Balakliia (Ukrainian: Балаклія, pronounced [bɐlɐˈkl⁽ʲ⁾ijɐ]) or Balakliya[2] is a city in Izium Raion, in Kharkiv Oblast (province), eastern Ukraine, on the north-east side of the Siverskyi Donets river close to where it is joined by the Balakliika river which runs through the city. It is an important railroad junction in the oblast. Balakliia hosts the administration of Balakliia urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine.[3] In 2021 it had an estimated population of 26,921.[4]

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 2,627 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at [[:ru:Балаклея]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|ru|Балаклея}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Balakliia Балаклія
Zhovtneva street, the main street of Balakliia
Coat of arms
Balakliia Location of Balakliia Show map of Kharkiv Oblast Balakliia Balakliia (Ukraine) Show map of Ukraine
Coordinates: 49°27′57″N 36°52′04″E
Country	Ukraine
Oblast	Kharkiv Oblast
Raion	Izium Raion
Founded	1663[1]
Area
• Total	35 km2 (14 sq mi)
Elevation	79 m (259 ft)
Population  (2021)
• Total	26,921
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)
Postal code	64200

Administrative status

Until 18 July 2020, Balakliia was the administrative center of Balakliia Raion. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Kharkiv Oblast to seven. The area of Balakliia Raion was merged into Izium Raion.[5][6]

History

The city's name is derived from the Balakliya River [uk], a tributary of the Donets. The river's name in turn comes from a Turkic word meaning "fish river".[7] The Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary judges from the name of the settlement that the city was originally a Tatar settlement.[8]

By the middle of the 16th century, the city was populated by Russians and served as a guard post against the Crimean Tatars.[8]

By the early 20th century, the city had a population of 5197.[8]

During World War II, the city was occupied by the Wehrmacht between December 10, 1941, and February 5, 1943.[9][10]

2017–2019 arms depot explosions

On 23 March 2017, 20,000 inhabitants of Balakliia were evacuated after a series of massive explosions [uk] erupted at a nearby arms depot of the Balakliia military installation, which stockpiles missile and artillery ammunition.[11] The disaster led to the death of one civilian woman and five others injured, with no casualties among the military.[12][13] Thousands of residents within a 10 km radius around the complex were evacuated in the aftermath. By the end of March, the fires and resulting arms explosions at the ammunition depot in Balakliia had damaged almost 250 buildings.[14] On 18 April, the city and nearby villages were cleared of unexploded ordnance.[15]

On 3 May 2018 ignition of dry grass led to a new series of explosions at the depot.[16] 1,500 locals were evacuated and no casualties were reported.[16] On November 15, 2019, another series of explosions killed two Ukrainian soldiers.[17]

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 3 March 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces captured the city.[18]

On 6 September 2022, Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive towards the city, reportedly retaking the adjacent town of Verbivka and besieging the town.[19] On 8 September, the Ukrainian flag was raised in the city after a brief battle,[20] and on 10 September, Ukraine announced it had established control.[21][22]

After they retook the town, Ukrainian officials claimed to have discovered torture chambers where Ukrainian prisoners were held. Serhiy Bolvinov, head of the Kharkiv Region National Police Investigation Department, stated that 40 people had been detained there.[23] Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that more than 10 such torture chambers had been discovered in the Kharkiv region.[24]

Image gallery

• 
  Balakliia city sign
• 
  Balakliia Ambulance in front of local hospital
• 
  City hall
• 
  Palace of Culture
• 
  Balakliia Lyceum
• 
  Children's playground

References

External links

• Mari Saito, Maria Tsvetkova, Anton Zverev, Abandoned Russian base holds secrets of retreat in Ukraine, Reuters (26.10.2022)

На других языках

[de] Balaklija

[es] Balakliya

[ru] Балаклея