Lugansk, Ukraine

• City
• Geo Entity

Luhansk or Lugansk, formerly known as Voroshilovgrad is a city in easternmost Ukraine.Luhansk has been held by the rebel group of Luhansk People's Republic since 2014. Luhansk is the administrative center of the Luhansk Oblast. After the rebels captured Luhansk and the southern parts of the Oblast, the administration moved to Sievierodonetsk.HistoryThe city traces its history to 1795 when the British industrialist Charles Gascoigne founded a metal factory near the Zaporizhian Cossacks settlement Kamianyi Brid. The settlement around the factory was known as Luganskiy Zavod. In 1882 the factory settlement Luganskiy Zavod was merged with the town of Kamianyi Brid into the city of Luhansk. Located in the Donets Basin, Luhansk developed into an important industrial center of Eastern Europe, particularly as a home to the major locomotive-building company Luhanskteplovoz. The city was occupied by Nazi Germany between July 14, 1942 and February 14, 1943.On November 5, 1935, the city was renamed Voroshilovgrad (Ворошиловград, Ворошиловград - Voroshylovhrad) in honour of Soviet military commander and politician Kliment Voroshilov. On March 5, 1958, with the call of Khrushchev not to give names of living people to cities, the old name was reinstated. On January 5, 1970, after the death of Voroshilov on December 2, 1969, the name changed again to Voroshilovgrad. Finally, on May 4, 1990, a decree of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR gave the city back its original name.