Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine

🇺🇦 Kremenchuk (Кременчу́к) an important industrial city in central Ukraine, stands on the banks of the Dnipro River. The city serves as the administrative centre of the Kremenchuk Raion (district) in Poltava Oblast (province). Kremenchuk is administratively incorporated as a city of oblast significance administered by its own city council and does not form a part of the raion. Along with its city-satellites Svitlovodsk and Horishni Plavni, Kremenchuk functions as an important urban agglomeration and transportation hub.

Kremenchuk has importance as a large industrial centre in Ukraine and Eastern Europe - as the base of the KrAZ truck plant, the Kremenchuk Oil Refinery of Ukrtatnafta, the Kriukiv Railway Car Building Works, and the nearby (Svitlovodsk) Kremenchuk HES. Highway M22 crosses the Dnieper over the dam of the hydro-electric power-plant.

Originally established on the left bank, Kremenchuk eventually incorporated the city of Kryukiv on the right bank. The Kryukiv Railway Car Building Works is one of the oldest railway-repair and rail-car-building factories in Eastern Europe, dating from 1869.

Kremenchuk's Ukrtatnafta oil refinery is the largest in Ukraine and for a while was the only one operating since the beginning of the conflict with Russia that left refineries in the Donbas inactive. Because of Russian attacks during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the refinery was out of operation in 2022.

History Kremenchuk was founded in 1571 as a fortress. The name Kremenchuk is explained as deriving from the word "kremen" - flint (a mineral) because the city is located on a giant chert plate. An alternative explanation says that "Kremenchuk" is the Turkish for "small fortress".

In 1625, at Lake Kurukove in Kremenchuk, the Treaty of Kurukove was signed between Cossacks and the Poles. Since the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate, the city was part of the Chyhyryn Polk (regiment). Following the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) and Treaty of Andrusovo, the city was secured by the Tsardom of Russia and became part of the Myrhorod Polk (regiment) within the left-bank of the Cossack Hetmanate. The city played a key role in the Russian colonization policy of Ukraine and their striving for the shores of Black Seas as regional administrative centre of the early Novorossiya Governorate and Yekaterinoslav Vice-regency (Namestnichestvo). With the creation of Novorossiya Governorate, the Dnieper Pikemen Regiment (Днепровский пикинёрный полк) was created and coincidentally a few years later (1768–69) in the neighboring regions of Poland began the Koliyivshchyna. Here in 1786 the Russian general Alexander Suvorov started his military career when he was appointed a commander of the local garrison (in preparation of the 1787–1792 Russo-Turkish War).

Following defeat in the Crimean War began the installation of a network of railroads in Russia, and in 1869 in Kryukiv were built small railcar repair shops, while in 1872 the city of Kriukiv was connected with Kremenchuk by a railroad bridge over the Dnieper. In 1870 in Kremenchuk a factory was built that produced and maintained agrarian equipment and iron cast products. In 1899 a network of tramway transportation was introduced in Kremenchuk that existed until the complete establishment of Soviet regime in Ukraine in 1921.

During the Russian February Revolution of 1917, power in the city was controlled by a council (soviet) of workers' deputies which was dominated by the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and the head of the city council was the future Ukrainian Communist leader Yuriy Lapchynskyi [uk]. During the Ukrainian–Soviet War, on 26 January 1918, Russian Bolshevik troops secured the city, however already in February of the same year they had to withdraw due to the treaty of Brest-Litovsk and advance of German and Ukrainian armies. Following the World War I hostilities between the Bolshevik Russia and Ukraine renewed and on 1 February 1919 the Russian Red Army once again secured the city. However, in May of the same year Kremechuk was engulfed in the insurgency of Otaman Grigoriev who earlier sided with Bolsheviks and drove the international force of Triple Entante from Odessa. From July to December 1919 the city was occupied by the Russian "White Guard" troops of Anton Denikin. Following their withdrawal, the Denikin's troops blew up the railroad bridge.

In 1920–1922, the city was the administrative centre of the short-lived Kremenchuk Governorate [uk] during a peasant insurgency (Kholodnyi Yar) near Chyhyryn (just west of the city). During the 1930s, Kremenchuk's industry was transformed, its Kriukiv railcar repair shops became a railcar manufacturing factory, while its factory in production of agrarian equipment changed to manufacturing road equipment.

During World War II (1939–1945), Kremenchuk suffered heavily under Nazi occupation. It was occupied from September 15, 1941, to September 29, 1943. More than 90% of the city's buildings were leveled over the course of the war. 29 September, the day when the city was liberated from the Nazis in 1943, is celebrated in Kremenchuk as City Day. Despite a remarkable post-war recovery and a healthier economy, Kremenchuk lacks much of the architectural charm and distinctly Ukrainian (rather than Russian) character of its sister city, the oblast capital of Poltava.

