Hrabove, Donetsk Oblast

Hrabove Грабове
Village
Coat of arms
Coordinates: UA 48°08′45″N 38°38′54″E / 48.14583°N 38.64833°ECoordinates: UA 48°08′45″N 38°38′54″E / 48.14583°N 38.64833°E
Country	Ukraine
Province	Donetsk Oblast
District	Shakhtarsk Raion
Government
• Village Head	Volodymyr Berezhnyi[1]
Area
• Total	8.56 km^2 (3.31 sq mi)
Elevation[2][3]	190 m (620 ft)
Population (2001 census)
• Total	1,000
• Density	120/km^2 (300/sq mi)
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code	86234
Area code	+380 6255
Website	w1.c1.rada.gov.ua

Hrabove (Ukrainian: Грабове; Russian: Грабово, Grabovo, also spelled Grabove) is a village in Shakhtarsk Raion (district) in Donetsk Oblast of eastern Ukraine.^[1] Its population was 1,000 as of the 2001 Ukrainian census. It is notorious for Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.^[1]

Hrabove is located beside the Mius River, some ten kilometers north-east of Shakhtarsk, and on the border between the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast.

History

The village was founded in the late fifteenth century^[4] on the left bank of Mius River; it was repositioned to its present site in 1787.

A stone church, the Holy Trinity Church, was built in 1803. Its basic form survives to this day, though it was substantially rebuilt in 1903.

Hrabove became part of the newly emerging Soviet Union in February 1918^[4] under a revolutionary leader called Nestor Makhno. A more stable communist based regime was in place from 1921.

In 1942 the area fell under German control: Christian (Orthodox) worship was again permitted and there was a partial restitution of lands that had been confiscated from the farmers under the communist regime. However, in 1952 the church was closed by the (now, once again, Communist) authorities and the church was converted into a dance hall. The authorities then moved to destroy the church, but local people successfully prevented its complete destruction.

The village came to international attention as it became the site of much of the debris from the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down in the region on 17 July 2014, killing all 298 on board.^[5] At the time, Hrabove was in the conflict zone of the ongoing Donbass insurgency, in an area controlled by pro-Russian rebel groups.

Politics and national identities

Since 2010 the head of the village council has been Volodymyr Berezhnyi (born 1955).

The 2001 census indicated a population of 1,000 people, categorized according to preferred mother tongue as 77.5% Ukrainian speaking and 22.0% Russian speaking, with a handful of Belarusian speakers.^[6] Most people living in the village identify as Ukrainian.

References

1. "Hrabove, Donetsk Oblast, Shakhtarsk Raion". Regions of Ukraine and their Structure (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
2. "Hrabove (Donetsk region)". weather.in.ua. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
3. Погода в селі Горбів (in Ukrainian).
4. История городов и сел Украинской ССР: Донецкая область. — Ин.-т истории АН УССР-К.: Глав.ред. Украинской Сов. Энциклопедии. стр. 745
5. "Malaysia Airlines plane crashes on Ukraine–Russia border". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
6. "Розподіл населення за рідною мовою, Донецька область (у % до загальної чисельності населення) - 014 ШАХТАРСЬКИЙ РАЙОН, Рік , Вказали у якості рідної мову". Retrieved 2014-07-18.