Top 10 largest cities in Ukraine

Ukraine is a country with a rich history, on the territory of which ancient civilizations lived, building settlements and cities thousands of years ago. Then thousands or tens of thousands of inhabitants lived in them, and now millions live in some cities. And what are the largest cities in Ukraine? Now you will know.

10 Mariupol, 440 thousand people

Mariupol is located in the Donetsk region on the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov at the mouth of the Kalmius and Kalchik rivers. Due to this, it is a major seaport and health resort, and it also has a developed metallurgical and machine-building industries.

Since ancient times, the area at the mouth of the Kalmius River has attracted people. Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic sites have been discovered in this region. In the copper-bronze, bronze and iron ages, such peoples as the Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians lived in the northern Azov region.

From the 4th century, numerous nomads passed through this territory: the Huns, Goths, Avars, later – the Pechenegs, Polovtsy. Medieval states such as Kievan Rus and the Golden Horde controlled the region after the Mongol invasion.

At the beginning of the 16th century, a Cossack outpost Domakha appeared in the area of ​​present-day Mariupol. The first documents about the existence of permanent settlements in the area date back to the end of the XNUMXth century.

9. Nikolaev, 483 thousand people

Николаев founded by Grigory Potemkin in 1789. The once modest city at the mouth of the Ingul River was conceived as a shipyard where most of the ships of the Russian navy were built. This is an industry that is still very developed in the city today. Prince Potemkin ordered to name the city in honor of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors.

8. Krivoy Rog, 625 thousand people

Krivoy Rog – a working city that does not receive many tourists. The main employers are the mining and metallurgical industries due to the rich deposits of iron deep underground. You can see this ore on the surface in shale rocks near the Ingulets River, and in summer, red dust sometimes even settles on car windows.

7. Lviv, 725 thousand people

Lviv – the most unusual and colorful city in the country. Only Kyiv can compare with its beauty, grandeur and number of amazing sights.

Different eras, architectures, traditions, temperaments and stories were woven into a common thread – Lviv. On the one hand, the greatness of Lviv inspires awe, and on the other hand, its openness, elegance and unique warm atmosphere make this city one of the warmest and most hospitable in Ukraine.

The capital of the western part of the country, the city owes its charming appearance, reminiscent of Prague, Krakow and Vienna, to its vibrant and dynamic history, which has changed and developed over more than seven and a half centuries.

It is believed that Prince Daniel of Galicia founded the city in the 13th century, naming it after his son Leo. A hundred years later, Lviv was ruled by Poland, taking into account the Magdeburg rights, and subsequently developed very quickly, as its diverse population constantly grew.

6. Zaporozhye, 739 thousand people

The city grew up around the Alexander Fortress, which was built in 1770 and formed a link in the defensive front against the Crimean Khanate.

The surroundings in the southern part of the Dnieper rapids have long been a stopping point for travelers and merchants on the route through the Dnieper. The Zaporozhye Cossack stronghold of the island of Khortytsya was located on the island opposite the new settlement.

The agricultural economy grew slowly: the city’s population increased from 1700 in 1824 to 3700 in 1861. The rapid growth of Aleksandrovsk (the old name of the city) began only in the 1870s. Following railroad shipments to Moscow in 1873 and Sevastopol in 1875, the city became a major transshipment point, where goods (notably grain) were moved from railroad to river barges for shipment downstream to seaports.

At the same time, its own industry was developing, in particular agricultural engineering. By 1910, there were three large machine-building plants in Aleksandrovsky. The completion of the railway from Donbass to Krivoy Rog in 1902 stimulated the growth of metallurgy. The city’s population grew from about 7 in 000 to 1885 in 19 and 000 in 1897. The city in 38 was 000% Ukrainian, 1910% Jewish and 1897% Russian.

5. Donetsk, 913 thousand people

The center of the whole Donbass, Donetsk appeared thanks to the Welsh industrialist John Hughes, who in 1868 bought land from Prince Paul Lieven. A year later, 164 people lived in the village, now there are more than 900. However, due to hostilities in the Donbass, many people left the city, so this figure is not 000% reliable.

4. Dnipro, 998 thousand people

Presumably in the 1240th century, on the island (in the center of the present city), Byzantine monks founded their monastery. Most likely, the monastery was destroyed during the Mongol invasion in XNUMX.

In the first half of the XNUMXth century, the Lithuanians ousted the nomads from the right bank The Dnieper, and the border between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crimean Khanate, which arose in 1443, ran along the Dnieper, on the territory of the city. Those were not the best times.

In the 1635th century, a gradual revival of the region began – especially after the formation of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks. In XNUMX, the Polish authorities built the Kodak fortress to control the movements of the Cossacks. Today it is the village of Old Kodak, located on the southern outskirts of the city with the remains of earthen ramparts, which tourists love to visit.

3. Odessa, 1013 thousand people

This city, standing on the shores of the Odessa Bay of the Black Sea, is the largest commercial seaport in Ukraine. People began to live in the territory of the present Of Odessa since the Upper Paleolithic (about 50 thousand years ago).

In the VI-II centuries BC, the ancient Greeks founded twelve colonies here. In the second half of the 4th century AD, the area was occupied by the Huns during the Migration Period and the colonies fell into disrepair.

At the end of the 14th century, the Genoese trading post of Ginestra appeared on the site of the former Greek colony, which traded with nomads. At the end of the 15th century, the Lithuanian-Polish authorities in these lands weakened. In 1484, these lands came under the control of the Crimean Tatars. By the early 17th century, the Commonwealth had lost control of the Black Sea coast to the Ottoman Empire.

At the beginning of the 18th century, it was a small trading city of the Ottoman Empire called Kachibei or Gajibey. In 1765, the Ottoman authorities restored the old Lithuanian fortress due to increased pressure on the region from the Russian Empire. In 1774, the fortress was first captured by the combined Cossack-Russian troops.

2. Kharkiv, 1446 thousand people

In the early Middle Ages, nomadic tribes lived on the territory of the Kharkov region: Goths, Alans, Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsy. In the 8th century, the Slavs founded their settlement on the site of the future Kharkiv, which in the 10th century became known as the city Donets. It was not only a fortress, but also a center of crafts and transit trade.

The city was first mentioned in chronicles in 1185. He is also mentioned in the Tale of Igor’s Campaign, an epic poem from the era of Kievan Rus. However, the official age of Kharkov is not based on archaeological finds and burials, but solely on the first written mention in official sources.

1. Kyiv, 2951 thousand people

Now the capital of Ukraine is not so impressive in its size, but once everything was different: Kiev was the largest city in Europe in the 50th century, 10 times the size of London and XNUMX times the size of Paris.

Interesting fact: Khreshchatyk is the shortest main street in the world! You need to take a little over 2800 steps to complete it. At the same time, among the remaining 2300 streets, this is also the widest street in Kyiv.