardian reported that after the capture of the Luhansk oblast, that Russian troops would advance into the adjacent Donetsk oblast to attack the cities of Sloviansk and Bakhmut.[43] However, in early September 2022, Ukraine began a major counteroffensive, regaining several settlements, and swathes of territory, in the Kharkiv region. This relieved the pressure on Sloviansk with the recapture of Lyman by Ukrainian forces on 1 October 2022.[44]

To date, there has been no Russian offensive on the city of Sloviansk, however the city has several times fallen under shelling. On Eastern Orthodox Good Friday 2023, Sloviansk was hit by seven S-300 missiles, killing at least 11 people.[45] In May 2023, Russia's Wagner Group declared they had taken control of Bakhmut. This puts Sloviansk in easy range of multiple Russian artillery, as the cities are only 40 km apart (in a straight line), however as of October 2023 it has not resulted in a notable escalation of the situation in Sloviansk.[46]

The climate in Sloviansk is a mild to warm summer subtype (Köppen: Dfb) of the humid continental climate.