During the Cold War, Kremenchuk became the headquarters for the 43rd Rocket Division of the 43rd Army of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces. The division was equipped with R-12 Dvina intercontinental ballistic missiles.

In 1975 the city of Kryukiv was merged with Kremenchuk, while Kremenchuk was divided in two raions in city.

In 2014 during the mass demolition of monuments to Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine, in the city were removed two monuments of the Russian Communist leader in the city centre and near the Kryukiv Railcar Factory.

Oleh Babayev, the mayor of Kremenchuk was assassinated on July 26, 2014. Oleh Babayev opposed separatism and promoted national unity, prior to becoming mayor he was a member of the Batkivshchyna political party which opposed Victor Yanukovich. His political views and Kremenchuk's large industrial base may have been the motivation for the attack.

During the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine security at the Kremenchuk Reservoir was heightened as it was seen as a possible target for saboteurs.

Until 18 July 2020, Kremenchuk was designated as a city of oblast significance and did not belong to Kremenchuk Raion even though it was the centre of the raion. As part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Poltava Oblast to four, the city was merged into Kremenchuk Raion.

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kremenchuk has been under attack by Russian forces. On April 27 and May 12 an oil refinery was hit by Russian missiles and will be out of operation for months. On June 27 a shopping mall was hit by Russian missiles and caught fire, 16 people died and 59 were injured. Just after the strike, a nearby factory was hit. Russian authorities claimed that the factory hosted weapons supplied by the US and European countries. In 2014, the factory was known to repair armoured personnel carriers (BTR-70s).

Jewish community and Holocaust Jews initially began to settle in the city in 1782, and by 1801, there were 454 registered taxpayers in Kremenchuk. As a result of Jewish emigration from further north in the Pale of Settlement, many Jews from northern provinces settled in the city in the mid-19th century. The community had grown sevenfold within a half decade to 3,475 by 1847. The 1897 All-Russia Census recorded the Jewish population of Kremenchuk at 29,768, or at 47% of the total population. Growth of the city's Jewish population stagnated, still hovering at 28,969 by 1926, around 50% of the population, later heavily falling to 19,880 by 1939.

Nazi forces occupied Kremenchuk on September 9, 1941, setting restrictions on Jewish purchases and forcing them to wear the Yellow Star of Jude. On September 27, 1941, they were exiled from the city, and forced to move into the Ghetto in Novo-Ivanovka.[uk] Many Jews who hid throughout the city were later caught and forced into the Ghettos as well. Between October 1941 and January 1942, a total of around 8,000 Jews were shot and killed in various instances of execution over the months, although the community was not entirely wiped out. The Ghetto and town were liberated September 29th, 1943 by the Red Army. A Jewish community of over 5,000 remained in the city throughout the 1950s, although dwindled in the 1990s during migration to Israel.

There are a few Jewish cemeteries from different parts of the 20th century in the area, with the last burials having occurred in Jewish Cemetery II in the 1990s.

Economy Kremenchuk is the economic centre of the Poltava Oblast and one of the leading industrial centres of Ukraine. It contributes about 7% (2005) of the national economy and accounts for more than 50% of the industrial output in the Poltava Oblast. The city is home to KrAZ, a truck-manufacturing company (one of the largest in Eastern Europe) as well as a major European oil refinery operated by Ukrtatnafta, the road-making machine works, Kremenchuk Automobile Assembly Plant, the Kryukivsky Car Manufacturing Plant, train railway rolling stock wagons, the wheel plant, the carbon black plant, the steel works and others.

The light industries of the city include tobacco (JTI), confectionery (Roshen), a knitting factory as well as milk and meat processing plants.

Kremenchuk is one of the most important railway junctions in Central Ukraine (thanks to its geographical position and a bridge over the River Dnieper) and a major river port on the main river of Ukraine.

Sport Kremenchuk is home to HK Kremenchuk ice hockey team who compete in the Ukrainian Championship and FC Kremin Kremenchuk football team.

Beside FC Kremin, the city was also represented by number of other professional football clubs such as FC Adoms Kremenchuk, FC Naftokhimik Kremenchuk, and FC Vahonobudivnyk Kremenchuk.

The city has several sports schools, about six stadiums including Polytechnic Stadium (main city stadium), Kremin Stadium, and others, as well as couple of swimming pools and couple of athletic halls.